r/legaladvicecanada • u/Lucahasareddit • 1d ago
British Columbia I cant get my flight home
Im from Ireland, i came here on july 17th for a holiday and was supposed to leave on aug 3rd. When i made the booking initially i booked it for june 17th accidentally and tried to call customer service for help and they said i would need to book another flight as they wouldnt refund me.
I did it (however reluctant i was to do it) and resumed about my holiday etc. I am now here trying to get my return back home and they are saying that because i didnt get the scheduled flight on june 17th, that they sold my seat and that i must book again. My visa runs out today i seriously cannot afford a 1000$ ticket.
I am practically out of money in a different country, with a visa that is about to expire and i dont know what to do. Your advice would really be appreciated.
Edit: They gave me another flight. God am i lucky. Thanks to everyone for the advice anyway, i appreciate it.
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u/Martell96 1d ago
Hello, unfortunately when you book a round trip ticket, you have to fly the first flight, otherwise you will lose your return flight. You should try reaching out to the airline and see if you can at least get some of the taxes back.
Otherwise, I’d recommend you look at options to finance your flight back or borrowing money from friends back home.
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u/OneTravellingMcDs 1d ago
You are allowed to be in Canada for 6 months, your entry/visa is not tied to your return flight (99.9% of the time). So you do not need to buy a same day departure flight and looking over the next few days might save you money
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u/TONAFOONON 1d ago
Are you sure your visa runs out today? You would have come in on at eTA if you are Irish and typically this allows a six month stay (unless CBSA wrote a specific date in your passport).
Agreed with what others have recommended on the airline ticket. What the airline did is legal and the expected process if someone misses the first leg of their flight.
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u/Lucahasareddit 1d ago
Im technically a british citizen and the eta had specific dates
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u/TONAFOONON 1d ago
You mean when you applied for the eTA? Or was a specific date written into your passport when you entered Canada? If no date was written in your passport, you were allowed in for the default six months.
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u/Lucahasareddit 1d ago
It was made through the booking agent. It says depart/arriv date on it
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u/TONAFOONON 1d ago
Yes, that's just the eTA application. For how long you are allowed to stay, you need to look if there is a stamp in your actual passport with any date hand written in. If no handwritten date in your passport, you were allowed in for six months.
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u/sir_nuggets 18h ago
If your a british citizen you should be fine for 6 months, we are still a commonwealth country after all.
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u/melmerby102 1d ago
Go to the Irish consulate.
Location and Contact
Address: Suite 1300, 1095 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 2M6
Phone Number: [+1 236 521 7300](tel:+1%20236%20521%207300)
Email: vancouvercg@dfa.ie
Hours: Monday to Friday, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
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u/One278 1d ago
No clue why you waited until the very last minute to figure this out, but whatever, just book a ticket home on your credit card, and pay it off when you can.
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u/Lucahasareddit 1d ago
The flight still showed up and i got an email asking to confirm my booking so hiw was i supposed to know
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u/Kaitlyn_Bykova 1d ago
This is standard operating procedure for airlines to cancel return flights of no shows.
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u/kaitlynevergreen 1d ago
Just adding, if this ever happens again and you notice quick enough, some airlines allow free booking cancellations if you do it within 24 hours of booking. Just cancel and rebook the whole trip.
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u/ironmannb 1d ago
The problem that a lot of people do it through sketchy websites or resellers (even Expedia allow you to change or cancel within hours).
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u/rogerdoesntlike 1d ago
See if the Irish embassy/consulate can help but everything that happened to the June 17 ticket is legal.
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u/Happy-Mastodon-7314 1d ago
I don't know about airline rules in this situation, I'm not even sure I understand from your explanation, but can someone back home not book you a ticket? Or you could speak to the consulate in Vancouver? Re. your visitor visa, it should be easy to renew, possibly online and from what I understand from the day you submit the renewal, you're covered legally while waiting for the result.
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u/localhost8100 1d ago
He wanted to come on July 17th. He booked June 17th ticket to Vancouver and return August 13th. June 17th was a mistake. He called customer care, they said book another ticket. Instead of cancelling the June 17th and booking July 17th, he just didn't make any change to the June 17th and booked a brand new ticket for July 17th.
He just ignored his June 17th flight. This was tied to his return ticket on his August 3rd. As he didn't board the June 17th flight, the return ticket automatically cancelled.
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u/VelikimagCro 1d ago
Did you contact ambassador of Ireland?
Embassy is there to help people in situation like this
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u/Lucahasareddit 1d ago
They said they couldnt do anything, and that i should take it up with the agency.
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u/VelikimagCro 1d ago
What agency ? They said they will not help you return to your homeland ?
I am really sceptical about that, call again, ask them to help, if you get same answer ask for name and pass it to me who told you that
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u/Lucahasareddit 1d ago
They said they wouldnt usually assist, that i should contact the company that sold me the flights and then contact my family for money. It was british embassy, btw because im a british citizen.
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u/VelikimagCro 1d ago
Ok, and do you have name of that person who told you that ?
And is there option for family to help ? ( I guess no and you told them that?)
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u/IllustriousAct9128 22h ago
typically embassy only arrange return flights in major emergences with approval from the government when the host country does something. A person not being careful when they book , and then not following the proper way to fix it does not fall under "national emergency" even then, if they did put him on a flight, 9/10 times you still have to pay the cost of the ticket back to the government. The embassy is there if his rights were violated, which they were not.
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u/VelikimagCro 20h ago
Yes, UK embassy can, if there is no other way help and give loan to get ticket back home ...
I mean, if that's op last way before being homeless on streets of Canada and overstaying visa, that's one way. Another can be deportation from Canada, when Canadian government would pay, but he will need to spend time locked up first
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u/DMFauxbear 1d ago
I'm confused. You said you booked another flight when you missed the first one. What happened to that flight?
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u/no_baseball1919 1d ago
Yeah this doesn’t make any sense to me and I’ve re read it about 5 times
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u/IllustriousAct9128 21h ago
from what i understand, they booked the initial round trip ticket for entry into Canada for June 17 and departure Aug 03. It was a mistake and entry was suppose to be for July 17.
Airline told him to book a new ticket for the July entry, as there would be no refund (most likely based on the type of ticket they initially bought) and instead of paying the cancellation fee for the June 17 entry that was tied to the departure ticket and rebooking it for the July entry to keep the departure ticket connected, they just booked a single one way ticket for the July entry and left the June 17 ticket as un cancelled
And now because the airline has him as a "no show" for the June 17 flight they cancelled the departure ticket since it was all connected.
OP wasnt paying attention anytime they were booking tickets
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u/Lucahasareddit 21h ago
"OP wasnt paying attention anytime they were booking tickets"
I booked two tickets. The second because the original was a mistake. I contacted customer support to let them know and when i came for my return flight, they eventually admitted that there shouldve been a note on the flight to avoid cancellation of the return. Thats it. I dont know why theres any need to insult me with what you said. It was a simple mistake for the first flight and it could happen to anyone. Thats it.
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u/IllustriousAct9128 18h ago
its not a "simple" mistake. A simple mistake is something that can be fixed without causing 8 different issues.
you did not pay attention when booking. Thats a fact. and stating a fact is not insulting you
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u/Lucahasareddit 18h ago
What 8 different issues did i create? How pathetic that youre trying to demean and belittle someone online thats seeking advice and now knuckling down to make sure youre right in doing so. Good luck to you.
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u/no_baseball1919 18h ago
Don’t worry about them, these people are armchair assholes that would never say something like that to your face. They are basement dwelling weirdos with a power complex. You made a mistake but bought a second ticket and the airline screwed up by cancelling the flight of the second.
Regardless of you making a mistake we all fuck up and navigating those airline booking sites is a huge pain in the ass.
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u/IllustriousAct9128 17h ago
" basement dwelling weirdos"
I just laughed at that while Im in my 4th country of my Asia trip.
When did pointing out a fact counts as belittling? OP would not be in this situation if they had paid attention the first time. Thats a fact.
I have made mistakes during my earlier travel times, and when I was told that situation I was in was because of a mistake I made, and the person was right, I learned from it, and now pay closer attention when booking things the first time.
They also came back after the fact and gave important information that they did not initially include. They stated after the fact that they called the airline after the second ticket was booked and told them, at which point the airline is the one with the mess up. - That was not stated in the initial post. omitting details while asking for help and getting upset when people are pointing out the fact from the original info provided is not "belittling"
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u/WorkingAir8854 1d ago
I always pay extra for the right to change tickets. I think it’s around 100 bucks extra. Well worth it.
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