What We've Learned: Do NOT Mess With Air Canada FAs

Just in case you've ever thought about disrupting a flight sometime -- you know, just for "fun", or to get your fifteen minutes of fame -- you might want to consider the case of Gus Fuentes.

Fuentes boarded an Air Canada flight in March, on his way to Toronto from London. He found his assigned row -- but apparently didn't like his assigned seat, so he took another in that row.

Unfortunately, that seat was assigned to another passenger, who apparently didn't like Fuentes' originally assigned seat either, and asked him to move. For some reason, Fuentes said no... and that's when things started going downhill fast.

You see, he also refused the same request from an Air Canada flight attendant... and when the F-A insisted that Fuentes move, well... he let fly with some verbal invective (in other words, Gus cussed.)

Things quickly escalated from there, in a bad way for Fuentes... who was eventually asked to get off the jet, and found himself back in Heathrow’s international terminal. The flight was delayed by a half-hour over the fracas.

Of course, that made the 26-year-old financial services representative even more unhappy... so he decided to lodge a complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency.

And the result of that complaint? CTA told the man Air Canada had acted within their rights. Shortly thereafter, the airline fined him $1,350 for delaying the flight.

Believe it or not, airline industry experts say the move by Air Canada to bill Fuentes for the incident is surprising -- as usually, it's the passengers who go after the airline, and not the other way around.

"This is a strange area because it is not covered by under the Warsaw Convention, which is the international convention covering the liability of airlines and how much a passenger can sue an airline," analyst Joseph D'Cruz said.

Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said the $1,350 is the bill for the cost of overtime for the flight crew, extra baggage handling... and other unspecified expenses.

"It's not a fine," Fitzpatrick said. "We can't fine people. We're a company. But it's standard practice in the airline industry in cases where people deliberately delay a flight that we will seek compensation because it is causing us damages. It is very costly to delay a plane."

Fuentes, as you may have guessed, remains defiant. "I'm not going to pay a cent," he told the Toronto Star recently. "I don't care if they take this to a collection agency."

Sounds like this will end up being one expensive tantrum. Wow... that seat must have been awful.

FMI: www.aircanada.com, www.cta-otc.gc.ca/index_e.html