.
Air Canada's Refund Deadline is July 12, 2021. Passengers who purchased tickets before April 13, 2021 for travel after February 1, 2020 but who didn't fly for any reason (whether because Air Canada cancelled the flights or for any other reason) have until 11:59pm ET on July 12, 2021 to request a refund from Air Canada, otherwise they'll be stuck with a travel voucher rather than a refund to the initial form of payment. Even those who previously accepted a travel voucher or Aeroplan points can opt to exchange these for a refund to the original form of payment, which is critical, since many consumers gave up on trying to get refunds, given Air Canada's intransigence, and accepted what they regarded as the only options.
Air Canada has been one of the worst offenders in terms of refusing refunds to U.S. passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a data point, in the Department of Transportation's (DoT's) Air Travel Consumer Report for July 2020, which included the number of consumer complaints against U.S. and foreign airlines, Air Canada received 1705 complaints, more than any other foreign airline (TAP Portugal was second, at 901 complaints) and the second highest number of complaints for any airlines, after United Airlines (3215 complaints). The same held true for all of 2020: Air Canada was second only to United Airlines among the Worst Airlines for Refunds of Cancelled Flights.
That's why it was so gratifying to finally see Canada's Minister of Transport in Ottawa support passenger rights to their refunds (not just vouchers they couldn't use, which Canada's Transportation Agency said were acceptable) and insist that Air Canada refund passengers as a condition of government aid.
Even after the U.S. DoT ordered all airlines with flights to the U.S. to refund passengers within 7 days of a refund request, Air Canada insisted it wasn't bound by the DoT's enforcement notice, claiming that it was guidance only that foreign airlines could choose to disregard without consequence. In response to DoT's enforcement action seeking a $25.5 million civil penalty against Air Canada for failing to refund passengers, Air Canada has doubled down, filing a Motion to Dismiss, reiterating its position that DoT guidance documents aren't legally binding and therefore not enforceable.
For those eligible, do request a refund from Air Canada by the deadline, and don't reward it with future business, given its callous disregard for passenger rights.
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