[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

Unlike the US Dept. of Transportation, Transport Canada’s Canadian Transport Agency (“TC”) DOES offer a limited consumer advocacy. There are several exceptions to what TC can do on behalf of the passenger. Those exceptions, and a “complaint page,” can be found on TC’s website at:

http://forms.cta-otc.gc.ca/AirCompla...orm_e.cfm?Info

As you will note, TC clearly indicates contact must FIRST be made with the airline. You said you contacted Air Canada about six weeks ago. Before contacting TC, you should be able to prove you did make contact with Air Canada. To do this you will need to send a duplicate of the letter you sent six weeks ago by registered international mail, with a return receipt. Air Canada’s Customer Relations Dept. is based in Calgary. Their mailing address appears on the TC site identified below:

http://www.cta-otc.gc.ca/cta-otc2000...service_e.html

The US Postal Service offers return receipt service on international mail, when it is sent registered. Certified mail service is available only to addresses within the USA. When you get the signed return receipt back, wait 45 days, then, if Air Canada has not even sent you an acknowledgement, contact TC through the first link shown above.

The only section of Air Canada’s Contract of Carriage, which appears to apply to your situation, is as follows:

5. Voluntary changes to your itinerary may require the payment of additional fees and fare upgrades. If you are travelling on a Non-Refundable ticket, Air Canada will be unable to make exceptions in the event of an unexpected trip cancellation or medical emergency. We recommend the purchase of travel insurance.

Based on your comments, it sounds like the “change” to your itinerary was, clearly, NOT “voluntary.” The “…unexpected trip cancellation…” appears to refer, not to cancellations by Air Canada, but a cancellation YOU would make in the event of a personal emergency (medical, or otherwise.) Air Canada might try to put you off by citing this section.

If Air Canada authorized you to stay at that Hilton Garden Inn, rather than a less expensive hotel, then it would seem their vouchers should have been high enough in value to cover, at least, a dinner entrée (excluding appetizer and desert.) As to breakfast—if Air Canada didn’t want to provide enough money to cover breakfast at your hotel, then they should have given you a voucher to cover a full breakfast at the airport (which, possibly, could be as expensive as breakfast at the hotel!)

For future reference, if you are traveling to any member nation of the European Union; your arrival was delayed to the extent you described (sounds like, about, 24 hours); AND, your trip, from the USA, to the EU country was on an airline, registered in the EU, THEN, under EU passenger rights legislation, you should be entitled to monetary compensation, from the airline. Since this compensation is, by EU regulation, a fixed amount, you may be left with some out-of-pocket losses. Air France, of course, is subject to this EU regulation.

Good luck!