Toronto family claims Priceline error caused them to miss citizenship oaths

A plane is silhouetted as it takes off from Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, B.C., Monday, May 13, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

A Toronto-area family is livid after having to miss their citizenship oaths in Winnipeg due to a logistical error they say Priceline has made no effort to fix.

Divya Polavaram booked flights for herself, her mother and their two children from Toronto to Winnipeg so that the whole family could be present for the children’s citizenship oaths, a milestone event about which the children were particularly excited. The family recently moved to Mississauga from Winnipeg, hence needing to travel back to Manitoba for the oath.

Polavaram booked the flights through Priceline on Oct. 3.

• Download our app to get local alerts on your device
• Get the latest local updates right to your inbox

 

After doing so, she received a confirmation email, which CP24 has seen, confirming four Flair flights from Toronto Pearson Airport to J.A. Richardson International Airport in Winnipeg. Featured on the email were two large headings indicating that the trip had been confirmed.

The family was due to arrive in Winnipeg early on Oct. 17 and return to Toronto on the morning of Oct. 18. But when Polavaram went to check in to her flight the via web check-in on Oct. 16, she was told to contact Priceline directly, when she was given the news that Flair had never confirmed the tickets, a detail she says was never shared with her.

According to Polavaram, Priceline refused to re-book the flights or compensate her for the mix-up, which meant she and her children had to miss the citizenship oath in Winnipeg.

Re-booking the tickets on another airline without compensation was not an option for her, she said – the tickets were now over four times what she had originally paid for them through Priceline, who Polavaram says told her had never sent a confirmation email. (CP24 has seen the confirmation email.) Polavaram originally paid just under $450 for the four tickets.

“This was a very special occasion,” Polavaram said in an interview. “And we all wanted to be there. We planned everything. My mom traveled for it from India to attend.” She added that she, her mother and her children were planning on meeting her husband in Winnipeg, who had traveled there a few days earlier on business.

“My kids keep asking me why we missed the trip,” she said. “They wanted to be there. They wanted to see their old friends. We’d planned for a small party. It’s been very emotional and traumatic.”

After confirming receipt of CP24’s initial inquiry, Priceline did not respond to multiple requests for comment. In a statement to CP24, representatives for Flair said that it’s best for customers to book flights directly through the airline rather than aggregators like Priceline.

“We still don’t know what happened with Priceline…as we are not in direct contact with them,” representatives for Flair said in their statement, adding that the company has provided Polavaram a credit for future travels with the airline.

But for Polavaram, the damage is done.

“It was a horrible experience,” she said. “And the way Priceline has handled it has just made it worse.”