A tribunal has ordered a Richmond-based travel company to reimburse a family after a spelling mistake left them stranded in Iran.
In a Civil Resolution Tribunal of BC ruling posted this week, Arman Aria alleged that Plan-It With Pam Holidays Ltd. misspelled his young son’s middle name, causing the airline to not accept his ticket.
Aria had bought his wife, identified as Ms. Lotfifar, and their son tickets to fly to Iran and back in late 2017.
Mother and son flew to Iran aboard a Lufthansa plane without any issues. However, on the return flight with British Airways, the two were denied boarding.
Aria had bought the return ticket from Iran to Vancouver for Dec. 1, 2017. At the time, his son was one year old, meaning he could fly for free.
Because they were denied boarding on Dec. 1, mother and son had to fly on Dec. 3, after the son’s second birthday.
The child could no longer fly for free and instead Aria bought him a ticket for $782.
Aria had initially booked the tickets by phone, and when double-checking all of the information before the flight, had told an employee at Plan-It With Pam Holidays that his son’s middle name was misspelled.
The employee told Aria the middle name was “not that important.”
In his civil claim, Aria alleged the travel company was negligent in not fixing the mistake before the flight.
Tribunal member Kate Campbell, citing a letter from British Airways the confirmed the misspelling was the only reason to deny boarding, awarded Aria the cost of the ticket, along with extra fees.
She denied Aria a $350 reimbursement for what he claimed was his son’s birthday in Vancouver that the child had missed, noting a lack of receipts and calling the party costs “not a reasonably foreseeable cost” as a result of the travel company’s negligence.
Campbell awarded Aria $1,112.82 for the replacement ticket, travel expenses and interest, and to pay fees.
