Family stranded after kicked off flight home from holiday

A Canadian family has been left stranded in Jamaica after they were kicked off their return flight without their knowledge.

Adam Collet, his wife Jeni, six-year-old son and a friend, from Ontario, booked a trip to Montego Bay from August 14 to 21.

The couple go to Jamaica three to four times a year and always book their trip through Expedia, having received Gold membership.

But things took a turn for the worst on their way home.

The group arrived at the airport around 5pm (local time) for their 6pm departure to Toronto on WestJet.

The airport was “deserted”, with no flights from the airline on the list of departure trips.

“We get on the phone with WestJet first, WestJet says you booked through a third-party company, there’s nothing we can do to help you, call Expedia,” Mr Collet told Yahoo Canada.

“So we call Expedia ... they pretty much told my partner Jeni to go fly a kite ... we can’t help you, you’re stuck now.”

Luckily, Mr Collet had some extra money and they were able to get a one-night accommodation at a local villa for $149.

WestJet recommended that Mr Collet try booking a Jet Blue flight out of the area for the next day, as they regularly have available seats last minute.

Later that night, Mr Collet booked flights to Miami, Florida, through another third-party company eSky.

The flights were subsequently cancelled, with the company sending Mr Collet a message saying “[the] booking could not be completed”.

The Collet family’s long journey home

He then booked four flights to Fort Lauderdale with Expedia because he just wanted to get to the US as quickly as possible, with the hopes of catching another flight to Toronto.

When they arrived in Florida, they found out the only flight option for them was close to 20 hours long, with four stop-overs, costing $6700 to fly to Toronto.

Instead, Mr Collet rented a car and drove to Detroit, Michigan, where friends picked them up and took them home.

The next morning, Mr Collet had to rent another car to get to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport to pick up his truck.

Mr Collet’s additional expenses totalled at least $2000, not including lost wages from missing additional work days.

Mr Collet and his partner reached out to Expedia on several occasions to get an explanation for the unexpected change in flight.

The company responded by saying they had sent two emails, on July 5 and 12, stating that the flight was rescheduled.

“I said to Jeni ... let’s make sure everything’s taken care of and we didn’t miss something,” Mr Collet said.

“There [are] no emails.”

Additionally, Mr Collet claims his wife’s printout of the trip itinerary from August 13 – one day before departure, still states information from the original reservation and no changes to the returning flight.

After getting frustrated with the “lack of response” from Expedia over the phone, Mr Collet took to social media to try to make them aware of his situation.

He then began communicating with the company through Facebook messenger, in addition to more phone calls.

Expedia has not compensated the group in any way, saying there is nothing they can do on their end.

“The airlines tagged your ticket as a no-show and denied to provide refund as claimed they sent an email with the details of the new flight. We wish we could do more for you,” Expedia wrote in a message to Mr Collet.

In the latest message to Mr Collet, the company said: “Based on the information we show on our end, two emails were sent to provide notice of the schedule change.”

“We have provided all the information we have on our end, and have also advised that no refund or compensation will be considered in this case.”

Mr Collet has not been given any additional information about what was in Expedia’s emails.

“Our team is reviewing this now ... however, these cases do take some time to review on our end, and we do need at least 24 hours,” Expedia told Yahoo Canada following a request for a statement.

Although WestJet referred Mr Collet to Expedia to rectify the issue, the third-party travel company says the airline is responsible for any flight interruptions, while Expedia’s role is to communicate that to the customer.

“Generally speaking Expedia would communicate any schedule changes initiated by the airline in real-time, and would not have the ability to remove passengers from a flight,” the company said.

“If a change occurred of that nature it would have to happen via the airline."

Mr Collet said he would never do a third-party booking again.

“There’s not recourse, there’s no responsibility ... call the airline directly, take the time, call the hotel directly.”

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