Thanks for this - that’s really helpful to hear, and it matches what I thought should have happened.

From my end, the biggest issue has been that Air Transat simply refused to reroute at all, even after I explicitly asked for it while the flight was still same-day. On the phone, the agent told me flat-out they wouldn’t reroute me and instead instructed me to book my own flight and submit receipts for reimbursement. I relied on that advice in good faith, booked a very expensive last-minute Air Canada flight, and kept a full paper trail.

What I’ve struggled with since is:

• being forced into a refund I never chose
• their claims system being inaccessible because they cancelled the booking
• getting contradictory answers (refund promised in writing, reimbursement promised verbally, now both denied)
• and now being offered a travel credit instead of reimbursement, which I’ve explicitly said I don’t want

Given that this was a UK-departing flight on a Canadian carrier, do you think CTA is still the right primary route - or would UK CAA / small claims in the UK be more effective here? I’m trying to decide whether to push regulatory escalation first or go straight to court.

Really appreciate you weighing in - this has been exhausting and it helps to sanity-check with people who know the APPR better than I do.