AC customer service
Posted By: xacpax
Date: Tues, 10 Feb 2004, at 6:40:26 PM
A BAD DAY!

A co-worker and myself are in New York at LGA one sunny morning at around 10 o’clock about to catch an AC flight to YYZ, connecting to points east. Everything to this point in our day had been going great. We check in and get through security with about an hour to spare. We’re feeling somewhat nervous that our connection in YYZ is only planned for 55 minutes; however, we talk about it a bit and one of the things that we figure is on our side is that we’re both travelling on FULL FARE tickets. We know that this is a very tight turn in YYZ; however, hopefully if everything else (line-ups, etc…) is on our side, we can hustle through the customs and security circus and get to the gate just in time. Besides…we don’t have to worry about weather delaying everything. It’s already been a long day and we hope we will be arriving home around suppertime. XX (fingers crossed)

Right about this time the agent comes on the PA and tells us that the aircraft will be about 25 minutes late arriving. Well that shoots that theory all to hell. We’ll never make our connection now!! But wait…maybe, just maybe, if all the employees involved get a good quick turn going, and LGA traffic isn’t too bad (I know, this one especially is a long shot), and the headwind isn’t as bad as historically expected, then maybe it could still work! Everything up to departure goes quite smoothly and we are airborne in relatively good time. Cruising along, enjoying AC’s outstanding cabin service (???), we are informed that we’ll be arriving at the gate with 35 min. to spare. Now we’re thinking…”you never know, we could make it…” XX (fingers still crossed)

We get off the aircraft with exactly 35 min. to spare and come to notice that we’re just about as far as you can be from customs. We start running at a furious pace. Lo and behold there are NO LINEUPS at either customs, or security (I know, you think I’m making this up, don’t you!?) We continue to sprint to our gate and arrive in a mess of sweat, gasping for breath, only to find that they are in the process of boarding and only half the passengers are aboard. We are simply ecstatic!! We made it! Or did we?
Remembering that we are on FULL FARE tickets, we get in line. There are probably about ten people behind us. It’s now our turn at the gate, and as the agent takes our boarding cards she does a transformation into the “deer in the headlights”. “You’re not supposed to be here?” she said, stunned as me $%@#. “Really!” I said, thinking she was joking. “Well, here I am!”
This is where the tempers begin to flare. She proceeds to tell us that they’ve given away our seats…our confirmed, full fare seats! She tells us that if a trans-border connection is going to be less than 40 min., that they automatically give your seats away because they “don’t think you’ll make it”. Our reply - ”well you were wrong…here we are, and we’d like our seats!” At this point I’m restraining my co-worker from attacking, as this rocket-scientist of an agent just lets the flight leave without even trying to offer a coach passenger the obligatory 200 bucks to take the later flight. The flight pushes back as we watch from the window. After ‘having-it-out’ with the agent for a few minutes and realizing that we can’t do anything else (after all this is AC, what else should we expect), we submit and tell her to just get on with it and re-book us.

Resigned to the fact that we won’t be home for supper, she books us to YHZ, then beyond. Feeling bad (ya right) she tells me that she has put me in J class, but that it’s FULL and she couldn’t get my co-worker in. She does, however, say that she has informed the gate that we are coming and that they are “doing everything they can….” (I just love that one) to get him in J class as well. Still sweating from our ordeal, we head to the next gate. My now calm co-worker approaches the agent at the next gate and in a very cordial tone explains who we are and asks if they’ve had any luck seating us together in J class. She replies in a very matter of fact manner that “ no, we’re full!” period. Having lost all patience for any agent…especially ones that hate their jobs, we board and try to put it all behind us. Sitting there in 1F, my co-worker is in row 12 (yes we flipped for it) and the flight is almost finished boarding. The seat beside me is still empty at this point and I’m wondering when it will be occupied, as the friendly agent has told us. Then it happens….as my FULL FARE co-worker is in row 12, a DEAD-HEADING FLIGHT ATTENDANT enters the plane and takes his seat….yup, right beside me! What an airline!!!

For fear of getting long-winded I’ll stop here…too late! Suffice it to say that the day did not end there…that airplane went mechanical, then some crew members booked off because of duty times, etc…etc…etc….
We arrived home at approx 1 a.m., tired and vowing to never use AC again if at all possible. Bottom line…two full fare passengers got treated like &%$@! all because of an idiotic policy and agents who are too lazy to care and don’t give a ****!

If that’s the way it goes at AC, (and lets face it…full fare and executive seats are the only reason you guys get paid the salaries you do) you are all in a lot more trouble than you may think!! I have many good friends who work there, and I don’t wish any of them ill will, but I hope you sink yourselves so someone can start it up again, and at least try to get rid of the old rotten wood lying around.

As a side note…the one other passenger that couldn’t get on the first flight and VOLUNTARILY gave up his seat to take a later flight got 200 BUCKS and was on the same flight at the end of the day that we ended up on. We didn’t even get a burger voucher!! How do ya like them apples!