well here I am in Salt Lake City, getting ready to return to YYZ tomorrow. While passing the time in hotel, I thought I would check flight home: surprise surprise, the AC portion no longer exists.
I was on AC5198 (UA) from SLC to DEN then AC578 DEN - YYZ. So I call AC and the guy says, hmmm, you are right, it was cancelled back on April 11. They should have called you.
Lucky for me I checked, and now I am rebooked. It was an L fare, and now I can get home earlier since my business here is done, But what if I showed up for my original itinerary?
If I didn't care about getting home, I suppose I could have played dumb and then raised quite a fuss...
I guess I am too simpleminded, I should have looked at what alternatives there were to get home and then watched them squirm.

Welcome to the world of Air Canada. Do they even call anymore? I never know because I routinely monitor my itins and get them adjusted as soon as there is a sched change.

They do call, but you have to request it, and there's $25 call-back surcharge.

Yes they do call, I get it all the time. The thing is they call the first number on the PNR, and most times, that's the TA number. Zip calls, Tango calls, in fact all airlines call if they can, they just pass the buck to the TA.

MC

mcott is very right that the buck does get passed to us TA's as AC notifies us of sked changes on tickets we issue and then expects us to contact the pax. The big picture things they missed is that with more people booking online, they're the ones who now have to make the calls, or not as the case may be.

That having been said, we don't know how the ticket in this case was booked? The poster never mentions how he/she bought the ticket.

Just noticed post number 1112! Another FT milestone for me <sigh>

[This message has been edited by tcook052 (edited 05-05-2003).]

I am usually called when flights are cancelled. However, had a case last year where a flight I had booked directly got cancelled and I was not called. I only found out by chance prior to heading to the airport. Called AC - the agent informed me "oh, it doesn't matter as you would have found out when you checked in".

------------------
Saturday nights should be spent with family.

I only find out by reading flyertalk and more specifically - "Empress Reports".

It was actually booked direct with AC, by telephone (not online).

how about the delay notification on the flight alert feature.

I have had delays of over 2 hours and have not been notified by SMS or pager once. Boo to AC again.

In contrast, the UA system is great...always provides notification.

1D

A couple of summers ago, the week after my IAD-YOW flight was cancelled because of thunderstorms (the last flight of the day, thus requiring an overnight at IAD), I grew uncomfortable seeing similar weather conditions outside -- so I called AC. Indeed, they had cancelled the flight some time earlier. I asked why I wasn't notified.
The person at AC said Superelites and Elites were, indeed, called, but lowly prestige members (which I was then) were not!. I sputtered, vented frustration, etc, etc., but of course they weren't going to change their ways.

Fortunately, on return (and no thanks to AC, because they didn't tell me about it), that credit card travel insurance comes in handy in situations like this. CIBC paid (for the two holdover trips) two nights hotel, food, taxis, etc -- kind of recovered three years fees.

And I became an elite the next year, so, yes, now I am notified!

I'm wondering if would you have been covered if that was an award ticket and you paid the fees on the card?

Has this been covered before?

1D

I asked Diners club that question some time back and was told yes because the "ticket" whatever that amount was paid for with Diners.If you had a totally free ticket but had used Diners for hotels etc you are covered.If you are on a car trip and bought gas/meals hotels with Diners and your car breaks down requiring overnight repairs you are covered.
I think CIBC has virtually the same product.

The CIBC flight delay and baggage insurance policy specifically states that any ticket obtained using Aeroplan miles is covered by their policy.

Diners Club once refused to pay taxi fare for me. I had a place to stay in the city where my flight was cancelled, so it was my only cost. (And two-ways from YYZ to downtown Toronto, the cost was substantial, so I was bummed.)