O.K. today I went to the AC ATO in terminal 1 at YYZ to pay an add collect for a ticket to Hong Kong this coming week so I can fly J class.

Now before I share an excerpt from the letter I'm shooting of to AC's Lawyer let me mention that I have had numerious bad treatment experiances with AC staff in YYZ since one time an agent saw my wife was of Indian Descent and refused us service after she had already compleated checking us in (by saying she couldn't take our bags), when I walked away with Tickets, boarding passes,Upgraded seats, and Baggage Claim stubs in hand, she witheld our bags, and got a supervisor to down grade us. I then sued AC.
Since then the moment one of the agents who "Knows Me" either sees me or gets a call about me the DO NOT SERVE flag is raised!

HERE'S THE LETTER EXCERPT.

on January 7th, 2001 I approached the Ticketing Counter at Toronto Airport Terminal One, at about 2:00 PM. I presented the ticket I was holding (PNR#XXXXX) and was prepared to upgrade the ticket to a J Class ticket paying the additional collection.

I Presented the Ticket, and 3 MCO's issued by Mexicana Airlines "FOR FURTHER TRANSPORTATION ON ANY IATA CARRIER" to the agent the total value was $3,055.00 CDN. I also presented an AC MCO for further transportation in the amount of $350.00 U.S. The agent consulted the agent besides her and they came up with a rate of about $450.00 CDN for the $350.00 U.S. MCO. This seemed very low to me and I questioned the rate they were using, I was told a rate of $1.35. I then pointed out that the bank buy rate was $1.50 more or less. These agents informed me that the rates were set by Terminal 2 every week. I left the MCO's and Ticket with the agent, and told her I would call Reservations verify this and she could work on the ticket while I did so.

I then did call the Elite Reservations Dept and spoke with a very helpfull agent who confirmed the rate was $1.51 and notated it in my PNR. When I returned to the counter I found the agent on the phone, and she returned to me and presented my original documents, She then told me in a rather nasty tone that they could not accept my documents. I asked her to explain why, and She told me "I was on the phone to the Supervisor at Terminal 2 and they've had trouble with you before, we will not take them" I asked her the name of the Supervisor and she refused to give it out. I asked her for her name and she told me a Ms. A.

I then went to speak to a Supervisor, and spoke with a woman by the name of M. I informed her of the above situation and asked her to rectify it. She then informed me that she could accept my AC MCO but only at $1.35 but could not accept the MX MCO's. She informed me that AC could never accept an MCO from a different Carrier. I then presented other AC MCO's to her and told her I would pay the add collect with those, She then snatched up the MCO's and went into the back office for over 1 hour. I was with my young daughter and after 30 minutes I requested about 7-8 times(through other employees) for her to return my Documents as I wished to leave and submit the documents to Passenger Relations.

One Hour later this woman came out with my Ticket and informed me that I could have it back, but the MCO's were property of Air Canada, and she was instructed by the Supervisor of Tarifs to Seize them!
I of course requested to know why, I was told that "they did not have the original Passenger Receipt attached to them". I requested and was provided a photcopy of the MCO's!

First off I would like to address the fact that Air Canada now has refused me service in the class of travel which I have desired to travel in, and in which I was prepared to pay for. This is in my opinion a very serious Violation of my rights.

Secondly the Supervisor had no right to take my MCO's they are not the property of Air Canada, they are MY PROPERTY! The MCO's do have a condition on them that the accepting office may gain authorization from the issuing office before accepting them. However a Seizure is above and beyond that! Furthermore this agent wrote on all of the MCO's "NOT VALID WITHOUT ORIGINAL RECEIPTS YYZTRAC 07JAN01 ML". Obviously the proper proceedure would have been for her to take photocopies of the MCO's, return them to me, and invite me to ticket on the day of the flight after authorization had been gained!

I would like to point out to you the absurd reason she has given me AND CLEARLY WRITEN ON THE DOCUMENTS THEMSELVES. When a ticket is reissued, and 2-3 MCO's are issued along with the ticket How then does the agent ATTACH THE ORIGINAL RECEIPT to BOTH the reissued ticket and to the 2-3 MCO's?? Please explain how one document can be attached to 3 or 4 individual documents, especially one for air travel, and the others to buy other air travel? Furthermore you can see that one of the MCO's was issued by that very office (YYZ) it's self, and another was issued in PAR with the very document I was trying to pay the add collect on!

END.

I will mention also that 5 MCO's were issued 3 weeks ago when in MEX by AC for a ticket that was exchanged and the residual value was given back to me in the form of an MCO.

Tomorrow I will be on the phone with AC and
the Ombudsman I am so Mad.

I kept my cool this time but with the recient discussion of Counter Rage I thought that I might point out that sometimes what these AC employees do and say is so ludicrous I think they deliberately attempt to provoke passengers!

I also really wonder how AC can have staff working at the Airport that don't know the true exchange rates, that are in the computer set by BSP (not AC), and also don't know that they can accept an MCO from another Carrier if it's payable to AC or open!

By the way what do you guys feel would be fair compensation for this treatment and waste of my time, both at the Airport, and now doing major followup phone cals to get my MCO's returned to me? (after they've been rewritten of course!).