Royal Airlines

ROYAL AIRLINES: In the late spring of 1999 myself & two other men booked a round trip charter flight from Toronto to Vancouver on Royal Airlines (Royal Aviation Inc. based out of Dorval Quebec). I arrived at the check in counter a little more than 1.5 hours ahead of the flight & I had almost all the luggage (video equipment) with me as well as the 3 tickets. The Royal Airlines employee gave me seat assignments for all 3 of us (I felt good because I knew we now had a seat on the plane), but she wouldn't let me check the luggage in because the other 2 men hadn't arrived yet (there was a weight limitation allowance that we had to spread between the 3 of us). She told me to line up again once the other 2 men arrived. They got caught in heavy traffic & arrived about 40 - 45 minutes before the flight was to depart. By the time we got to the front of the line again it was 28 minutes before the flight was to depart (Royal Airline flights are almost always late departing) & the same lady now told me that she had given our seat assignments away & the plane was filled (actually overbooked). She said that the small print on the back of the ticket said they could do that if passengers hadn't shown up at least 30 minutes before scheduled flight departure (even if they actually were there but the lineup was long). I said ok, then when is the next plane you can put us on? She said we could take any plane we wanted, but we'd have to pay the entire 3 fairs all over again. At this point I'm seeing red because we'd already been assigned seats & I demanded to speak to a supervisor. After much arguing & discussion with the supervisor, I discovered that earlier that day Royal Airlines had downsized the type of plane they were planning on using (because the bigger planes were being used for the lucrative government sponsored Bosnian refugees airlift) & this meant that there were now about 35 people overbooked for the smaller substitute plane. The airline knows that some people won't show up for the flight & that those that showed up 30 minutes or more before the flight would be booked on another flight & those who showed up less than 30 minutes before the flight would lose there flight with no refund or substitute based on the fine print policy. Eventually the supervisor agreed to pay for our 3 substitute flights on Canada 3000 Airline which departed about 4 hours later & even gave us a meal voucher for the significant anxiety & waiting, however there were at least 15 other passengers who had actually arrived less than 30 minutes before the flight & they completely lost their flights with no refund or substitute (they were furious). Frankly I don't think it's right that when you reserve passage by purchasing your charter ticket a week or more ahead of time, that you should be subject to complete loss of the ticket just because the airline decided to downsize the plane & you arrived less than 30 minutes before the flight.

When we arrived over at Canada 3000 Airlines I asked what their policy was if a passenger arrived less than 30 minutes before the flight & the flight was already full. Canada 3000 Airlines said their policy was a $50. penalty & they'd put you on the next available flight (a reasonable policy in my view). They also said they'd wave the $50. penalty if the overbooking was a result of them downsizing the plane. Lest you think the story is over, it's not. We handed our flight vouchers to the Canada 3000 Airline employee but she couldn't book the tickets because the Royal Airline credit card that was being used to pay for the substitute tickets had bounced (reached it's spending limit). After another hour went by, Royal Airlines provided another credit card for payment which didn't bounce this time & we just barely made it on this flight before it got sold out. My experience with Canada 3000 Airlines (also a charter airline) on this flight & other times I've used them was very good.

On the return home journey we once again had to fly with Royal Airlines. We phoned ahead & found out the flight was delayed 8 hours. When we arrived at the check in counter we were told that it was delayed another 3 hours, so I immediately went over to a pay phone to check the recording & it still had not been changed to reflect the newest delay. I mentioned this to the supervisor & she said that she had passed that information along to head office but she wasn't surprised that it didn't get updated on the recording. Clearly Royal Airlines has no regard for it's customers valuable time. The Royal Airline employees at that point were very annoyed at their own company & admitting so quite freely. They stated that these kind of mix ups & delays had been going on all week (playing catch up), that many of them were on their 2nd or 3rd shift in a row (without sleep) to try & catch up & some employees were crying over the situation their employer had created & the stress it caused them & the passengers. I had heard similar horror stories from people who flew Royal Airlines, so I think I can safely suggest that a buyer beware warning is in order if you intend to fly on Royal Airlines. The good news is that towards the end of January 2001, Canada 3000 Airlines announced that it had just purchased Royal Airlines & was merging it into it's fleet.  Last updated Feb. 11/2001

The bad news is that Canada 3000 went bankrupt & out of business in the fall of 2001.

By Doug Hembruff.