Nick Viall did not mince words in a rant about how Air Canada allegedly treated him and his pregnant fiancée, Natalie Joy.
“Air Canada hates pregnant women,” the former Bachelor star, 43, said on the Wednesday, November 8, episode of his “The Viall Files” podcast. “Maybe they just hate people. I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure they definitely hate pregnant women.” (Viall and Joy, 25, got engaged in January after two years of dating and later announced in August they are expecting their first child together.)
Joy went on to call their alleged experience with the airline the “worst moment of my pregnancy.” She explained that after appearing as special guests on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast tour in Toronto, she and Viall arrived at the airport early to add their new puppy, Steve, to their flight back to L.A.
While Viall said he and Joy always “try to go out of our way to approach the counter with smiles,” he claimed the woman working behind the counter that day “was looking for a reason not to let us on our flight.”
Despite being ready to go for the 10:30 a.m. takeoff, the woman said they could not be allowed on the flight because they failed to check in 90 minutes before their departure was set. According to Viall, “It had nothing to do with us physically being there, at all,” but rather because they did not check in online in advance. The worker then informed them the next flight to L.A. was at 7:10 that night.
The pair were referred to the airline’s website by a manager, which stated that passengers could “likely” miss their flight if they failed to check-in 90 minutes ahead of time. “That ‘likely’ tells me, ‘You have the option to let us on if you want,’” Viall stated, adding, “They basically told us to f—k off. And I have a video of this lady, like later, 10 mins later … just f—king around the counter, like, mocking passengers and just doing literally nothing.”
As for the cherry on top of the allegedly disastrous experience, the couple learned that their original flight ended up being delayed. “That flight, they wouldn’t let us on because we were six minutes too late, was delayed 20 minutes, and they didn’t give a f—k,” Viall angrily shared. The duo eventually made it home on an earlier flight, only having to wait five hours at the airport versus 13.
“Every person who works for Air Canada actively does not want to help you,” Viall alleged. “They don’t. They get off on not helping you.”
Joy was brought to tears by the situation. “I think what made me so frustrated is that no one throughout this process — I’m obviously sobbing — and no one is like, ‘I’m so sorry. I’m sure this is frustrating,’” she said.
Viall wrapped up the conversation by stating, “The people who work for Air Canada are the people who like to ruin people’s day.”
Air Canada responded to Viall’s claims in a Wednesday statement to Us Weekly, detailing the reasons behind their policies.
“In order to ensure baggage is loaded and passengers onboard in time for each flight, as well as to ensure there is time for them to clear security and, if necessary, customs, like all airlines we have cut-off times for travelers,” their statement read. “Our cut-off times are posted on our website and we communicate them in our mobile app once a customer has checked in and advise them what the times are. If a customer hasn’t checked in at minus-5 hours before their flight, they also receive a check-in reminder re-stating the cut-off.”
The airline previously responded to Viall earlier this month after he criticized the company via X (formerly Twitter). “Hello, We are sorry to hear that you had a negative experience with us,” they tweeted in response. “Please send us a DM with more details for us to look into it.
Viall followed up by stating it was “too late” for them to fix things. “You’re [sic] employee at counter 12-5 in the business class line didn’t care about my pregnant fiancé[e] needing to make flight they refused to help,” he continued. “I’m just going to share our horrible experience to help others avoid your airline so they don’t have the same experience.”
