Suggestions for Calin and his team

[canolakid]

+1 to ingredient labels
As a traveller with life-threatening food allergies, I used to confidently order the special low sodium meal because it consistently provided me a plain grilled (ish) chicken breast and rice. Safe if boring. Now, the uber-chefs have tampered with my nice, 'plane' meal by adding unidentified potential allergens like mixed veggie concoctions, sauces and other unidentifiable therefore potentially hazardous ingredients. I am not looking for guarantees, but info to make a choice to consume or decline. How hard would it be to update the Special meals ingredient list on line?

[ACYYZ/SD]

Originally Posted by airbus320

In the same vein, please find a creative way to limit the announcements made by inflight staff. There must be a way to keep those to a strict minimum.

My ears are assaulted every time I get on board and I find that, as self preservation, I tune out the inflight announcements and this is not good from a safety point of view.

It's very challenging trying to find that happy medium. We are legally bound for safety reasons to make certain announcements - mainly for safety. Unlike yourself, many travelers are infrequent customers and have a keen interest in extensive service announcements and ask for constant route updates. The reality is, in recent years our announcement manual has been drastically streamlined, and route language annoucements have been heavily scaled back.

For necessary announcements, particularly on night flights, mandatory messages with a strict minimum of chatter is executed. Example --
"Seat Belts Please/Ceinture de Securite S.V.P".

[shore9]

I think E+ seating on long-haul flights is a good idea. Perhaps on flights where there are going to be empty seats pax at checkin could be offered the option of paying a bit extra and they get a row of seats to themself. As the last few rows of every a/c are blocked off until check-in, these could be given out to those who pay extra.

I know that I for one would pay an extra few hundred dollars for a row of 3 seats on a YVR/HKG flight and it would also be a revenue generator with no added cost.

[Clipper801]

1. Introduce a revenue based qualification scheme to P/E/SE in addition to, or in replacement of the current distance and frequency based method. It's silly to encourage members to spend C$6~7,000 or less to become SE while ignoring those moderate flyers who always buy premium fare, e.g., Latitude and Executive.

2. Impose a minimum distance or segments on AC to qualify for P/E/SE.

3. Concierge Service is one of the best services offer to premium passengers and distinguishes AC from other airlines. AC should exploit this competitive advantage by proactively telling all its international Executive First passengers about it. Station Concierge Agents at Executive First/Star Gold check in counters, and should be instructed to proactively introduce themselves to international Executive First passengers to explain the services. Don't just stand there like a penguin such as those in YYZ. May be a tent card of the service at the Executive First/Star Gold check in counters too? May be automatically print a simple "Ask us about our Concierge Service" line on all international Executive First boarding passes? Automatically send an e-mail to all those booked in Executive First or include the information in all intinerary confirmation. This should not be so difficult.

4. Consider introducing a premium economy service on all international flights using North American J seat to fill the void between economy and business classes, similarly to the former Club class. Many other airlines have such a "4th" class and are very popular.

[shore9]

Originally Posted by Clipper801

1. Introduce a revenue based qualification scheme to P/E/SE in addition to, or in replacement of the current distance and frequency based method. It's silly to encourage members to spend C$6~7,000 or less to become SE while ignoring those moderate flyers who always buy premium fare, e.g., Latitude and Executive.

2. Impose a minimum distance or segments on AC to qualify for P/E/SE.

3. Concierge Service is one of the best services offer to premium passengers and distinguishes AC from other airlines. AC should exploit this competitive advantage by proactively telling all its international Executive First passengers about it. Station Concierge Agents at Executive First/Star Gold check in counters, and should be instructed to proactively introduce themselves to international Executive First passengers to explain the services. Don't just stand there like a penguin such as those in YYZ. May be a tent card of the service at the Executive First/Star Gold check in counters too? May be automatically print a simple "Ask us about our Concierge Service" line on all international Executive First boarding passes? Automatically send an e-mail to all those booked in Executive First or include the information in all intinerary confirmation. This should not be so difficult.

4. Consider introducing a premium economy service on all international flights using North American J seat to fill the void between economy and business classes, similarly to the former Club class. Many other airlines have such a "4th" class and are very popular.

Agree with #3. Every time that I have flown Exec first, I have never been told about this service and if it wasn't for this board, I would have no idea I even have access to it. They need to let the customers know about it somehow.

[antirealist]

Originally Posted by Clipper801

3. Concierge Service is one of the best services offer to premium passengers and distinguishes AC from other airlines. AC should exploit this competitive advantage by proactively telling all its international Executive First passengers about it...

How do you propose doing this without giving out concierge contact info to executive first pax, and without greatly increasing concierge numbers?

I agree that provision of concierge services to exec first pax needs to be rethought, but doing it in the way you suggest might well lead to the service becoming useless for everyone.

[Clipper801]

Originally Posted by antirealist

How do you propose doing this without giving out concierge contact info to executive first pax, and without greatly increasing concierge numbers?

I agree that provision of concierge services to exec first pax needs to be rethought, but doing it in the way you suggest might well lead to the service becoming useless for everyone.

This service IS ALREADY AN EXISTING SERVICE OFFER to ALL passengers flying Executive First on AC international flights. I am NOT proposing a new additional service. Just improve the awareness of the availability of this service to all Executive First passengers.

[antirealist]

The concierge service works at present precisely because Exec First pax don't know about it and therefore don't use it. There are a lot more of them than there are SEs. Publicize the service in the way you suggest, and you run the risk of swamping the concierges with work, much of which may well be unnecessary.

Also, how do you propose that an Exec First pax should contact a concierge if they think they need one? Should AC give out phone numbers and email addresses to everyone flying in Exec First? How then would you stop them using that contact info at a time when they're not entitled to the service, or from passing it on to their friends?

As I said, the provision of concierges to J pax needs to be rethought, but your way would almost certainly lead to problems. I understand that concierges do actually work for Exec First pax proactively, and behind the scenes. Those pax don't necessarily need to know about the service in order to benefit from it.

[Clipper801]

Originally Posted by antirealist

.....Also, how do you propose that an Exec First pax should contact a concierge .....

Very simple. Just tell the check in agent or the receptionist at the MLL that I am an Executive First passenger on an AC international flight, I need the services of a Concierge Agent. Page one for me. Never have a problem EXCEPT in YYZ.

All Executive First passengers on AC international flights are already entitled to this service.

Concierge Service is NOT exclusive to the SE's.

[shore9]

Originally Posted by Clipper801

Very simple. Just tell the check in agent or the receptionist at the MLL that I am an Executive First passenger on an AC international flight, I need the services of a Concierge Agent. Page one for me. Never have a problem EXCEPT in YYZ.

All Executive First passengers on AC international flights are already entitled to this service.

Concierge Service is NOT exclusive to the SE's.

Except how many exec first pax know that they have access to such a service?

I know a few people who often travel up front and have no clue that they have access to the concierge. I think they should at least indicate somewhere on the ticket that pax have access to such a service.

[lynchpin_yyz]

A few things that could be improved:

-Too often the discount codes don't work online and you have to call in to use the codes
-Once you have booked over the phone you cannot access your reservation online and must call in for any changes - for example the planes changed on a recent flight that i booked over the phone because an online discount code did not work, i had to call in to change the seat. Additionally when i want to try to upgrade using a cert I will have to call again because I cannot do this online.
-Quite often you have to call in to upgrade anyway as the upgrade option online is greyed out - this should be fixed and the certs should be made electronic
-Why should i have to phone in to "play the upgrade game". Why can I not say at time of booking - i wish to upgrade. I would be put in a queue and when the 7/4/2 days turn up the computer would automatically upgrade me if there is room - or if there is no room I would be automatically added to the waitlist. If I am upgraded, the computer should then apply my certificate (assuming that it would be electronic) and send me a notification email.

This would save me time and it would save AC money because I would no longer have to talk to multiple agents who could be helping other pax with real problems.

[why fly]

Originally Posted by lynchpin_yyz

A few things that could be improved:

-Too often the discount codes don't work online and you have to call in to use the codes
-Once you have booked over the phone you cannot access your reservation online and must call in for any changes - for example the planes changed on a recent flight that i booked over the phone because an online discount code did not work, i had to call in to change the seat. Additionally when i want to try to upgrade using a cert I will have to call again because I cannot do this online.
-Quite often you have to call in to upgrade anyway as the upgrade option online is greyed out - this should be fixed and the certs should be made electronic
-Why should i have to phone in to "play the upgrade game". Why can I not say at time of booking - i wish to upgrade. I would be put in a queue and when the 7/4/2 days turn up the computer would automatically upgrade me if there is room - or if there is no room I would be automatically added to the waitlist. If I am upgraded, the computer should then apply my certificate (assuming that it would be electronic) and send me a notification email.

This would save me time and it would save AC money because I would no longer have to talk to multiple agents who could be helping other pax with real problems.

WOW well said! Lets figure out how to SAV AC money to give us some of the things we really need.

All this discussion about Conceirge??? Perhaps its better to ask for them money being spent on Conceirge, what else could offer better value?

[jarusoba]

Originally Posted by lynchpin_yyz

-Why should i have to phone in to "play the upgrade game". Why can I not say at time of booking - i wish to upgrade. I would be put in a queue and when the 7/4/2 days turn up the computer would automatically upgrade me if there is room - or if there is no room I would be automatically added to the waitlist. If I am upgraded, the computer should then apply my certificate (assuming that it would be electronic) and send me a notification email.

I'd rather play this upgrade game!

It's hard to determine who gets the upgrade when there are more people requesting than available seats. So who calls in first should get it.

A lot of Es and SEs don't know about the timings of requesting upgrades, unless they're on FT. This actually puts us FTers in an advantageous position to snag an upgrade.

[atsak]

Forgot one in my earlier post.

Bring back a bereavement fare for NA. Nothing worse than losing a loved one thousands of miles away and not getting a reasonable fare to get home for the funeral. This goes under the category of "help people when you can" that I mentioned before.

Doesn't need to be ridiculously cheap - something along the lines of the lowest Tango + fare with a reasonable change fee to any available seat would be fine. Often on short notice Tango + isn't available any more, and a bit of flexibility is sometimes required with these sorts of things.

Again, goes to show people you really do "care".

[YEG Guy]

Revenue enhancement suggestions:
1. Work with IT for the ability to book all star alliance carriers through AC.com. Example I would like the ability to book UA468 (SAN-SFO) and AC579 (SFO-YYC) as a single ticket on ac.com exclusive of using the AC codeshare option AC5053. AC should be able to collect agent commission for their troubles. I can all ready do this over the phone or through expedia/travelocity, so it should be possible to program into AC.com.
2. If option 1 is not possible, thn try focusing on the ability to offer UA, CO, and LH flights through AC.com.
3. Work with UA to offer E+ seating for a fee on fares booked through ac.com. AC could work its way into a commission for this service. Currently when booking on the AC codeshare with UA operating, I have to wait until checkin to book E+ seats. When using my corporate TA, I select the UA flights rather than AC codeshares because I cannot book E+.
4. Rethink the decision to increase same day stndby to $75 from $50. I am not game at $75 unless there is a signficant advantage (like arriving home hours sooner). I have however paid $50 to arrive 1-1.5 hours sooner as happy wife equals happy life.

Air Canada Elite Improvement Opportunities.
1. As part of the 2010 Elite program, offer an additional item of Special North American Upgrade certificates (4 certs) to the first selection package. The SNAU would involve the ability to upgrade from T+ fare on North American routes (similar redemption periods to this summers program). This would still keep the 4 NAUs in the second package. This would enhance the Elite package without compromising Executive First cabin.
2. Hitting 75k for another 2 SSWU is near impossible and only offering SWUs at 40k and 60K does not do anything to enhance loyalty. Consider doing something beyond SWU to entice people to reach the 60K level. Note that at 60K I could also earn status on another airline (e.g. UA) in addition to AC E. It would be more beneficial for me to make status as UA Premier as I would then get free E+ and upgrades on UA. The afore mentioned SNAU (Special North American Upgrade) at the 60k level would help. 2 SSWU at 60K would cement my loyalty to AE/AC.


more to come...