[richjacy]

On August 4th of last year, I was supposed to fly home to San Francisco, departing Quebec City with a transfer in Toronto. The flight out of Quebec was scheduled to depart for Toronto at 3:30 pm but at 3:20 a PA announcement informed that the flight had been cancelled. We were told to return to the ticket counter so after being forced to wait in line for another 40 minutes more (as a result of serious understaffing), I was greeted by a frazzled and disheveled ticket agent who considered routing me to Montreal but finally booked me to Toronto later that night, departing at 6:30 pm. I was told I would need to overnight in Toronto to catch my connection to San Francisco the next morning but this was “no problem” since all I had to do was speak to “any Air Canada Customer Service Agent” to get a hotel and meal vouchers for my overstay in Toronto. Unbeknownst to me (and apparently Air Canada’s own ticket staff) Toronto was still experiencing serious delays and operational problems. My 6:30 departure out of Quebec, after numerous delays, finally pulled up to the gate at Toronto's Pearson Airport at 1:15 am. Exhausted, I went looking for “any Air Canada Customer Service” agent in a darkened and dim Air Canada Service area. What I discovered were long lines of angry and frustrated customers, all hoping to get hotel vouchers, flights rebooked etc., from TWO overwhelmed customer service agents. It took one and a half hours waiting in this line to realize that I never was going to speak to anyone. Air Canada had so totally mishandled this situation that for the vast majority of the hundreds of people waiting in line the (including myself) the only option was to find somewhere on the floor to sleep. After trying to sleep on a ventilation grate for about 3 hours I finally got up and went to my gate for my departure to San Francisco. My initial letter of complaint to Air Canada's Complaint Dept. went unanswered! I eventually had to resort to an anonymous online emial exchange process that felt like I was having an online chat with soemone in New Delhi. As compensation for their incompetence, Air Canada has “graciously” offered me 25% off my next Air Canada flight. What a joke! I will NEVER fly Air Canada again and can only offer my condolences to Canadians stuck with this sad excuse of a national carrier in a monopoly market!

[Survivor]

Sorry to hear how badly it went for you, I know there were a lot of people inconvenienced that summer. Quebec City is somewhat service secluded since the main travel pattern is to/from Toronto or Montreal. Unfortunately the agent was very aware Toronto was having problems as well otherwise they are oblivious to their job. Given two evils, the lesser was chosen if you were adament you had to leave.
There are 100 thing to say - but it won't matter. Send an email again with your flight details and the email address you used previously. All complaints are kept - they will find your original submission and respond.

[richjacy]

Originally scheduled on flight AC8921 on 08/04/2009 out of Quebec City to Toronto and then AC759 later that same day Toronto to San Francisco. After flight AC8921 was cancelled I was rebooked on flight AC8923 departing at 6:30 pm with an overnight in TO and a flight out to SF on AC757. I was told the operational problems at TO airport were over so it was no problem (even though there was also a viable conection via Montreal later that day I could have been put on. I felt somewhat uneasy about going via TO but accepted the advice of the agent at face value).
Flight AC8923, we now know, didn't depart at 6:30 as scheduled, but at 9:15pm and after much in-air and on ground delay in TO disembarked passengers at approx. 1:15 am. Still, I was confident, as I had been told by the Quebec City agent, that all I had to do was speak to any AC customer service rep. to get hotel and meal voucher. I though a bad situation still would be manageable with a little food & sleep. That's when I discovered just 2 overwhelmed AC ticket boths open in a darkened and dim AC ticketing area of 3rd floor Pearson Airport. That's 2 out of what appeared to be 20 or more vacant and darkened ticket counters. Several hundred people were in line, all like me, trying to get some help. People were screaming at one woman with a walkie talkie to get some help. Eventually security had to be called to keep order due to the anger and frustration on the part of everyone stuck there with no resources to help them. After about 45 minutes in line I tried the first level of Pearson where another 1-2 agents were available to help a line as long as the one on the 3rd floor. I stayed there in line until 3am by which time the line had moved about 6 feet and I had about 70 or more feet to go to reach the agent. I quickly realized no amount of waiting for service would allow me to get any help getting a hotel room or food.
All of this was preventable, had AC, aware of the problems and backlogs from earlier in the day, taken any signifiant steps to staff its ticket counters so that people who were delayed and required to overnight in TO (like me) had the ability to at least get some food and a hotel room. This was management failure of epic proportions! My email address is richjacy@yahoo.com.

[Survivor]

I agree – as a worker I agree 100%. If the main issue here is staff - how can I explain that there will never be additional staff at airports to deal with these problems! Walk past the counters and take in the technology in USA/CDA. Your boarding passes are dispensed by a kiosk or you can do it online (no need for extra checkin staff-lay them off). You can tag your own bags (lay more off), make your own reservations (less call centre staff needed - lay them off). You can get your refunds by writing to some department overseas (electronic ticket). If you are having technical issues you can speak to cheap labour in some foreign country. I'm not whining - this is what it is, this is my existence as an employee in the airline industry. As long as an airline can do it cheaper - it will be done. As long as consumers demand more for less – service will suffer. When the demand for cheaper prices allow airlines to seek ways of you doing more for yourself with out a requirement for humans to be there – this is not going to change. Most airlines are now working on ways to make you responsible to fix your own flight problems like the one you had. So I don’t know where you would like to go with this? I can only suggest you try to get something for your inconvenience because airlines are not “up-staffing”.

[richjacy]

I want Air Canada to reimburse the 25,000 miles they charged for this horrible experience. So far, they have thrown me a bone and said I can have 25% off my next flight. I really think they have completely lost it!
I will persist until I get reasonable compensation. Not only have they acted like "sorry, but too bad!" they make the complaint process almost impossible, with a ridiculous back and forth email system as your only alternative. There's no one to call or speak to. What a sad, sad company! If ever there was a living testimony to the need for competition, AC is it!

[Survivor]

I would like to encourage you to continue with your fight, but I would be placing hope where there is not. Focusing on what happened I missed the fact there was a response and an offer of 25% off. There isn’t a transportation medium (taxi, bus, train, cruise or airline) that guarantees to get you to or from your destination on time. As long as you are delivered there and back – the responsibilities to transport you are considered completed. In short these are the terms and conditions any airline ticket is issued under. Yes I sound like every airline agent you've ever talked to (AA, US, UA, WS, BA, LH, CO - all of them and more).There is not an airline in this world that doesn’t live and breath by that clause and until Government and regulating authorities do something different it will continue that way. Under the governing rules there is no requirement to do anything more than that. I hate to say it but the day they do – everyone will be finding there own way to get around. I can’t help how you will take this, I wish there were alternatives but presently there aren’t.

[Cicero]

Originally Posted by Survivor

There isn’t a transportation medium (taxi, bus, train, cruise or airline) that guarantees to get you to or from your destination on time. As long as you are delivered there and back – the responsibilities to transport you are considered completed.

Are you joking?

[richjacy]

and that, my friends, is the essence of the problem...because as long as the attitude remains "forget about how poorly we treated you along the way or how we failed to provide for your basic needs- like food and shelter- when delays cause you to be at our mercy for overnight periods- our ONLY obligation is to get you there". Hence, airline passenger "Bill of Rights" initiatives etc. are now becoming enforecable standards motivated by outrage among passengers that airlines treat them like cattle with no regard to even basic human dignities. The same will eventually be true with regard to the rights of passengers to be provided for in cases like mine, I believe - so people don't have to sleep on airport floors just so airlines can watch their bttom line.
Let me just say, the best solution, in my opinion, is competition and the ability for passengers to have their grievances publically aired- not lots of regulation. Look at the ebay feedback system as a model. As long as people know the record of and can influence the ratings of the companies they are dealing with, the system works remarkably well in promoting ethical businesses and sending the scoundrels, like Air Canada, to the garbage heap.

[Survivor]

I’m sorry you thing this is an “attitude” I am portraying because it’s not. There may be something in your business that you cannot control. Now take that condition and apply it so that you make them aware that you are not responsible for it, but the customer feels you must be responsible to reimburse because of it.
Your front line people are constantly pointing out your disclaimer that you told them you are not responsible, but your customer doesn’t believe that’s fair. Then add to that you now have to pay any cost the customer assumed while using your product and is allowed to get some of that back. As a business how are you going to react? Everyone is entitled to a respectful interaction, employee and customer. Staffing as I mentioned before is a downward spiral of cost cutting. How do you make car builders agree they can do without their robot assembly staff?

[richjacy]

I understand what you are saying. All I'm saying is that good customer service is good business. I would also say the attitudes of customers are changing. Advertising means little. Branding means little if anything. It's all about "show me". It is in this regard that Air Canada disappoints. AC has converted a life long customer to a life long critic. I will tell all my friends and family about my experience and urge them to avoid AC. Not to mention I am publishing this all to the web. How long do you think a company like AC can stay in business making life long customers as angry and upset as they have made me? ALL businesses have the challenge of watching the bottom line. AC isn't unique in this regard. The question is how do great companies like Apple, Nordstrom, IBM, Proctor and Gamble or Bershire Hathaway remain profitable AND offer great products and service. Companies like AC will either learn from their mistakes or fail- like GM or Chrysler.

[Survivor]

I'm glad you understand and I do recognize your frustration. Every Customer Service initiative is defined by these types of issues. Since that "Summer of 'ell" Air Canada has since put a number of initiatives to make sure you are better taken care of that were not in place during that summer but are a result of. You are automatically entitled to 100.00 towards expenses like hotel and food when you are stuck on a connection like you were. We have a room broker much like hotwire etc that will find you an inexpensive room in the city you are stuck at. You can wait for a voucher or submit your expense to a max of 100.00 after you have travelled. None of this was in place at the time you travelled but both Air Canada and Westjet have enhanced their offers in these situations. This does little for your situation, but that was a summer that will not be forgotten.

[richjacy]

Good to know, my friend.

[rosweed]

I had an incident with an abusive flight attendant on an Air Canada flight in 2003. Air Canada's response was basically, "so what?". I vowed to never fly that airline again. I'm happy to say I have lived up to that vow. I have spent many thousands of dollars with other airlines.