With the atrocious Air Canada strike, our flag-carrier airline has recently been in the news much more than it would have wanted. But it’s worth talking about them again with 4 separate and very diverse news items, including a nice gesture for those with flights to book soon, and the possible negative vote on the deal that ended the whole nightmarish strike.
These are all follow-ups to the strike, but tomorrow we’ll also share 2 unrelated Aeroplan updates.
Here are the 4 Air Canada updates (as always, you can use the table of contents to go directly to the desired section).
1. Temporary suspension of 2 types of fees
As a goodwill gesture following the strike, Air Canada is offering a quite unique promotion for a very limited duration. It might even make you lean toward Air Canada if you have flights to book soon.
Overview of the fee suspension
Air Canada is suspending 2 types of fees, which is quite nice for those who can benefit from it. It might not be much, but they could’ve very easily done nothing either!
Here are the 2 types of suspended fees:
- Seat selection fees
- Flight change fees
Here are the eligible flights:
- Sold by:
- Air Canada
- AND operated by:
- Air Canada
- Air Canada Rouge
- Air Canada Express
Here are the eligible dates:
- Flights booked between:
- August 27 and September 12
- Flights taking place:
- Anytime
It’s only for flights booked between August 27 and September 12. The flight can take place later; as indicated, flights must have been booked within this date range. It’s important to always look at these 2 different types of dates for any promotion! They’re often different ranges!
And it honestly fascinated me during the strike how many people don’t understand the difference between the airline that sells a flight and operates a flight. It’s truly something basic that all travelers should know. If your flight is operated by a different airline from the one selling it, it’s always very clearly written; you just need to read! Detailed article coming soon.
To stay in the basics, several fare classes exist, so as not to force travelers who don’t want any extras to pay for them for no reason. These extras include complimentary seat selections and free flight changes, among other benefits.
These fees still appear in the booking process, as I was able to confirm for a flight I need to book. So this paused fee is mainly for savvy, well-informed travelers!
Let’s look at both fees to also explain some basics.
Seat selection fees
You must make the selection by September 12 at the latest, even if the flight is later.
That means you should obviously go select a seat right away if you have an eligible flight (or right after booking one if you do that within the next 2 weeks or so) ! It’s free! You’ll be able to choose a standard seat for free (not a seat with extra legroom, obviously).
Surprisingly, many people don’t know how to manage their flight booking, another one of the most basic things for travelers. But it’s very easy to learn. That’s how you select your seat (or do anything related to your flight).
This fee suspension also means that if you have a flight to book and you were going to pay for a more expensive fare class just to choose a seat for “free,” definitely don’t do that! Seat selection is currently offered free for all fare classes, even Basic!
Same thing if you were going to choose another airline because it came out cheaper with seat selection.
Saving on flights (and all of travel) is super simple: you just need to take the time to compare well. That means comparing the lowest price only if you really want to save… or comparing the price with all the optional extras you want if you want optional extras!
Flight change fees
As long as your ticket is booked by the 12th at the latest, you’ll be able to make a change without change fees for the entire validity period of your ticket.
As always, you’ll obviously have to pay the price difference if there is one! It’s just the change fees that are suspended.
That’s obviously logical when you know even slightly about how prices work. Flight prices vary enormously from one date to another (everyone should really know that). So, of course, airline policies for (voluntary) changes require you to pay the fare difference. If not, everyone would book the cheapest date and simply change the date for peak summer…
You’ll be able to make only 1 change without fees. The fee suspension does not give you unlimited changes.
Note that this fee suspension only applies to fare classes that allow changes! To be clear, if you book the Basic fare class and it doesn’t include the ability to make changes, this special policy doesn’t change anything: you can’t make changes, so you can’t get a change fee waiver!
So that means if you have a flight to book, you should take this increased flexibility offered for free into account in your choice of airline and fare class! You should obviously always take all factors into account for any booking or purchase, so it’s not different at all. It’s just that you need to at least be aware of the special policy.
2. Operations back to normal ahead of schedule
This is no longer very current, but since we haven’t talked about it, I thought I’d mention it.
Expected timeline
Air Canada had mentioned a 7 to 10 day timeline to stabilize the flight schedule and return to normal after the end of the strike.
That’s honestly a very normal timeline; it’s extremely complex to restart everything when aircraft and crews are out of position. An airline just isn’t made to be stopped.
Actual timeline
We obviously say it when they do not deserve credit (like with your rights in update #4).
But when they deserve credit, we have to give it to them: their operations returned to normal much faster than expected!
Flights resumed on the 19th.
As early as the 21st, there were already very few disruptions when I passed through Montreal (YUL) and Toronto (YYZ), their 2 biggest hubs. I had booked on Porter for the first time since 2023 to not take any chances with the strike, since my girlfriend and I absolutely had to be in Toronto the next day (she had to see her childhood idol Michael J. Fox and his Back to the Future panel for the film’s 40th anniversary).
By the way, I was able to test Porter’s jets for the first time, as well as all the benefits of automatic elite status offered by the new BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard (which has a pretty incredible welcome bonus offer by the way; ≈ 1590 CAD in free travel on Porter or Air Transat)!
In short, as early as the 22nd, Air Canada’s complete fleet had resumed service and pretty much everything had returned to normal!
From an operational standpoint, that’s a success. Their executives shared that during the interruption, all teams had been mobilized to prepare for the restart; it showed.
3. Possible vote AGAINST the tentative agreement by flight attendants
The 10,000+ flight attendants are currently voting on the agreement the union negotiated to end the strike (until September 6).
Possible defeat of the vote
There are more and more reports that several members might vote against the agreement. This post was already written, and then yesterday Air Canada even put out a news release openly acknowledging the possibility of a vote failure.
Basically, without getting into the details of the labor conditions, many flight attendants are not happy about not being paid 100% of their salary for 100% of the work on the ground.
Stopping that was the main objective of the strike, according to the union itself. So it’s not hard to see how that could be considered a failure.
It’s certainly a possibility that the vote fails. The negotiated agreement would therefore not take effect.
This seems to worry several travelers, but you really have no reason to be worried.
Impact of the vote being defeated
Even if the vote result was negative (which is far from certain, to be clear), there cannot be other flight disruptions.
As part of the negotiated agreement, the possibility of another strike or another lockout has been completely ruled out! Explicitly!
Both parties agreed to eliminate this uncertainty, which is very harmful to travelers. So you can book and travel with Air Canada without any risk at all.
In other words, if the flight attendants vote against the agreement, a binding arbitration process will begin, and a new contract will be concluded without the flight attendants having any say. And without any vote.
That means there can no longer be cancelled flights; that’s why, when the strike concluded, we told you it was truly over.
It can’t start again, regardless of the outcome of the vote.
4. Refunds and compensation clarification
We recently shared a simple step-by-step guide on how to claim your reimbursements and compensation if your flight was canceled.
In the comments under the Facebook post, there are still many questions that are indeed explained in the article.
But I’ll repeat and rephrase the essentials here to be even clearer:
- You ALWAYS have the right to a reimbursement if you had to book an alternative flight
- Regardless of the destination
- Via Air Canada’s goodwill policy
- IN ADDITION, you have the right to a reimbursement of several other expenses
- Regardless of the destination
- Via Air Canada’s goodwill policy
- IN ADDITION, you have the right to a reimbursement of even more expenses (and even for losses)
- Only for international flights
- Even if Air Canada refuses (you’ll need to fight for it)
- IN ADDITION, you have the right to a simple monetary compensation
- Only for several flights involving Europe
- Even if Air Canada refuses (this one is pretty easy to get)
As explained recently, if you’ve read and something isn’t clear, I’ll be genuinely very happy to answer your questions. If you haven’t even read… not so much, honestly. Even not at all.
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Summary
Air Canada has been in the news quite a bit, but these 4 new updates were worth knowing about. Certain types of fees that have been paused, operations have returned to normal early, a possible “no” vote by flight attendants, and a simpler clarification for reimbursements and compensation.
What would you like to know about the Air Canada updates for August 2025? Tell us in the comments below.
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Featured image: Air Canada plane & cabin (photo credit: Air Canada, edited by Flytrippers)
