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CBC: Dad, 2 young kids ordered off Air Canada plane after mother turned away at gate

CBC: Dad, 2 young kids ordered off Air Canada plane after mother turned away at gate

Old Apr 26, 2017, 8:29 am
  #16  
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Luxury world insignificance in Grand scheme, and CBC will soon be reporting on front-line of what Canada needs to do for emergency preparedness that will vitally depend on commercial airlines stepping up to the plate, including wholesale cancellation of entire flights Banks.

All this minutiae will be soon forgotten in Ottawa and Canadians far and wide will applaud should need soon arise for AirCanada to step up and launch multiple evacuation flights from South Korea, putting company assets, and valuable employees, our fellow Canadians directly in harms way on the front line of nuclear risk.

Both the US and Japan are already in preparation mode, soon to test evacuation systems, and with tens of thousands of South Korean – Canadians on the Korean Peninsula every day, our need to be prepared requires serious attention.

Stuff like missing a flight happens, get over it, can AC do better, sure - but seriously a shooting war on the Korean Peninsula and will engulf the entire Pacific rim and is going to seriously hurt All of us. And AirCanada is going to face a serious operational mess trying to keep a schedule to any Eastern Asia destination so we should prepare for that too.

Last edited by tcook052; Apr 26, 2017 at 10:31 am Reason: personal invective
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 8:31 am
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by Northern Canuck
CBC doesn't need a major story about AC. AC is already done in the minds of a lot, if not majority, of Canadians. We are now at the point where the gov't has to get involved to protect the consumer because AC could care less..
And I would encourage everyone of those Canadians to fly WestJet, or the new subsidiary LessJet. Because WestJet never makes any mistakes, and they always treat the customer as #1 . Heck, you don't even need to buy a ticket, you can just show up, and those peachy-keen Westjetters will just put you on one of those fancy airplane doohickeys.

Again, yes, in some cases, the airlines make mistakes, but just as often, it's an inept and ill informed customer who is equally at fault. In this particular instance, the truth must lie somewhere in the middle. Arriving more than 2 hours in advance, but missing the flight? Why wouldn't you find an agent monitoring the line, and point out your deadline so they could move you up in the line? Every airline in NA has personnel out monitoring the lines. And why would AC outright lie about the circumstances of the alleged removal? The family says the 3 of them wanted to go, but the airline says they outright refused and demanded to get off if Mom didn't get on? What actually happened would be interesting to know.

I'm also tired of the analogy of "Well, I bought a ticket to the Leafs game, blah, blah, blah". It is common knowledge (i.e. It is Known) that airlines overbook, and unless you either buy a higher fare, or pay for seat selection, you have not purchased a specific seat. There are many ways to protect yourself from the very rare IDB, including seat selection, or OLCI.

Having said that, I agree that all airlines (except of course, WestJet, because they're so awesome!), should put some sort of warning in big block letters when you buy a Tango fare "It is common practise for airlines to overbook. In instances where planes are oversold, passengers in this fare class will be the first ones selected for removal. You can reduce your chances of this occurring by purchasing a seat selection in advance, and checking in online 24 hours prior to your flight. Passengers arriving at the airport without a seat selection or having checked in are at a higher risk for removal.

Too wordy, but that's the jist...
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 8:32 am
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by rankourabu
If the family had valid tickets issued by AA - they should take AC to the cleaners for this, hire some ambulance chasing lawyer and get their proper IDB compensation and then some. Thats the only language AC will understand.
4 IDBs is hardly "taking AC to the cleaners" - and after lawyer fees the family would be left with nothing. This is why airlines get away with murder. End IDB (or set it at $50,000, same thing), and they will start dancing to a different tune.
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 8:33 am
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by skybluesea
Luxury world insignificance in Grand scheme, and CBC will soon be reporting on front-line of what Canada needs to do for emergency preparedness that will vitally depend on commercial airlines stepping up to the plate, including wholesale cancellation of entire flights Banks.

All this minutiae will be soon forgotten in Ottawa and Canadians far and wide will applaud should need soon arise for AirCanada to step up and launch multiple evacuation flights from South Korea, putting company assets, and valuable employees, our fellow Canadians directly in harms way on the front line of nuclear risk.

Both the US and Japan are already in preparation mode, soon to test evacuation systems, and with tens of thousands of South Korean – Canadians on the Korean Peninsula every day, our need to be prepared requires serious attention.

Stuff like missing a flight happens, get over it, can AC do better, sure - but seriously a shooting war on the Korean Peninsula and will engulf the entire Pacific rim and is going to seriously hurt All of us. And AirCanada is going to face a serious operational mess trying to keep a schedule to any Eastern Asia destination so we should prepare for that too.
What does all this have to do with the thread topic ?

Last edited by tcook052; Apr 26, 2017 at 10:31 am Reason: edit quote
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 8:37 am
  #20  
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Originally Posted by vernonc
What does all this have to do with the thread topic ?
Simple, CBC is reporting on something insignificant, and I'm calling them out. And strangers already pointed out the lack of factual reporting so let's focus on what AirCanada might be doing soon instead of this trivial nonsense.

And if you wish to call me out, then you should've contacted the moderator, but now that you've challenged me please read my post carefully as it would appear you wish to ignore the context in which the story needs to be put
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 8:45 am
  #21  
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So I've heard several people on this forum claim it's an AA issue.

American Airlines denies any wrongdoing.
On one hand, this is a vague sentence that can mean anything. On the other hand, improperly issuing an eticket would constitute wrongdoing imo, so I'll assume AA is telling the truth and it's not their fault.

Additionally, if it is an AA issue, AC itself acknowledges that it's no blameless:
Air Canada acknowledged that its employee at the check-in gate should have caught the error before issuing a boarding pass to Kerri Moore.
Regardless of who caused this pax to be unable to be boarded, how do you defend AC's pulling off already-boarded pax because one member of their travel party -- who allegedly was okay with being left behind -- is left behind?
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 8:49 am
  #22  
 
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Originally Posted by pewpew
So I've heard several people on this forum claim it's an AA issue.
I've suggested this is the case, and only because AA managed to fix the problem after the family was removed from the AC flight. Obviously it was in AA's power to fix the problem, so it's not a huge stretch to assume that it was AA's actions which caused the problem in the first place.

It wouldn't be the first time an OAL reprotection didn't work out as planned...

Originally Posted by pewpew
Regardless of who caused this pax to be unable to be boarded, how do you defend AC's pulling off already-boarded pax because one member of their travel party -- who allegedly was okay with being left behind -- is left behind?
You can't defend that. This is what I meant by airlines "going out of their way" to look bad.
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 8:52 am
  #23  
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Originally Posted by pewpew
Regardless of who caused this pax to be unable to be boarded, how do you defend AC's pulling off already-boarded pax because one member of their travel party -- who allegedly was okay with being left behind -- is left behind?
But AC denies having done that. And I fail to see why they would have, given that apparently the flight was not oversold.
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 8:54 am
  #24  
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Originally Posted by Stranger
But AC denies having done that. And I fail to see why they would have, given that apparently the flight was not oversold.
Yeah, I honestly don't know who to believe here. There's AC's side; there's the pax's side; and there's the truth...
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 8:55 am
  #25  
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I dont understand how the checkin agent 'didnt catch' the mistake and issued a boarding pass.
How does a boarding pass get issued without a paid-for ticket? This is where AC is full of crap. If there was no ticket, no boarding pass would have been possible.

Everytime I get rebooked on AC from another airline, there is a complicated checkin process that takes 20 minutes and has to be handled by the agent, and by some back-room security bs, since its a last minute full Y/J booking usually that I didnt pay for

In any case, the more bad press on AC, the better.
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 8:58 am
  #26  
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Once again the stupid reporter says that USA DOT regulations require that AC pay $1350 each as IDB compensation. That's incorrect and, in fact, it would have been so easy for that "journalist" to check the actual rules. In this case, the reporter even seems to "copy" the compensation portion of the rule correctly and then nevertheless says that they're entitled to $1350 each. What happened to basic reading comprehension?
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 8:59 am
  #27  
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Originally Posted by ffsim
It wouldn't be the first time an OAL reprotection didn't work out as planned...
Speaking of which, I was once flying X-DEN-YEG on UA, but X-DEN was delayed enough for me to miss DEN-YEG. I foolishly asked my brother--who introduced me to FT--to look up alternate flights for me, and he told me to go for DEN-UA/YVR-AC/YEG...except he gave me the flight # for the YVR-YEG leaving 25 minutes after DEN-YVR arrived (I still don't understand why he did this). When I landed in YVR, AC couldn't find my reservation by ticket #, and they ended up flat tiring me on a flight 2h later--so, AC's not completely fully of bad guys?

But AC gave me mileage for G, not for Y, so there's that
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 9:29 am
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AA not reissuing tickets correctly happened not once, but three separate times to me, so I tend to believe some sort of AA screw up is involved in the story.

Last time it happened to me when I was flying AA the next morning, but the flight was cancelled, and in the evening before the flight AA rebooked me on WestJet flight. I wake up in the morning and before going to the airport I check my reservation and see it was cancelled. Turns out AA did not reissue the tickets and WestJet cancelled the unticketed reservation. It was a major stress to get the tickets reinstated just a couple of hours before the flight.

The OP story seems to be a result of a technical issue of two airlines not properly working together - a very common issue. And then nobody takes responsibility and points fingers at each other.
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 9:30 am
  #29  
 
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Originally Posted by YYCCL3
Totally agree with this. I'd be inclined to believe the customer is incorrect in this particular situation - but the way it was apparently handled by AC is terrible. When you are in the customer service business, your main opportunity to swing customer opinions one way or the other is in "exceptions" - not normal operations!
Uh, I think you misunderstood what I meant. I meant that if AC believes they did nothing wrong, then they should really do nothing for the customers. But there is a persuasive way to talk to the customers and make them think that the agents have tried everything they could. Asian airlines are exceptional at this, and at the end of the do-nothing, you would feel bad to even get angry at them.
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Old Apr 26, 2017, 9:34 am
  #30  
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I am curious what level of precision do people expect for an airline that in 2015 carried 41 million passengers.

We are not talking about corporate flying here where Precision is paid for at an extreme level - you get what you pay for, and who believes for a second anybody is asking AirCanada will get it right all the time.

Even an error rate of .0001%, only translates into a few thousand people affected, of course not pleasant for those impacted, but come on what do you really want to have happen here.

Entire threads are full of thanks to AirCanada employees for a job well done, so those don't count when considering in balance overall performance?

How many CBC articles have we seen that reflect when AirCanada goes over and above the call of duty, which is my point about what AirCanada has done in the past about when humanitarian need exist and may happen in the future with South Korea, don't see many of those news pieces, But of course sleaze sells newspapers.

If you really want to understand the phenomena of why minutiae such as this gets exaggerated attention , read Thinking, fast and slow by Nobel laureate Kahneman - in my estimation, the most brilliant work to come out of academia in the last 30 years.

And why is everybody rushing to CBC to complain, when there is a process first with the airline, and if not satisfied, then with the canada transport agency, neither of which cost any money to deal with.

Is CBC ambulance chasing here, just maybe
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