Did you hear about the Ottawa couple who sued Air Canada because the man couldn’t order a 7-Up in French and have a flight attendant understand him?
He and his wife say they are “disappointed” that they were only awarded a $12,000 settlement from the airline. They were also hoping for punitive damages of $500,000.. They gave an interview to media in English because, oh yeah, they’re fluent in English too. So it wasn’t that they couldn’t order a drink, it was that they wanted to berate the airline because the flight attendant who served them wasn’t bilingual in beverages.
Most people would have written a letter. Some people would have pointed to the can of pop the attendants have propped up on the trolley when they bring it to you on any flight on any airline, anywhere. But that wouldn’t have satisfied their sense of entitlement. Far be it from me to defend Air Canada but even the judge agreed that the company was doing its best to make sure its staff could speak both official languages. Just because the couple won doesn’t make them right.
Mon dieu! Ils sont très stupide!!!
Stories like this really get my goat! Any Anglophone who has ever tried to do business in one of the vehemently Francophone pockets of Quebec should also be able to receive an award, if fairness and equality were upheld. Merde!
I agree that perhaps a letter expressing their disappointment would have been the way to approach the airline. They may have been compensated by a discount on their next flight.
To have a court of law award such an attrocious settlement only sets a precendent for others to launch ridiculous lawsuits. The net result of all this is that squeaky wheels get validated (and squeakier) and the rest of us pay for these settlements in cost increases and staff cuts.
Almost as foolish as the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit and it will cause nearly as many stupid spinoffs.