Montreal woman wants airline ticket refund after cancelling due to cancer

It all started when Emily Reny bought a pair of Air Canada tickets to Colombia around May of last year.

“I wanted to go at Christmas time to Colombia with my partner who’s from Columbia, we had planned this whole family trip,” said Reny. “We were supposed to get engaged… It was very exciting.”

Reny was diagnosed with cancer in October 2024, a type of leukemia. She ultimately had to cancel her trip. Since then, she’s been calling on the airline to refund her $3,300 – to no avail.

“It’s such a small amount for them, but it’s a big amount for me,” she said. “No matter how many times I tried calling them, emailing them, I sent them doctor’s notes attesting to what I’m going through and my diagnosis and the reasons why I can’t travel.”

“They continue to refuse to refund me and just offer basically this like store credit and the credit expires in May of 2025, and I don’t even think my treatment is gonna be finished by May,” she said.

Reny, who is a student working towards a degree in dietetics, says she doesn’t blame any of the customer service agents, “they just can’t do anything about it.” She described her “fear of confrontation” as being driven away by this situation.

“I feel like this is really unfair, even if you’re not a poor student,” said Reny. “If somebody is diagnosed with cancer and is going through something very emotionally taxing.”

Reny’s tickets did not have cancellation insurance.

Air Passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs says there isn’t much recourse for Reny.

“It depends on the terms and condition of a ticket and does not depend on the passenger situation, whether a passenger breaks the leg or has cancer,” said Gabor Lukacs, the president of Air Passenger Rights. “This is what insurance is for.”

Lukacs says that he is “very sympathetic to the passengers in this situation, but there is no legal right here.”

It’s a matter of profitability for the airline, according to Lukacs.

“If you sit down and do the economic calculation, very quickly you’ll find that it could have an impact on the airline’s financials if they were [reimbursing] everybody,” Lukacs explained.

“The real conversation that should be happening is generally about tickets being non-transferrable,” said Lukacs. “If you have a concert ticket and you cannot make it, normally you can sell it to a friend or just give it to a friend and they can still attend a concert so that’s why you have a way of recouping some of your expenses.”

CityNews reached out to Air Canada who wrote in a statement:

“Our fare rules are set out clearly on our website and we offer a range of fares, some of which include options for refunds. […] We offer all customers booking flights the option of purchasing trip insurance. […] In this particular case, we will be reaching out to this customer to provide an option that will give them additional time and flexibility for their travel plans.”

Reny confirmed that Air Canada extended her voucher for three years. 

“It’s possible that I could use that… but in my mind it’s not a fully resolved issue.”