I know this topic has been discussed in the Air Canada and Canadian forums, and mentioned in the FT Trip Reports on the FAQ, but I thought that many may have missed it there and that it was worth reposting in a more prominent place in FlyerTalk. My apologies if anyone has already posted this information on another general forum. This is not to steal anyone's thunder, just to disseminate informationn in a place where the most people will see it.

FlyerTalkers on the Air Canada and Canadian forums have been having discussions about what the merged airline would be like for some time now. This discussion led to a paper that described what the perfect airline would be like, which they hoped would be used as input into the frequent flyer program and service levels for the new Air Canada.

On Monday, Air Canada invited a delegation of FlyerTalkers (Shareholder, Blonde Bomber, Flyme2, Jetsetter, Spartacus, and myself; please forgive me if I left anyone off the list by mistake) who were at the FAQ to tour their Aeroplan and reservations call center and their engine maintenance facility at Montreal Dorval airport. In addition, we met for approximately an hour and a half over lunch with two high level executives from Air Canada to discuss the issues raised in the paper. You can read more about the meeting in Shareholder's report in the Air Canada forum. By the way, the paper, which I had the privilege of seeing, was done in a highly professional manner and entirely worthy of an executive level presentation.

This morning, reading The Globe and Mail over breakfast before leaving Montreal, I came across this article, written by the paper's business travel writer, Douglas McArthur, and entirely devoted to the Canadian FlyerTalkers' proposal:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/gam/T...6/TR26BIZ.html

For those of you who aren't familiar with The Globe and Mail, it's Canada's national business newspaper, something like the Wall Street Journal. So this is a big deal.

It's great to see the impact FlyerTalk can have on the industry at a very high level. Shareholders and the others who worked on the position paper are to be congratulated!