Heads Up: Ridiculous Hold Times for Air Canada Reservations
 

Just a heads up to anyone needing to get in touch with Air Canada Reservations to expect serious and major hold times so plan ahead and make sure you call from a Speaker Phone capable phone.

So far I've been trying to get to a live person 3 days in a row and been on hold: 42 minutes, 55 minutes and right now going on 68 minutes and no luck yet. I'm not hanging up tonight till I reach someone.

I understand there is added demand and it's the holidays but this is absolutely ridiculous, specially since they somehow managed to mess up my booking so I can't even alter it online and have to go through phone.

Way over 2 hours, still no one...

I tried to submit a complaint through web, but it keeps saying my email exists in the system blah blah does not let me submit.

Is there a direct email address I can send my complaint too?

I think someone before figured the email of Calin Rovinescu, please if anyone has it PM me.

And I thought it was just me...
 

Well I'm sadly in the same 'ignore me' boat.

It seems like they've eliminated the priority system for the E line as I have *never* been on hold to get through to AC Res for more than maybe 5 minutes. I've tried three times today, the longest attempt I waited >65 minutes before having enough of the hold music. :td: :td: :td:

The annoying thing is I would be more than happy to do the simple request I need to do myself (U/G request) but can't thanks to the inability of the AC IT system to handle it when a booking has been modified already! :(

I give up...

Air Canada won this round by a whopping 2 hours and 58 minutes! Way to go! I mean the call center management should really be awarded a gold medal (in the spirit of the winter Olympics) for his/her/their outstanding management.

I'll try again tomorrow, hopefully the fare I need to change to does not disappear or jack up by the time I can finally/eventually reach someone.

I seem to recall something about the Elite desk only being open certain hours.. but perhaps that's changed since it's just a higher prioirty in the main queue now? In any case the priority still exists..perhaps there's a problem or at night they could just be pretty busy dealing with people from the east coast storms.

I remember a few months ago when I was trying to get a hold of them when I did speak with an agent they told me the Elite line hold times were averaging an hour and a bit while the regular line hold times were up to 2.5 hours or something.

Good luck getting a hold of someone. For what it's worth I spoke to someone at AC last night and the hold time was just a minute or two.

I have never waited for more than 3 minutes for an agent to pick up with the Elite number, but I had been waiting for 4 hours trying to reach a CX agent in a typhoon situation. I guess every airline has some time like this.

Hello from HOT Australia! hehehe

I can relate the hold times. On December 26 I woke up and decided to try to do a reward booking to Australia. I was able to do the flights I wanted online and everything got booked. Because I was using various airlines, I had to call in to confirm the booking. I was on hold for 45 minutes with the Elite line so I hung up and called back a few minutes later - on hold about 1 hour. Hung up and rang the regular Air Canada reservations line and simply pressed the French selection - but spoke in english (I mentioned this in another thread). Within about 5 minutes everything was confirmed and my eticket was emailed.
The agent that helped me was absolutely fantastic. So I suggest to try the french line - at least you get through quicker, they all speak english and you get to speak to someone right here in Canada!

Cheers from Oz!

Hello from Australia too!!!

Not really that hot here in Sydney. Only 23 degrees, above zero:p

Hehe - small world. I'm over in Western Austalia - south of Perth - was 38C most of the day :)

Good idea, worth a try and I can maybe even brush off that rusty Quebecois French of mine.

Just trying it now.

EDIT: Got disconnected from French line. Music stopped at 20 minutes and then a few minutes later disconnected.

Now tried the priority English line, it says 10 minutes wait time! We shall see!

Gave up last night after another try near midnight PST waiting 30 mins.

Tried this morning (7am PST) and took about 45 mins on the English E number. Agent sounded worked off her feet. Lots of ppl stranded still thanks to the winter storm out east.

I called January 1st at 11:30 PM and waited 9 minutes and then got someone. I called January 2nd around 2 PM and waited about six minutes and then spoke to someone. It's been easy for me and I use the regular Air Canada line.

Finally...
 

... got through after 20 minutes on the English Priority line!

Fortunately my fare was still available and the agent was very quick and efficient. ^

From a few years ago, but this is why AC will always LOSE money: All the yes-men and MBAs salivating over new fees and products to sell to us. They walk away, happy with their year-end bonuses.

The yes-men heartly slap each others backs for a job well done.

But the AC machine cannot execute their plans! The AC machine is flawed. The AC machine is like communism: a few elites reap the rewards while the proletariats struggle to meet endless nonsensical quotas, like layoff quotas.

Be damned, market forces and capitalism!!

http://www.canada.com/topics/finance...d1d6d6&k=50529

Found this while thread while I was waiting on the phone... for 45mins. I was 20mins in before I even thought of the Priority Line so I figured just to wait then hang up and phone back. After I was done the agent even said "btw, do you know as an Elite member you have access to a priority line?".