Booking website failed to tell me of schedule change. Can I claim compensation?

Question

I booked a flight for my sister and her kids to come visit me in San Jose, CA from Winnipeg, Canada. I booked the tickets on Air Canada via BookIt.com, with a layover in Vancouver (there are no direct flights). 9 days before the flight, BookIt.com sent me an email saying:

"Airlines sometimes make changes to flight schedules. The flights associated with this booking were impacted. To view the details, please access the Alert tab in the Member Lounge: " (and then the link to view the itinerary)

However, when you click on the link, it shows the original scheduled flight times, so I assumed everything was fine (or moved by like 5 minutes). There also is no link labeled "alerts" anywhere on the website. As it turns out, the flight from Vancouver to San Jose was rescheduled 3 hours earlier, and was scheduled to depart before the flight from Winnipeg to Vancouver even landed! My sister didn't find this out until getting to Vancouver, and finding out her second flight had already left. The next flight wasn't for 8 hours, so she spent the entire day at the airport, waiting, with two small children.

My question is, what was BookIt's responsibility regarding the schedule change, and what are my options with respect to seeking compensation for not having been notified, and for my sister's family spending the day at the airport?

Just FYI, there are a bunch of flights from Winnipeg to Vancouver, so had we known the second flight was rescheduled, she could have taken a later flight from Winnipeg to Vancouver but BookIt never properly notified us. In fact, even now (after the rescheduled flight has left), if you go to the itinerary on BookIt, it still shows the original times.

Answer 1

I'll be a little more realistic in my assessment.

You were notified of a change and the details would be easily available aircanada.com. What bookit.com showed you is easily disputed.

Your likely best outcome is a complaint directly to Air Canada resulting in some bonus miles deposited in your sister's account.

Answer 2

Bookits responsibility was to inform you in a timely fashion of changes to the flight. No question about that.

http://bookit.com/terms-of-use/

It does appear the airline notified bookit, which notified you with ample time to make changes required or cancel your flight however allegedly you were notified with wrong details (the details of which are in dispute).It is a question of whether you were properly notified. From the look of things, your greatest chance of success might be dealing with the airline because bookit.com appear to have fulfilled their obligation of transmitting the notification from the airline to you. If you were improperly notified, then three hours time change in time, especially moving it earlier will be material by most legal standards to claim compensation.

You may also pursue a claim against Bookit.com and/or try dealing directly with the airline.

You can also go through the CTA. The Canadian Transportation Agency, backed by the terms of the Canada Transportation Act, makes sure that carriers fully respect the rights of air travellers and that they keep their promises.

https://travel.gc.ca/air/air-passenger-rights

It offers informal dispute resolution processes, and It offers a court-like complaint process for passengers who want to challenge a carrier’s policies (tariff provisions) as being unclear, unreasonable or discriminatory, for such things as compensation when they are denied boarding or are not adequately informed of changes in flight schedules.