Thanks for your immediate response. Hopefully they can get check-in online, but my wife just tried today flying out of YYC on CO but on a NW ticket and she had to check in in person. It also turns out that the record that CO had indicated paper ticket even though it was an e-ticket puchased on nwa.com.

Does AC Jazz still offer a cart for "carry on" items that won't fit in the Dash 8's? I know that Canadian carry-on size limits are more restrictive than most US ones so I'm not sure that would even be feasible for them, but I recall using it in past years. It would save the bother & time of having to reclaim baggage.

AC definitely likes to use their monopoly power on the YYJ-YVR route. Much the same as Alaska/Horizon on YYJ-SEA. From AUS, sometimes one-half of our air fare is the last "little" flight into and out of YYJ.

One other question. I know this is trivial, but if one has already paid the AIF for YVR but is connecting (< 4 hours), do you know if there is any mechanism for it to be refunded? If not, I'll just consider it a $30 donation to the beautification of YVR, which is not a bad airport.