A Flair Airlines passenger posted a viral video warning viewers never to fly budget airlines after she was left stranded at the airport.
Jessica (@evermorejomarsh) has reached over 1 million views and 64,000 likes on her video by the publication of this story. She added an on-screen caption that says, “PSA don’t fly with low budget airlines.”
Jessica starts her video by saying she had just arrived at the airport and went to go check on her flight time. “I’m like, where’s my flight?” she asks.
She flips her camera to show the flight information display system and says her booked flight is “not showing up.”
Next, she says she walked over to the service counter and noticed “a bunch of pissed-off-looking people.”
Jessica says she asked around and found other passengers on her flight who told her, “The flight’s canceled.”
“Huh?” she says to the camera. “Well, why didn’t I get an email about it before I bussed two hours to the airport?”
Jessica says that after the service members apologized to the passengers for the inconvenience, she asked them, “So what am I supposed to do?”
They reportedly told her, “Well, we might have one tonight. We might have one tomorrow morning, but you can’t rebook yet because we haven’t sent out the cancelation email.”
As Jessica makes a confused face to the camera, she says she asked the workers how much it would cost for a last-minute flight out that night.
“$700,” she says they told her.
“No, thank you. I do not have that type of money,” Jessica says.
“So, I will just be waiting around the airport for the next 10 hours,” she adds before ending her video.
Jessica captioned her video tagging the airline she booked with. “@flair airlines get it together,” she wrote.
@evermorejomarch @flair airlines get it together #travel #flairairlines #budgettravel #storytime #airport ♬ original sound – jessica
One viewer told Jessica in the comments section, “read up on air passenger rights. If they don’t have another flight within 9 hours, they need to rebook you on another competitor’s flight and I believe you get compensation on top of that.”
Jessica responded, “Yes!! I looked this up and read it to them while I was on the phone but they argued back and said this rule didn’t apply to them because they then rebooked a flight for 48 hours later.”
Flair Airlines is a Canadian company. According to the Canadian Transportation Agency’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, “Airlines must provide compensation for the inconvenience of flight cancellations and flight delays of 3 hours or more and if the disruption is within their control and not related to safety, and if the airline notified you of the disruption 14 days or less in advance.”
The Agency also notes, “Airlines must pay you compensation based on the length of your delay,” and large airlines like Flair can be required to pay passengers $400, $700, or $1,000.
Unfortunately, the same protections do not exist for United States travelers. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, “airlines in the U.S. are not required to compensate passengers if a flight is delayed or canceled, it only requires compensation if you are moved or bumped from an overbooked flight.”
One viewer agreed with Jessica, saying, “I’ve never heard a single good thing about flair.”
“Flair is a nightmare,” another adds.
A supporter said that she thinks flying Flair is “worth the risk.”
Jessica responded saying, “lol yah i mean sometimes i’ve gotten $19 flights with no problem so it was bound to happen.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Jessica via Instagram and TikTok direct message and Flair Airlines via email.
