Just had the most annoying experience yesterday/today. I was booking my flight to Newfoundland in July for which I am using a free companion ticket from any fare reward (from 1999 SE threshold bonus). I could have done this all on the web had it not been for V fares (so I can get my upgrade) and the free ticket.

After I figured all my flights out on the web, I spent about half an hour on the phone with the SE desk getting my reservation. As my friend hadn't made up his mind about going to NFLD, I waited another day to make his booking. I spent another 20 minutes doing that. Great I thought, now I can just go in and pick up my tickets at the AC office downtown.

Wrong. I get there and they have merged Canadian and AC into one office. There are six agents -- great I thought, shouldn't take long to get through this line.
Wrong. Pick a separate number for CP or AC bookings, 3 agents for CP and 3 for AC. OK not so bad, the people in here are evenly split.
Wrong. Most people were flying AC. I waited half an hour then had to leave to go get my daughter. I came back a half an hour later and was at the front of the numbers!. OK so now I can get my tickets?
Wrong. The agent had to do something in the computer to spit those tickets out so I spent another half hour waiting for that to happen.

Now I know some AC agents read this board. What exactly does reservations do on the phone? It seems to me that once I have made my booking they should just have to press a button at the city ticket office and out comes your ticket. Why does it take another half hour? I can ticket myself on the internet for this routing in about 10 minutes (including my search time). I could have spent almost 2 and a half hours of my time getting these two tickets from AC! BIZARRE. You can't be making money doing this. Are you really trying to make us dislike dealing with real people?

Thanks for allowing me to rant. Time for a polite but constructively critical letter to Ms. Fournel.