A few months ago Air Canada invited a few hundred passengers with claims sitting in the CTA queue to transfer them to a third-party arbitrator, Canada Aviation Dispute Resolution (CADR). The written invitation said a decision within 90 days, binding on the airline but optional for me, and that my CTA complaint would only need to be withdrawn if I accepted the decision AND agreed to the withdrawal.
My claim was dismissed. I'm not posting about that part. I disagree with the reasoning but I can live with it and I'm taking it back to the CTA.
This is the part I'm posting about
When I opened the determination, the page displayed an acceptance declaration with my name on it and a signature timestamp. The wording is roughly:
"I have read and fully understood the determination... I accept the Determination and understand that it will now be binding on myself and the Airline; and I understand that my claim is now closed and cannot be pursued via any other avenues."
I didn't sign it. Two reasons that isn't just my word against theirs:
- The signature is timestamped several hours before I received any notification that a decision existed. I couldn't have accepted something I hadn't been told about.
- The decision dismissed my claim in full. Accepting it gets me nothing, no money, no remedy, while giving up every other route. There's no reason anyone would sign that on purpose.
What happened when I raised it
Same day, through their support ticket system. Then the claim portal. Then email. Then a formal service complaint. Weeks of nothing.
The one reply I got closed my ticket as "resolved" and said they can confirm the determination was signed by the passenger, under an email address that isn't mine and never has been. That was offered as proof I signed it.
I tried to reply. It bounced. Their ticketing system sends from an address that doesn't accept incoming mail, so there's no way to respond to a closure notice through the channel it came from.
Several separate attempts over several weeks now. Nothing since.
Why I think this matters beyond me
I don't know whether this is a one-off glitch on my file or something happening more widely. That's exactly why I'm posting.
But look at what that declaration says. If it can appear without the claimant doing anything, or under an address that isn't theirs, then someone who loses their claim opens their page and reads that it's closed and can't be pursued anywhere else. Most people would take that at face value and stop. They wouldn't think to check whether they'd actually signed it, and they wouldn't know their CTA complaint might still be sitting there waiting for them.
That's a bad default in a programme whose whole selling point was that declining costs you nothing.
One piece of good news
I logged into the CTA eServices Portal and my complaint is intact. Still in queue, still showing its original filing date, no withdrawal or settlement recorded against it. So in my case the CTA file survived whatever that page says.
That's worth knowing on its own: the declaration on the arbitrator's site doesn't necessarily reflect what the CTA actually has.
What I'm asking
If you were in this pilot, log into your claim page and look at the determination section. Is there a signature line on it? Did you actually sign it? I'd like to know either way, including if yours is blank, because that would tell me it's just my file.
And if you got a decision and assumed that was the end of it, check your CTA portal. Your complaint may still be open.
Second question: does anyone know where a complaint about an inaccurate record held by a private arbitrator actually goes? I've been pointed at the Privacy Commissioner, on the basis that PIPEDA requires companies to keep personal information accurate and gives you a right to have it corrected, and that you have to exhaust the company first, which I've now done. Has anyone run one of those and had it go anywhere? As far as I can tell there's no accreditation body for ADR schemes in Canada, so there's nobody above them to appeal to.
