Not sure why there is always this undercurrent of passive aggressiveness on the AP forum or why there are so many posters on this forum who try to read into the intention of a thread. I never had any complaints about AC's handling of IRROPS and, yes, their offer of a cab home from Halifax to Cape Breton was great, but I honestly did not want to make the 4.5 hour drive home at one in the morning. I wanted a good night's sleep and start again in the morning and try by air (the added qualifying segment was a needed bonus).

The idea behind my post was to understand what I can reasonably expect AC to do in the face of IRROPS. And now to better understand how to get protected on a flight. When I called the Elite desk, they said they could do nothing and had no availability, but when I checked with the customer service desk at YHZ, they immediately oversold a flight by one seat the next day to get me home. Why the discrepancy between the elite phone line and the airport desk? Is guaranteed protection on a later flight only in the realm of the SE?