Air Canada & Customer Service (the lack of)

mahdessi — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 01:01:29 +0000

So there were 11 of us returning from Montreal to Los Angeles after Thanksgiving weekend last year. The morning of our flight, we awoke at 6am, gathered our things, and taxeed to the airport. We checked in 2 hours before our flight and headed to the gate. Once there, nine of us were told we don’t have seats, that the plane was over the cargo weight limit. A 10th person not with our party was told the same. So two of us boarded and the remaining nine were escorted back to the check in area and told to talk to Air Canada’s booking desk for a new flight. We waited in line at the booking desk for, I kid you not, almost THREE hours, to talk to an agent. There were many people from other flights in line because their flights to Vancouver were cancelled due to weather. I ran around frantically and found a supervisor (Lisa) who gave us meal vouchers and told us to go grab lunch until she figured something out. A couple hours later she came back and told us she could get us to Toronto and from there route us to Los Angeles. She also gave us vouchers to use towards future Air Canada flights. Once in Toronto, two of our guys were able to immediately reroute to Vegas and from their to LA (except the Vegas-LA flight was overbooked, so they had to wait even longer for the next available flight). The remaining seven waited another FOUR hours in Toronto’s cold airport for our flight. Finally, around midnight Tuesday we arrived in Los Angeles. We were supposed to be in LA over 12 hours earlier.

As advised by the Air Canada agents at the Montreal airport, I contacted the Customer Relations office to get a clear explanation of why NINE of us were not permitted to board our flight and if we could expand the value of the vouchers to their partner airlines. Unfortunately, the Customer Relations office was absolutely horrendous when it came to answering my question and providing an amicable solution. I don’t know which was worst, the experience at the airport of the communication attempt with Air Canada’s Customer Relations. To date, all they have provided is generic apologies. No answers. No resolution.

I know thousands of people go through similar troubles with airlines daily. I am just curious to know if anyone has had similiar troubles with the Customer Services reps of Air Canada. I just want an explanation I can understand for why we weren’t permitted to board, especially with today’s precise science of flight. And if possible, compensation we can actually use! I don’t think any of us want to ever fly Air Canada again.

This blog site will be about everything and nothing.

mahdessi — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 06:13:15 +0000

An elephant never forgets.

“The trouble with jogging is that, by the time you realize you’re not in shape for it, it’s too far to walk back.”

Everything and Nothing

Air Canada & Customer Service (the lack of)

This blog site will be about everything and nothing.