Air Canada was forced to honor the refund policy invented by airline's chatbot , after months of resistance.

Location: New York , USA.
By FL360aero --
17-02-2024 --
0 Comments
Time To Read: 3 minute(s)

Even though it stood ground on a denial mode, after a court verdict ,Air Canada has been forced for a partial refund to a grieving passenger who was misled by an airline chatbot inaccurately explaining the airline's bereavement travel policy, which can also be considered as one of a kind.

What happened ?

On the day Jake Moffatt's grandmother died, Moffat immediately visited Air Canada's website to book a flight from Vancouver to Toronto. Unsure of how Air Canada's bereavement rates worked, Moffatt asked Air Canada's chatbot to explain.

Carrier's chatbot provided inaccurate information, encouraging Moffatt to book a flight immediately and then request a refund within 90 days.

In reality, Air Canada's policy explicitly stated that the airline will not provide refunds for bereavement travel after the flight is booked. Moffatt dutifully attempted to follow the chatbot's advice and request a refund but was shocked that the request was rejected.

Moffatt tried for months to convince Air Canada that a refund was owed, sharing a screenshot from the chatbot that clearly claimed:

If you need to travel immediately or have already travelled and would like to submit your ticket for a reduced bereavement rate, kindly do so within 90 days of the date your ticket was issued by completing our Ticket Refund Application form.

In November 2022, following the death of their grandmother, Jake Moffatt booked a flight with Air Canada. While researching flights, Mr. Moffat used a chatbot on Air Canada’s website.
The chatbot suggested Mr. Moffatt could apply for bereavement fares retroactively. Mr. Moffatt later learned from Air Canada employees that Air Canada did not permit retroactive applications.
Mr. Moffatt says Air Canada must provide them with a partial refund of the ticket price, as they relied upon the chatbot’s advice. They claim $880 for what they say is the difference in price between the regular and alleged bereavement fares.
Air Canada says Mr. Moffatt did not follow the proper procedure to request bereavement fares and cannot claim them retroactively.
Air Canada says it cannot be held liable for the information provided by the chatbot. Finally, it relies on certain contractual terms from its Domestic Tariff. Air Canada asks me to dismiss Mr. Moffatt’s claim.

Air Canada argued that because the chatbot response elsewhere linked to a page with the actual bereavement travel policy, Moffatt should have known bereavement rates could not be requested retroactively. Instead of a refund, the best Air Canada would do was to promise to update the chatbot and offer Moffatt a $200 coupon to use on a future flight.

Not satisfied with this resolution, Moffatt refused the coupon and filed a small claims complaint in Canada's Civil Resolution Tribunal.

However, Air Canada believes , Moffatt never should have trusted the chatbot and the airline should not be liable for the chatbot's misleading information because Air Canada essentially argued that "the chatbot is a separate legal entity that is responsible for its own actions," a court order said.

Moffatt's case appears to be the first time a Canadian company tried to argue that it wasn't liable for information provided by its chatbot.

Mr. Moffatt says when they spoke to an Air Canada agent, the agent advised them the bereavement fare was approximately $380 each direction.
So, Mr. Moffatt says they should have only paid $760 total for their flights. In reality, they paid $1,630.36 for their flights.
In submissions, they calculate the amount owing to be $880.36, which is $0.36 more than they claimed in their application. I note, however, the actual difference is $870.36, which I find is the maximum amount to which they could be entitled.

Tribunal member Christopher Rivers, who decided the case in favor of Moffatt, called Air Canada's defense "remarkable."

"Air Canada argues it cannot be held liable for information provided by one of its agents, servants, or representatives—including a chatbot," Rivers wrote. "It does not explain why it believes that is the case" or "why the webpage titled 'Bereavement travel' was inherently more trustworthy than its chatbot."

Further, Rivers found that Moffatt had "no reason" to believe that one part of Air Canada's website would be accurate and another would not.

Air Canada "does not explain why customers should have to double-check information found in one part of its website on another part of its website," Rivers wrote.