FlightHub hid seat fees, wrote its own reviews and raised prices mid-search — $5.8M

FlightHub, a Montreal online travel agency, made millions by actively concealing seat-selection fees: the seat map gave the impression that picking a seat secured it, and often it did not. Prices rose after a consumer selected a flight. Cancellation and rebooking rights were implied to be free when fees applied, and travel credits pitched as usable on any future flight carried restrictions — and sometimes shrank in value after being agreed.

The Bureau also concluded FlightHub wrote positive customer reviews itself, or had them written on its behalf, and presented them as genuine feedback. On 24 February 2021 the consent agreement landed: a $5 million penalty for the company — the largest the Bureau had imposed in a drip-pricing case — plus $400,000 each for directors Matthew Keezer and Nicholas Hart, $5.8 million in all, binding for ten years.

The settlement was shaped by FlightHub's insolvency: Quebec's Superior Court had granted it creditor protection in May 2020, and the penalties rank as unsecured claims. The Bureau pursued the directors personally anyway. Commissioner Matthew Boswell called cracking down on deceptive marketing in the online marketplace a top priority — the case was the proof.