Programs: Air Canada Aeroplan, Delta SkyMiles, Southwest Rapid Rewards
Posts: 189
Complete Operational Meltdown, AC 992, Jul.01, MEX-YYZ
AC 992, MEX-YYZ, is already 7 hours late, with an ETA at YYZ of 0240...meaning that YUL connecting pax will arrive about 0800, instead of 2340...8.5+ hrs delay.
Apparently the outsourced MEX staff is their usual unhelpful selves, passing out little in the way of info (at time of check-in, pax were told 4hr delay...now it's 7+)...no info on onwards connections "that will be handled in YYZ"...and weren't initially giving out meal vouchers...
AC Res confirms this was a mechanical....water sepage in the galley....8+hrs...nice to see that the fleet is so overextended that a replacement aircraft couldn't be found...and nice to see that the "seamless travel" concept of *A is working to its finest degree, in that these pax weren't placed on "partner carriers" such as UA or US to the degree possible.
They better not have the audacity after this stunt to try to charge for on-board food.
My 17yr old nephew is aboard...and is feeding me reports. He usually flies DL or CO, first time on AC, and needless to say, since we always buy one-ways as there is no advantage to buying a r/t on this route, he will return to DL or CO for the return...we had thought that YYZ might be a more advantageous hub than ATL or EWR in case of summer weather...
Thus, he arrives YYZ at 0240...and leaves 0630 to arrive 0742....8hrs late...
and, because of the outsourced conundrum of MEX, apparently he will still have to go out of security, re-check in at YYZ, get new BP...res agent said to make sure that his bag wasn't shortchecked just to YYZ and already has YUL on the tag...and also was critical, as am I, that these low-wage outsourced clowns hadn't bothered to do any reprotect, just let the planeload drop off 100+ in YYZ at 3AM and let a skeleton staff take care of things.
There have been a lot of long delays recently on AC. I was flying YYZ-NRT on 6/27 and noticed that the YYZ-PVG flight was delayed by 8 hours too. What's going on here?
Thus, he arrives YYZ at 0240...and leaves 0630 to arrive 0742....8hrs late... and, because of the outsourced conundrum of MEX, apparently he will still have to go out of security, re-check in at YYZ, get new BP...res agent said to make sure that his bag wasn't shortchecked just to YYZ and already has YUL on the tag...and also was critical, as am I, that these low-wage outsourced clowns hadn't bothered to do any reprotect, just let the planeload drop off 100+ in YYZ at 3AM and let a skeleton staff take care of things.
In any case he will go through customs in YYZ and will have to bring his bag with him, so what is the big deal there? I would recommend going upstairs to check back in as the lineups at the baggage drop-off after customs can be long in such situations.
As far as protecting him on another flight, I'd be very surprised if that wasn't done already.
Programs: Air Canada Aeroplan, Delta SkyMiles, Southwest Rapid Rewards
Posts: 189
Update
There shouldn't be a long line at 0245, unless there is a multitude of other delayed flights...he knew that he had to pick his bag up but thought he would do, as in the past, and place it on the connecting pax belt.
When I called in to Res, as of that time, no reprotect had been done...this was done by me, in conversation with the YSJ Centre. And it was Res who said that MEX had shortchecked the bags, and that he would have to go upstairs to check in again and to get a new BP. Of course, he arrives at 0240 and the counters don't open until 0430...and the flight is at 0630...
The updated story from AC CorpComm is that the original A/C had a mechanical...its replacement inbound from BOS also was scrubbed...the 3rd A/C then had a crew time-out issue. I think that, had the outsourced contractors in MEX provided more timely updates, hadn't shortchecked the bags, had been proactive with meal vouchers and then reprotects, that much of the anxiety and strain would have been dissipated to a degree.
Programs: Air Canada Aeroplan, Delta SkyMiles, Southwest Rapid Rewards
Posts: 189
Update II
Inbound AC 993 finally arrived MEX at 2040...7hrs 35min late.
However, AC 992 is still further delayed...apparently it needs TWO HOURS to sit on the ground so the waiting pax can stare at it and fume even more???
Now scheduled for 2230 (8.5hrs late)...for arrival YYZ 0409....that makes the 0630 to YUL a "normal" 2hr connection...but for which they're going to make pax go outside and check-in again because the outsourced morons in MEX have short-checked luggage because of laziness or sheer incompetence...and to get BPs?
Message to self: Avoid any carrier that outsources its operations and that cannot provide full-service for the fare paid...add that nugget to other wisdoms, such as "never fly on a code-share" (you'll be in no-man's land as each carrier blames the other for why you didn't get a seat assignment or who is responsible for your reprotect).
If we had wanted him to take a red-eye, we would have sent him on AA which had a fare 1/2 the price...but we specifically wanted a daytime flight. Only because he was meeting up with friends on Thursday to take a camping trip did we not demand to be put on the Thursday daytime flight instead....but something tells me that Pancho Villa and his crew at MEX aren't too well versed on the AC policies for delays of 2+ hours as listed on their website.
The MEX staff started by saying it would be a 4hr delay...now it is 8.5hrs. When he first checked in, there was ample time to do a reprotect on DL via ATL or CO via EWR...of course, not at this time when AC is the last straggler keeping MEX open.
It will be interesting to see if a)- the baggage gets to YUL on AC 480 ; b)- how many AC agents are staffing YYZ to handle inbound AC 992 and the reprotects ; and, c)- what compensation is offered by Customer Relations for this fiasco of MEX miscommunications compounding the delay and the lack of mechanically-sound equipment (3 planes needed to fly 1 route???)
Programs: Air Canada Aeroplan, Delta SkyMiles, Southwest Rapid Rewards
Posts: 189
Update III
AC 992 = now shows arriving YYZ 0439....almost 9 hours late now!!!
At least the check-in positions for domestic flights will be open now...MAYBE he will make the 0630...otherwise 0700...and arrive YUL 0810 vs 2342....
I am just waiting to hear him report that those greedy (word expunged) still have their hands out to nickle and dime on the food...based on the delay, that flight should be FULLY catered with open bar, and pax should be given an electronic voucher for 1/2 the value of their fare...without having to write, email, prod and cajole. This was a DOUBLE mechanical, with poor communication on the part of MEX outsourced staff.
Based solely on the fact that AC with its one daily flight doesn't have the market presence in MEX to be taken seriously as a competitor, vis-a-vis the SkyTeam duo of AM/DL, I would seriously hesitate to ever take them there again.
Programs: Air Canada Aeroplan, Delta SkyMiles, Southwest Rapid Rewards
Posts: 189
Update IV
AC 992 has "left the gate" about 23 minutes ago...will believe it when it lands in YYZ at 0430, 9hrs late....
Since the red-eye is traditionally priced less than the daytime flight by up to 50%, that is the amount of compensation I am looking for...a $200-$300 credit towards future travel, representing the difference between the daytime and the overnight flight (AC's historical fare differential before they dropped the 2nd YYZ flight due to H1N1 overhype hysteria over nothing and the competitive pricing of AA/CO/DL in that regard).
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)
The pax with connections will be reprotected by res agents when the plane is airborne.
Upon arrival at YYZ an arrivals team will meet them and issue new BPs, bag tags and hotels if needed. This should be pretty painless.
Any into arriving pax would have to wait for their bags and reclear security anyhow, so the additional time for the BP reissue should be minimal.
IMHO, if you boycott contract ground staff you will be constraining yourself to fewer and fewer airports every day.
Programs: Air Canada Aeroplan, Delta SkyMiles, Southwest Rapid Rewards
Posts: 189
Contractors
Outsourcing is one of those line items that sounds like an excellent idea to a bean counter who "thinks" he is saving money...and would be perfectly fine if such was actually accompanied with real training...or with computer systems that actually networked between themselves. But contractors often employ part-timers with no previous industry experience, and they got the contract solely because of their lowest bid, not because of their proposed service levels. The customer buys their ticket from Company A and expects Company A's service standards, which should be uniform across the system. The lackadaisical pass-the-buck attitude of the MEX contractors served to tarnish the entire image of AC, and only served to compound the comedy of errors which led to 2 out of 3 aircraft being deemed unworthy to take to the air. On a mid-week holiday, there feasibly should have been additional pieces of equipment available, since the actual day of the holiday, as with weekends, sees a slight reduction in frequency of departures, particularly in the YUL/YOW/YYZ corridor.
As with the previous poster indicating a comparable delay in the past week to PVG, and AC 520 ex ORD running 3+ hrs late on Monday for similar reasons, I am begin to wonder as to this spate of occurrences.
But contractors often employ part-timers with no previous industry experience, and they got the contract solely because of their lowest bid, not because of their proposed service levels.
My understanding is AC at MEX is handled by UA agents... they still might not care, but it's not because of lack of experience.
It's fun to play armchair quarterback though, especially when knowledge of the facts is limited.
Programs: AC SE, DL DM, BA Blue, Princess Elite, ICHG - Plat Royal Ambassador
Posts: 1,263
Quote:
Originally Posted by dunderhead
Apparently the outsourced MEX staff is their usual unhelpful selves, passing out little in the way of info (at time of check-in, pax were told 4hr delay...now it's 7+)...no info on onwards connections "that will be handled in YYZ".
My 17yr old nephew is aboard...and is feeding me reports.
Apparently he will still have to go out of security, re-check in at YYZ, get new BP
Are you always so cheery when things don't go 100% to plan?
Who paid for the ticket, and if he's normally a CO/DL flyer, why didn't he stay that way?
Have you ever had an international-domestic connection in Canada before???
Quote:
Originally Posted by dunderhead
AC 992 = now shows arriving YYZ 0439
Well it was only 0410. Not so bad after all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dunderhead
that is the amount of compensation I am looking for...a $200-$300 credit towards future travel,
If you weren't on the flight then you should not be looking for compensation. Maybe I can start applying for compensation for flights I was not on
Quote:
Originally Posted by dunderhead
Outsourcing is one of those line items that sounds like an excellent idea to a bean counter who "thinks" he is saving money...
Name me 1 airline that DOESN'T outsource at all. Just one. Please???
OP is sooo hillarious....... i had 14-20 hour delays before between HKG-SIN on UA, 3 hour delays PHL-BUF on regular basis with US, 6 hour delay from SFO-YYZ on AC or sewage seeping out of the washroom into the galley (and I sitting across) on an 18 hour flight on SQ and I dont even mince a word - except to say try your best to cope with this staff.....
OP forgot too, he has to sit and wait in the sky because YYZ doesnt open / allow landings until 5:45-6:00 a.m....... so add another 1 - 1:15 hr to travel time or delay - however u want to put it
seriously OP....most carriers outside of their country / major hub contracts out their ground staff services...... quality may not be the same but doesnt warrant taring down the airport and insulting every single person u see!
with any fleets (be it train, buses, coaches, airplanes) there will always be good and bad days/periods..... so its part of doing business. the *A thing is to provide seamless travel but does not guarentee the accomodation to other carriers (regardless of *A or not)..... and like our last discussion US DOT do not require airlines to compensate / make special accomodations for mechanical failures (only overbookings)
no offence, but OP if u knew the price of alternate carriers and delays were mounting, you could have refunded the AC tix and rebooked urself whatever airline that suited u! my advice..... no one is perfect and if you couldnt bare AC - dont fly them.....
