Annoyed at AC about TPAC flight
 

Finally have a chance to sit down and write this out. Really long flight last week out from YYC - HKG and was wondering if I'm unreasonable in being a bit annoyed at how things went down:

1) Flight from YYC-YVR, temperature is -20 in Cowtown. Plane is freezing when we get on. Heaters turned on briefly for < 5 minutes or so and then left off until the plane took off....which wasn't until an hour later. Sat on the tarmac with no announcement or explanation until some irate pax inquired due to potential (and eventual) missed connections. Later found out we were waiting for the de-icer. While the de-icing fiasco was related to YYC, I thought the flight crew could have turned on the heater so we weren't freezing during the prolonged wait. I also thought they could have explained to the pax what was happening and showed a bit more sympathy - and possibly apologize - to those who ended up missing their connections. (Never having left YYC on time regardless of the weather, we had booked our flight to arrive 4 hours before our next connection, so luckily, we had a buffer)

2) Flight from YVR - HKG. Again, delayed once everyone had boarded with no explanation until irate pax inquired. Electrical malfunction turns out to be a problem with the battery. We wait for 2+ hours on the tarmac. Inquired about de-boarding and told it is not permitted. I thought that if the anticipated wait is 90 minutes or greater, passengers are given the option of de-boarding.

New battery is installed and system is rebooted. Early in-flight, the IES of some rows - including mine - go on the fritz. They do a row-specific reboot which fixes some but not all of the malfunctioning screens. I let the FA know and nothing is done for a good 15 minutes. I ring the bell again and speak to the In-Flight Service Director and ask about what they are able to do. She goes to "look into it" and comes back within 5 minutes, hands me these blue customer relations cards and tells me "Sorry, there's nothing we can do". I tell her than on other flights, they have done a system reboot when this happens and she says that she is not willing to do this and walks away. Great TPAC flight, as you can imagine, sitting in Y having already gone through my reading materials during the 2 hour delay.

Yesterday, I go to the website listed on the card she gave me and fill out the form. Interestingly, they ask what your FF status is....which is odd because it doesn't seem like that affects their response (spouse is basic and received the exact same email), which is likely a computer generated response since I received this within 24 hours:

Dear Touring:

Thank you for submitting your onboard compensation claim. We are truly sorry for the inconvenience you experienced.

This goodwill offer entitles you to a one time saving of 5% off of your next booking on www.aircanada.com.

Simply make your booking between 02/06/2011 and 02/05/2012 . Please note all travel must be completed by 02/05/2012.

To receive your discount, please visit www.aircanada.com and enter the one time use promotion code WEDONTCARE in to the Promotion Code box.

This offer is available on a new booking only. The 5% discount applies exclusively on Air Canada published fares and cannot be used for time limited websaver fares, Multi-city bookings, Flight Pass purchases or combined with any other discount.

Please note the fare displayed on the Select Flights screen will reflect the 5% discount rounded to the nearest dollar.

After you have booked your flight, retrieve your booking through Manage my Bookings, found on the home page to purchase any À la carte options. Look for options such as lounge access, travel assistance, in-flight meal vouchers and advance seat selection.

We look forward to welcoming you onboard.

Sincerely,

Air Canada Customer Relations

Wow. A token 5% discount off a regular priced flight and an electronically-generated letter. I feel really special.

I understand that IES are a luxury and can remember flying without them. However, you knew before boarding and brought things along to help pass the time. Coupled with the indifferent attitude of the Service Director plus all the poor communication from AC staff and pax throughout, this journey has left a bad taste in my mouth. Am I being unreasonable if I write to AC about this whole experience?

It's the new and enhanced Air Canada!

It's not Epic Failures but annoying at the least and really, piss poor customer service.

I would rewrite a complaint in to AC once again. That response is pathetic.

To add some salt to your wound, it's 5% off the base fare only. I agree it's pathetic at best, mainly cause the "compensation" actually requires you to spend money with them first before any compensation.

In regards to IFE being luxury: When AC prominently features their IFE in their ads, the pax has an expectation that AC lives up to the advertised promise and deliver. Simply put, you paid for the use of the IFE as part of your fare.

5% is an insult, not sure why they bother. The main problem seems to be communication, most of what happened was outside AC's control but its still no excuse. I would contact Andrew Yiu or grab some of the emails for AC management that have been posted around the board.

In the future, always take the points over discount.

It does seem bizarre that after all this time, and especially in recent years when AC claims to be working on customer service, that management is unable to work out proper protocols (and ensuring that employees follow them) for communicating with passengers when stuff happens. Most FF know that stuff happens that is beyond the control of the airline and its employees, but surely it isn't so hard to communicate what is being done.

A good example of how this worked well in my experience recently was when I flew SAN-DEN-YQR earlier this week. Our SAN-DEN aircraft had some sort of mechanical problem. The gate agent got on the mic right at boarding time and announced that there was a problem, that she was waiting to hear what the remedy would be, and that she was aware that some people would be worried about connections but that if you had a connection that the DEN people were going to reacommodate you (and put you up in a hotel if you had to stay overnight). She also mentioned that anyone who wanted to be put on the later flight she would rebook them right away. Five minutes later, she came back on and ran us through what was going to happen and when (aircraft swap and gate change). Yes, it was annoying that plane broke and it was worrisome that we might have to spend the night in DEN, but just being kept in the loop was helpful.

UA gave me a $200 e-cert due to broken IFE on a SMF-ORD flight.

[QUOTE=Touring;15757861]

New battery is installed and system is rebooted. Early in-flight, the IES of some rows - including mine - go on the fritz. They do a row-specific reboot which fixes some but not all of the malfunctioning screens. I let the FA know and nothing is done for a good 15 minutes. I ring the bell again and speak to the In-Flight Service Director and ask about what they are able to do. She goes to "look into it" and comes back within 5 minutes, hands me these blue customer relations cards and tells me "Sorry, there's nothing we can do". I tell her than on other flights, they have done a system reboot when this happens and she says that she is not willing to do this and walks away.

UGH the nightmare of AC somehow the IFE is just a disaster. Can anyone at the company do something about it????? I guess the answer is NO.

The 5% is just rude, write back and tell them you want a lot more. :mad:

They don't ask anymore. The default compensation form an IFE issue is 5% is economy 10% in business. If you write a letter rather than using the blue form you may do a little better.

I think AC woke up why give Aeroplan the money? better to get you to book a flight also lots of people forget the code or lose it so the discount % off are also good for that reason.
Since it was because of failed service you would assume AC might be actually feel sorry for the customer rather than insult them with a 5% offer.

When this happened to me on UA from SFO-SYD I was given 30% off with no strings attached. UA is much more generous when it comes to compensating their passengers and the 747 I was on didn't even have "on demand" service.

They could pull it all out and go back to the overhead screens like in UA Y.

or choose a different airline such as CX which has a superior IFE in both reliability and programming than AC.

go get an Android tablet or iPad!

Y is for AC customers has FT taught you nothing?:D
J class is for AC employees flying AC.
J is for Customers if they are flying UA.
go google the thread on "automatic upgrades"^

Do you mean the IFE, system that works so well on AC. My last two flights on AC the IEF did not work but i did get a 20% off cert.