Maricel Buchanan arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila with her husband and five-year-old daughter Cassandra three hours before they were set to board a flight back home to Alberta.
But instead of getting on the flight with her family, Maricel, who is three-months pregnant, was forced to stay behind in the Philippines.
Two days before the Buchanan family was set to leave on Feb. 2, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines ordered a temporary travel ban of visitors from mainland China in a move to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.
The order not only applied to visitors from China, but included any Filipinos travelling to China, Hong Kong and Macau as well.
The original plan set out for them through a travel agency was for the Buchanan family to board a flight from Manila to Beijing through Air China, then travel from Beijing to Vancouver, and Vancouver to Edmonton.
“We get to the ticket counter and hand them our passports, and the guy says, ‘Well, you and your daughter can go, but your wife can’t go,’” said Chris, Maricel’s husband. “I told him, ‘What are you talking about?’”
While Chris, who grew up in St. Albert, and their daughter both have Canadian passports, Maricel has a Filipino passport. This wasn’t a problem for the family when they flew to the Philippines, but with the new travel restrictions, Maricel no longer had a way home.
The family stood there blindsided as the boarding call for their flight to Beijing drew closer. They never received a warning from Travelocity, the agency they went through, or any other notices to prepare them for the government-imposed bans.
“Now it’s 4 a.m. and we’re pickled. I’ve got to come back home to work. My daughter’s got to go back to school. We can’t just not go – we would have to pay for three new flights,” Chris said.
After a tearful goodbye to her family, Maricel watched as her husband and daughter boarded the flight to Beijing. Then she took a 40-minute taxi ride to the Air China office in Makati for answers, along with five other families who had also been denied.
“They told us, ‘We can’t do anything for you because you booked through a third party. You have to call them,’” Maricel said.
Meanwhile, the lack of service and cell network cut off communication between Maricel and her family. Stranded, Maricel’s best option was to travel five hours back to her family’s home in the Philippines.
“I’m stressed out. I’m depressed and crying the whole time ... I couldn’t imagine not coming back.”
'No-show fee'
While travelling back home, Chris said he kept trying to send messages back and forth to Maricel but none of them were getting through. Eventually, he found he could reach her by email, and the two began coming up with a plan.
To avoid going through China, their only option was to have Maricel take a direct flight from Manila to Vancouver one week later. On top of the cost for a new flight, the family had to pay for food, transportation and lodging costs out of pocket.
In all, Chris estimates they’ve spent $2,000 trying to get Maricel home.
“I think when you provide payment to a carrier to take you to and from a location, they should be legally bound to live up to that obligation. If they can’t fulfil it themselves, they should have to absorb the cost of making alternate arrangements,” Chris said.
In a notice posted by Air China on Feb. 4, the airline said it was not responsible for rerouting cancelled tickets between Beijing and Manila, and suggested passengers buy new tickets after getting a full refund on the original ticket.
According to Air China’s ticket refund procedures, passengers can apply for refunds through the original channels where they purchased the tickets, in this case, Travelocity.
After spending 14 hours on the phone between Travelocity and Air China, Chris said he was able to get a refund of around $600 from the travel agency for the unused portion of Maricel’s ticket – except then, the family was then charged a $200 “no-show” fee.
Chris said he tried to explain that they did show up to the flight on time, but Maricel physically was not allowed to board.
“They told me, ‘That’s a no-show, sir,’” he said. “To call it a ‘no-show’ is just wrong.”
A spokesperson with Travelocity wrote in an email to the St. Albert Gazette the agency "does not collect any fees for any modification in the booking, as it will subject to the policy of the vendor," and they rely on the travel advisories posted by the airlines in unexpected events, like weather conditions and travel bans.
Gábor Lukács, founder and co-ordinator of Canadian advocacy group Air Passenger Rights, said he agrees with Chris.
The travel bans were entirely government-imposed and not the airline’s fault, but Maricel should have received a full refund for the unused portion of her ticket, Lukács wrote in an email to the Gazette, without the ‘no-show’ fee.
Sam Patel, team lead for Airline Ticket Centre in St. Albert, said the agency has redirected a few flights for passengers who were stranded because of travel restrictions.
Traveller's insurance, scanning the Government of Canada website for travel advisories, and checking in to the flight 24 hours ahead of time, can help safeguard travellers from unexpected cancellations, he said.
"If you can't check-in, there's probably something that's changed with your flight."
Chris said he's lucky the family could afford the unexpected costs, and that his job allows him to work from home through the two-week quarantine period mandated for Canadians flying out of China. Now that Maricel is back home, she and Chris say they're working on moving forward from the experience.
"I feel relieved I'm home," Maricel said, laughing. "I told myself if I'm going to travel again, I need to get my Canadian passport."
