“I’m tired of advisors being the punching bag”: Cuba flight suspensions reignite calls for commission protection

When flight suspensions to Cuba were announced, the phones of Canadian travel advisors likely lit up in unison.

For clients, it meant cancelled winter getaways, postponed reunions and – as PAX learned earlier this week – disrupted fundraisers in support of Cuba’s vulnerable communities.

Refunds for cancelled Cuba trips have largely been automatic, but for advisors, the process still involves hours of unpaid work—cancelling files, rebooking alternatives, and fielding anxious emails from clients either preparing to depart or currently on the island, awaiting repatriation details.

And, once again, it means losing hard-earned commissions.

As suppliers moved swiftly to outline their policies, a familiar gap in the industry was exposed — one that has lingered for years, but was amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic when the travel industry ground to a near halt.

Transat, in a statement to PAX this week, noted that commissions are only issued once travel has taken place, adding that this also applies to bookings paid with a travel credit.

The WestJet Group — inclusive of Sunwing Vacations — said clients with Cuba bookings will be issued a full refund to their original form of payment and, as a result, travel advisor commissions will be recalled.

Air Canada Vacations, to its credit, is softening the blow with a booking incentive exclusively for travel advisors affected by the Cuba situation.

Agents that book their clients’ next vacation by March 20, 2026, will benefit from $125 off all packages worldwide. (The departures must take place by April 30, 2026).

In addition, advisors will receive $50 in ACV&ME points for each new booking made as a result of the Cuba cancellations.

"The frustration level is high"

Still, the discussion about commission protections for travel advisors during times of crisis is resurfacing.

Ottawa-based travel advisor Nancy Wilson, co-founder of grassroots group the Association of Canadian Independent Travel Advisors (ACITA) didn’t mince words in an email to PAX on Wednesday (Feb. 11).

“As you could imagine, the frustration level is high,” Wilson wrote. “While I personally had nobody booked to Cuba, this is about our industry. I’m tired of advisors being the punching bag.”

READ MORE: ACV unveils incentive for travel advisors affected by Cuba situation

Wilson draws a parallel that some in the industry have quietly acknowledged — that the Cuba situation, which resulted in Air Canada, WestJet and Air Transat collectively suspending flights due to a fuel shortage on the island, feels eerily reminiscent of 2020.

“It’s like COVID all over again in some ways,” Wilson said.

During the pandemic, commission recalls became a flashpoint as bookings evaporated overnight.

Advisors spent months (years, even), unpaid, navigating cancellations and refund policies while watching previously earned income disappear.

The issue sparked national conversations about commission protection, yet total structural reform has never fully materialized.

Earlier this week, ACTA’s President Suzanne Acton-Gervais reignited the conversation in a press release, calling for the protection of travel agency and travel advisor commissions amid the suspension of services to Cuba.  

READ MORE: ACTA president, WestJet CEO address Cuba flight suspensions

But as files are once again being cancelled and refunds processed, Wilson says the burden is falling squarely on the shoulders of travel advisors

“The staff in call centres are working harder than ever with all of the cancellations, re-bookings and refunds, and they are still getting paid. While we, as contractors, are having our commissions recalled," she said. 

"We’re told it’s the cost of doing business. That we should charge our clients a fee. That is, and always will be, irrelevant and a cop out.”

"There has to be a better way"

For many independent advisors, commission is not a bonus. It’s income.

Unlike salaried call centre employees, they are paid only when travel materializes. When it doesn’t, the hours logged in crisis management effectively become volunteer labour.

Wilson believes the problem runs deeper than a single destination or policy.

READ MORE: “Heartbreaking”: Cancellations, recalls & communities left behind – agents react to Cuba

“I feel very strongly that there has to be a better way,” she said, suggesting that suppliers could meet advisors half way by contributing a fixed amount for each cancelled booking.

But that involves a lot of people getting on side—particularly the host agencies and consortia.

“Like any other industry, it is the little people against the corporations,” Wilson said.

Her words reflect a longstanding tension within the travel ecosystem — one where advisors are essential to sales and customer care, yet often the least protected when disruption hits.

Wilson acknowledged that, together with her peers at ACITA (which is run entirely by volunteers), they “don’t have the bandwidth” to take this on alone while managing their independent travel businesses. 

“It seems that is too high a mountain to climb. It's our Mount Everest,” she said.

The biggest price

Travel advisors are concerned not just about lost revenue, but also about the well-being of the people of tourism-dependant Cuba, which faces a severe crisis as visitors disappear.

Tiny, ON-based travel advisor Brenda Slater of Beyond the Beach, also an ACITA co-founder, was set to host a group of more than 230 passengers in Cuba this March.

As previously reported, the big group trip was a country music event that was meant to double as a fundraiser for a small community centre in the Cuban city of Matanzas.

With the trip now cancelled, that fundraiser, which involved personally delivering medications, feminine hygiene products, clothing and other essentials, won't happen as planned. 

Meanwhile, Slater said she has lost revenue equivalent to about ten months of work—hours that are difficult to quantify.

She also now needs to issue refund invoices to everyone in the booking, which will amount to “a few more days of paperwork,” she said.

“It’s sad,” Slater told us. But the impact goes far beyond logistics and lost revenue.

“My heart is broken for the Cuban people,” she said. “They didn’t choose any of this, yet they pay the highest price.”

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