A Toronto woman who lost her wallet hiking was stranded in Calgary for three days because she didn't have any identification to board her flight home.
Kate Sui, who lost her wallet while hiking in the Rocky Mountains, said she went to a RCMP detachment and filed a lost wallet report but ran into some trouble as she prepared to board her flight back home.
"I lost my full wallet with credit cards, debit cards, driver's licence, health card, everything," Sui told CTV News Toronto Wednesday.
She knew she needed to have identification to fly back, but said she was relieved that she had already purchased her ticket for the flight, and had copies of all her documents on her phone.
“On there, I had photocopies of my passport number, driver's licence number, and I thought if they could find me in the system it might work,” she said. “But they refused to let me on [the flight]."
Sui was told by the airline she needed to have a physical copy of her identification in order to board the plane. Her ticket was with Flair Airlines, which said that its policy requires the appropriate identification.
“Passengers are required to present identification at the boarding gate. She was unable to meet these requirements and because of this, was correctly denied boarding,” the airline told CTV News Toronto.
She said she tried getting the necessary identification over the span of three days, and called Service Ontario, but was told it could take a week. A federal passport office said it could not help because she had a domestic flight.
Alberta's provincial offices also said they couldn't help because she was not an Alberta resident.
Sui said all the departments were doing their job, but also feels someone could have tried to help her get home.
“Behind these regulations there is a purpose. These are people working these jobs not machines. They should be able to make some judgment calls," Sui said.
Sui stayed in a hotel for three days. In order to quickly get a copy of her identification, she said her friend flew to Toronto, got her passport and mailed it to Calgary.
She then spent another $450 purchasing another airline ticket.
She said she feels there should be a process in place to help someone in her situation when they only have digital copies of their identification.
