yvr76

Earlier this week, I had to fly out last minute from YVR -> YYZ, with a connection to the States due to a family emergency - a close relative was in critical condition in the hospital.

AC108 that morning was delayed by almost 2.5 hours, and we waited at the gate until they could sort out the maintenance issues. I had opted for an LMU and when the purser came out to ask for meal selections I explained the situation and that I was worried about my connecting flight.

He kept me in the loop every 20 minutes, and when it was certain that I had missed my connecting flight he made some phone calls and called me up to the jetway. They had already rebooked me on a Delta flight in lieu of having me wait the next morning for the next AC or *Alliance route. A paper ticket was waiting for me in YYZ, with several backup options ready too.

When we finally arrived, I had missed the Delta flight as well. An agent that was previously made aware of my situation met me at the gate (she had to track me down as I already ran off), had my bags pulled, with a runner to take them to another flight, arranged another boarding pass, escorted me to the gate personally, and confirmed my bags were on board.

I'm very grateful by the concern and effort everyone at AC went through for me through this ordeal, and I was able to make it to the hospital later that evening.

payam81

Wow, almost unheard of on this forum, specially since you're just an AC*P.

There are some gems working for AC and if the Sun, Moon and stars line up and one has the opportunity to encounter these people, it could mean some of the best commercial flying experiences possible.

Hope the emergency has a good ending.

yyznomad

^^^

Always nice to hear these good stories. Kudos to AC and DL. Hope everything worked out ok for your family.

mattm00se

Sounds like a good job all around!...so out of curiosity.. AC agent escorted you from T1 domestic all the way through T3 transborder? Via the skylink?

Did they give you your bags to take through T3 pre-clearance or did they go straight to the plane?

yvr76

I had wound up in the baggage transborder pickup area, and the agent tracked me down there (from what I understand, she followed a trail of agents I spoke to from my arrival gate, to the customer service desk etc.). At that point she had redirected my bags from transborder to domestic so I wouldn't have to pick them up, I got back to domestic (had to actually clear back through CDN customs since I had been in the transborder area for all of 5 minutes), and I flew out from there. She was with me each step of the way.

yvr76

Yes, my relative is out of the woods, and we're all hopeful for a full recovery. ^

mattm00se

Ah okay, so you ended up flying AC and not delta? But you still never cleared US customs on the way to the US?

yvr76

My original route : YVR YYZ DTW. I missed the last YYZ DTW from AC and they rebooked me on a Delta flight (I'm assuming this would have cost them $ ?)

When I got into YYZ I had missed the Delta flight as well. They rebooked me YYZ YQG. Winsdor was pretty much the same distance as DTW to the hospital except you have to clear customs through land.

Because I had stepped into the transborder baggage area to pick up my bags I was already in the pre-clearance zone. In fact, when I tried to leave (30 seconds after I walked in) to talk to a customer service rep. they would not let me. At that point the AC agent had tracked me down. She redirected my bags to domestic, and I had to 'clear' through Canadian customs (in lieu of clearing US customs). She then met me on the other side of customs and took care of my YYZ YQG flight. We actually had to grab my bags from the domestic carousel (where they were transfered to), and then she called a bag runner to take them to the YQG flight.

If the agent had found me a minute earlier and I had not stepped into pre-clearance, then I wouldn't have had to clear Canadian customs.

The whole thing was quite an ordeal (especially given my state of mind at the time) but it was handled very efficiently.

Yukonprince

Good to hear both how AC helped you and that your relative is ok!!!!

Tangoer

While using a LMU into "Executive Class" or "Executive First", may one may use of the Concierge services?

payam81

Executive First customers, a.k.a International J/C, can use the concierge service but they are prioritized after AC*SE (in any class of service) and, in AC's words, VIP Guests.