I'm probably one of the most patient people around-my staff tell me this all the time. I give borderline employees the benefit of the doubt, and many of them come around and turn out great. I am willing to give service personel the benefit of the doubt when they are having a bad day, or are under stress. I can sympathize as I also serve the public for a living. I am doing my best to try & trust Mr. Milton's 180 day promise that things will get better. I understand there was a gigantic task to merge 2 computer systems, and 2 corporate cultures. I can see the good results of this already. What I AM having a problem with is why in hell they can't get the phones right. I know they've probably got 15 gazillion lines going to 3500 different agent stations, and dedicated lines for different levels, but it's now been 2 weeks, and the glitch in their automated system to check your points still has the message from Rupert Duschesne cut in at the same point. I tried probably 9 or 10 times to get through on several different numbers today to speak to a warm body. The rough scorecard went like this:

1) busy signal: 2
2) Cut off after reaching "please wait for the next available agent" :twice
3) Line rings after being on hold, but no-one picks it up, and I can hear all the agents talking in the background. "Hello, hello, hello?--Cut off): once
4) On hold for 10, 16, & 12 mins.-gave up
5) Got a live body after only 2 mins. on hold: once, the last call, of course.

The kicker: the reason for my call was to check on where my BONUS points are for my flight to HNL a month ago. (That's a double points route, remember, boys & girls?) The very helpful Aeroplan agent couldn't tell me why my bonus was not on my account yet, but she checked with her supervisor , and they said "those points should have been on the account immediately after the regular points, I'll send an e-mail (to someone?) right away-the points will be credited in 2-3 days. So, watch your summaries very closely, kids. It seems we can't trust the technology department just yet--it's only been 6 months! I just don't understand why they can't get these things right-I shouldn't have to chase after my points week after week. My company just installed a brand new IVR tel system across 850 locations across Canada , along with a computerized in-house Loyalty program last
fall ,complete with bonus points, and the whole deal, and its been a breeze. Am I asking too much here? Someone please tell me I'm not!! Surely they can fix these systems a bit better without spending piles of $$ on equipment or expertise!! I don't blame the employees one bit for this-they must find it frustrating to have to listen to customers like me complain about this. God help the regular "newbie" Non-Flyer talker who doesnt
know an upgrade from a bulkhead. They may never get the points they are due.

Mad as Hell in YYC

Most bonus points were not posted with flight mileage. For example, no one on this board has seen the current 2x3x4x promotion points. Maybe they will do it as a batch at some time?

Muskoka, I've travelled several segments that qualified for the bonus and none have posted yet. I don't think they're supposed to appear yet. AC had a promotion like this a few years ago and all bonus points were posted at the end of the bonus period.

O.K., I'll concede the bonus points. The phone system still stinks, and I don't accept
that it should take this long for them to get it together!

P.S. Sorry for the rant, but I just had to vent to someone!!

If the bonus points for YYC-HNL (which I've not received yet either) are supposed to come at the end of the bonus period, then they should be here now. That promotion ended on Feb 28th didn't it? And does that mean that the FRA/MUC ones will be delayed until after the extended bonus period?

Regarding telephone service - my Elite package still hasn't arrived, (partially a screw up with adresses), so I don't have the new numbers. I've called a couple of times using last year's Prestige # and after wading through the list and a brief segment of Rupert I reached an agent in about 3 min. Maybe I just got lucky.

[This message has been edited by Academic (edited 03-13-2001).]

No argument from me on that point!

It appears the 2x, 3x and 4x bonus points will post at the end of the promo, or maybe just when statements are printed as none of my MHD flights which have posted, did so with the bonus. However, the route bonuses will post with the actual flights. This happened with my MUC flights last month. As for the phones, all have been well out of YYZ so far, but I have only used the new numbers twice. Come to think of it, I did change a segment date on my MHD from the YYC Transborder lounge the other night, so called the Elite number from YYC and had no problems mid-evening Friday. Sorry you are having problems, Muskoka.