The airline denied my claim — now what?

A denial email is not a ruling. It’s one party’s opening position — written by the party that owes the money. The numbers say to keep going: when denied claims reached the Canadian Transportation Agency, airlines were ordered to pay in about half of resolved cases (CBC analysis of CTA data, 2024), and a 2026 analysis put decisions favouring passengers at 55.3%.

The one rule that changes everything

Under the APPR, the airline carries the burden of establishing which category its disruption falls into — and of supporting that with evidence. A category label (“outside our control”) is not evidence. A reason that “may change as the situation evolves” is not evidence. Section 19(4) requires an explanation, and an explanation names a specific cause with facts behind it.

The eight excuse patterns

Nearly every denial in circulation is one of these — and each has a specific counter:

• Crew or staffing. “Crew availability,” “crew scheduling,” “staffing shortage”.
• Earlier flight disruption. “Knock-on delay,” “late inbound aircraft,” “earlier disruption”.
• Weather. “Weather conditions,” “adverse weather at origin/destination”.
• Safety / mechanical. “Required for safety,” “unscheduled maintenance,” “technical issue”.
• “Outside our control” — unspecified. The category is claimed but no actual cause is named.
• They dispute the delay itself. “You arrived early/on time,” “no compensable delay”.
• No real reason given. Form letter, no cause, or “the reason may change”.
• Another operational reason. Gate changes, connections, passenger handling, anything else.

Not sure which pattern yours is? Paste it into the Excuse Decoder and see in seconds.

The counters are factual, not rhetorical. “Earlier flight disruption” dies when the aircraft’s inbound rotation arrived on time — a public record. “Weather” dies when the archived observations at both airports show clear conditions. “You arrived early” dies against the operating record of actual arrival times. And a knock-on excuse only exempts the airline if it proves the earlier flight’s category and that it took all reasonable measures to mitigate (APPR ss. 10(2), 11(2)).

What a strong response looks like

• Quotes the denial back, verbatim.
• Puts the operating records against the stated excuse — times, rotation, weather.
• Demands the s. 19(4) particulars: the specific cause, the category assigned, and the facts supporting it.
• Sets a response deadline and names the escalation that follows.
• Asks the airline to preserve its records.

That’s precisely what the Delayed.ca kit’s rebuttal stage generates — keyed to the exact excuse pattern, with your flight’s own data merged in.

If they still refuse

Internal review exhausted, deadline passed — two lanes remain: small claims court or a CTA complaint. Airlines routinely settle small claims before a hearing, because defending a $700 claim costs more than $700. Just never run both lanes at once — parallel proceedings get dismissed.