KenHamer

There was a time when I believed this. Perhaps it was even true.

But recent experience has suggested otherwise to me, and played a part in my decision to look for greener fields.

As for the concierges, their spirit is willing, but their flesh is weak. Which is to say that many of them truly want to help you. But it seems rules have been bolted into place to preclude them doing anything that a regular agent cannot.

A couple of years ago I was stranded in YYC during a snowstorm. I discovered that a flight the next morning was showing J2 so called and asked to be put on it. I was told there were only business class seats available so they could not put me on that flight.

My initial take -- they should have taken anyone, status or not, and put them on that flight. But instead of reducing the massive problem they were having, even a little bit, it was better to make things worse than give away a J seat.

My second take -- clearly they are going to have to op-up someone, why not a status member or two, then put two more people on the plane?

My third take -- why not ask if I had upgrade certificates that I was prepared to use? After all I was calling the concierge, clearly I had status. But that was never offered.

But here's the real point - I was on an absolutely, no-possible-way-to-pay-more, completely unrestricted, full fare business class ticket. Not Z. Not D. Not even C. But full up J.

'Course once I pointed that out, I was put on that flight. But that would have happened whether I had status or not, and could have been done by anyone, not just a concierge. In other words, the concierge was unable to do anything for me.

More recently, stuck in the BOS area during last summer's hurricane, my BOS-YYZ flight was cancelled. I did all the leg work and figured out I could easily fly PWM (Portland, ME) to YYZ instead. But no one at Aeroplan or Air Canada could do anything about it, including the concierges. They had a million reasons why they couldn't do anything, including there's no Aeroplan space available on the PWM-YYZ flight (never mind the IROPS and the flight is wide open), to they could not change my departure point from BOS to PWM because they were more than 200 miles apart. (Here's a trick question, how far apart are BOS and PWM.)

The concieges went to bat for me big time, and were clearly as frustrated as I was. But they were completely impotent.

In the end I rented a car and drove to YYZ, picking up my connection there. Apparently changing my departure point from BOS to YYZ was within the 200 mile limit.