Just curious, does this form work better that the email address in the Super Elite priority contacts section of the Altitude site?

I sent an email several days ago and have received no response.

I find they're really starting to listen to things I send in. Two years ago, it was "Thank you for your feedback. We strive to be the best airline blah blah blah".

Now I get something clearly written just to respond to my issue, and they've even started throwing miles around. Not many, but then again, for the issue I wrote in about, more than I expected :p

Sent an email to [email protected]. Received a reply from Aeroplan_Superelite referring me to AC Customer Service.

I've had the same experience - thought it must just be me! No idea why aeroplan would be the recipient. And by the time aeroplan got back to me, it was too late for concierge assistance (I was hoping something would happen while I was in the air).

I received the same response from Aeroplan shortly after I emailed that address.

Fortunately a rep from Air Canada got back to me today. Hopefully they can sort out this Concierge call centre, and make the experience between the call centre and the airport stations a bit more seamless than it is now.

Got good service at YYC a couple of weeks ago. I was flying to BRU through YUL. My wife, coming from BOS, was joining me. She was booked on two rewards, BOS-YYZ, followed by on the second ticket YYZ-YUL-BOS.

There was a warning for BOS on that day, so I suggested she get them to switch to BOS-YUL. As you would expect,, the BOS people, who apparently were nice, just moved her to that flight but left the second ticket unchanged and she would have shown as a no show at YYZ.

I talked to the concierge at YYC, who immediately understood the issue and cleaned up the file for her.

A letter in the March AC Inflight magazine gave thanks to an AC concierge who held a YYC-YYZ flight for her mother, and "rearranged things so that her connecting flight from YVR would be the gates directlty across from each other".

Hahaha good luck with that.

I had a pilot request a gate change for me once. They did not change the gates :p

I certainly doubt a concierge could make that happen just to make a connection easier.

They saved my co-worker's bacon last night when he left his iPhone in the front pocket on the plane. It was quickly retrieved and handed it back to him that same night! Kudos to the staff.

Uh, that probably has more to do with it likely being the last flight of the night for that aircraft, and AC not having good grooming standards, which enabled the quick retrieval. I once reported a lost item several days after I left it on a flight, gave AC the flight number and where the item might have been left at, and within less than a day they found it. I think it tells you how well the planes got cleaned. :p

I have come to the conclusion that unless you have some suck-up-in-road with some concierge staff (which many of you here have, so more power to you), they are simply over-glorified helpers that are constrained to SOP and are unwilling and unable to assist a 6-figure AQD spend 2MM perpetual S100K.

The young concierge staff are the worst. They are so regimented and anal in SOP they don't undertand the concept of "value-add" and "client perception".

A little goes a long way. Either the new concierge staff are poorly trained, or AC is doing a good job enforcing their rules to a point of negative perception.

When you get a really young one and have a "favour" to ask, suggest they get the senior concierge to listen. They don't break the SOP but know how to work around it generally. Of course, as an SE, you cannot ask that a Tango fare be upgradable and expect a positive answer!!:p
They have also been taught on how to deal with the "dykwia" types that seem to always show up at their office

I don't do Tango. 99% of the time it is DZPYBOEN fares. Once in a blue moon I will do Flex Fares.

My point was, look at the big picture. AC should do some training in knowing your best customers and apply value-add responses as such.

I don't disagree, but keep in mind that AC pays new concierges < $15/hour ($13.50/hour at YYZ IIRC).

At that rate, I'm actually surprised AC manages to find semi-friendly, semi-competent employees to do the rather stressful and sometimes challenging concierge job(at least compared to other front-line service jobs).

Youwon't find many employees earning marginally more than minimum wage who understand the concept of "value-add" and "client perception"; and even if you do, they have very little empowerment.

Many of the more senior concierges are awesome and understand the value of maintaining relationships and how towork the system.

The new concierges are more like dedicated SE CS agents.

I wasn't being personal, just a general comment from things I have seen go on in that office at YYZ and stories I have heard from the more senior ones I have known over the many years of stopping in there.