A Montreal-area couple and their friend are calling out Porter Airlines for what they said was a “total nightmare” travel experience that left them with over a thousand dollars in additional costs.
From Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Alessio Recine, his wife Azzurra Billig, their friend Marie Lessard, and her partner were on their way home to Montreal Trudeau Airport. What was supposed to be a short flight of three hours turned into nearly seven hours stuck on the plane. The Porter Flight PD572 boarded at 4:30 p.m. on March 30. “The doors close. We think we’re leaving, but instead we stayed on that airplane for more than six hours without leaving the tarmac,” Recine told Global News on Friday.
He reached out to Global weeks after the incident, after waiting for compensation from the airline.
“It turned into an over 12-hour ordeal that included: almost no provisions or support provided onboard, no accommodations for the night, no food vouchers and no guidance beyond ‘call customer service’ — which had a 90+ minute wait time,” Recine wrote in an email to Porter.He continued, “A sudden cancellation announced over the intercom after hours of vague updates, no staff present at the gate afterward, and no assistance offered to stranded passengers. We were left with no choice but to book a new flight and hotel ourselves, paying out of pocket and facing significant stress and disruption.”
He says he submitted a full compensation claim with receipts totaling nearly $1,700 on April 2 and received no meaningful response. According to him, when he called to follow up, he was told claims were still being processed from mid-February.“ They had nothing helpful to tell us when we got off the plane at 11:30 p.m.,” said the couple’s friend and fellow passenger Marie Lessard. “Seven hours stuck on a plane without food. There were parents on the flight with children. It took an upset mother demanding water for the flight staff to finally distribute water to passengers.”
The three passengers say they found out later, via the app, that the flight had been rescheduled for two days later, without any direct communication from the airline.
“What’s not normal is dumping people in an airport in the middle of the night and not telling them what to do. We’re in your care. You know, at least tell us where to go,” Recine said.The couple says they were compensated for the cancelled flight, but they still had to book a new flight on another airline the following day because they couldn’t extend their stay in Florida by two extra days.
The added expenses after the refund for the cancelled flight left them paying $1,200 out of pocket that they want the airline to reimburse them for.
In a response, Porter Airlines wrote to Recine that the flight was cancelled due to restrictions regarding air traffic control. For that reason, passengers are not entitled to compensation or expense reimbursement. Instead, Recine is being directed to contact his travel insurance or credit card provider.
Quebec passengers say they were ‘abandoned’ by Porter Airlines after 7-hour ‘nightmare’ experience
