Response I posted in thread on AC's treatment of FF but pertains here too;-

However last summer AC showed how good they can be. Long story short, I was going to PRG (Prague) via FRA from YYC. Mrs Isotopist was flying reward in J; YYC to YYZ to FRA to PRG. She left YYC before me to follow her route. Unfortunately my direct YYC FRA flight was delayed so that I would miss my flight to PRG.

The Concierge system worked wonderfully; the concierges meet my wife in both YYZ and FRA to make sure she knew my status and that she was OK. I was also meet in FRA to let me know my wife's progress. Afterwards we compared notes and agreed that we'd been well looked after.

I know that the concierge are for SE's (I'm SE and MM) but they way they also looked after Mrs. Isotopist (Comp E50) was exemplary.

Wrong. Anyone flying in International Business Class is supposed to be eligible to the Concierge Service.

http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelin...concierge.html

However, telephone access to the Concierge is restricted to SE only.

More like "should have been possible online".

With Eastern Canada IRROPS making for unfavourable travel plans out West today, child of SkyBLueSea was heading to the Big Smoke (YYZ) faced 3.5 hr delay - how dare AC even consider such a schedule upset :D

Anyway, as little SkyBlueSea was travelling on my AP account, stepped into the lovely YVR Concierge office, and with a most helpful Conc..., re-route shaved some delay time to everyone's general delight, given the circumstances :cool:

Concierges are NOT miracle workers, nor provide service over and above what is promised...at the same time, Concierges engage in a proactive manner that is no fuss, no muss.

Unfortunately, Concierges have significant limits arising from AC internal policy, so when the Rates Department refuses to respond, NOT much the Concierge can do.

Hard to value Concierge, yet, when one can avoid that face from little SkyBlueSea - you know how Millennials can be, well, Concierge worthwhile after all.

I was showing as AC*A on LHR-YYZ-SFO yesterday. They said my file was "locked" and they couldn't touch the FQTR/FQTV fields when I emailed them.

When I showed up at the LHR MLL, I started to explain it, and the lounge agent immediately jumped to "you can't earn miles when you fly on miles", and then proceeded to ask if I was using my orange card.

I handed over my SE card, her eyes widened, and the concierge standing behind her jumped in.

They couldn't fix it either, but he said he'd make sure there was a note on the file that I am SE (actually, the concierge I'd emailed said she would be doing that, but apparently not), and he walked me onto the plane to explain the situation to the SD (for meal priority).

I also emailed the concierge asking to stand by for an earlier YYZ-SFO flight, and to make sure this status issue wouldn't affect my priority. The reply stated that we were on standby, but the flight was booked full.

We were met on arrival in YYZ by a concierge who had to Y BPs for us on the flight, and asked if that was acceptable. We said no.

She then offered to walk with us through security and pre-clearance, and to sit with us in the lounge until they could see if there would be any misconnects or no-shows.

I basically told her that we did not need an escort nor did we want to monopolize her time, so she went out through regular CBSA immigration when we took the turn for US connections.

I received a phone call a bit later stating the earlier flight was delayed, so they didn't know yet. Then another one saying J was all there. So we took our earlier flight.

Was this the perennial flying on someone else's miles issue? My most recent such experience ended largely successfully when a Concierge in YYZ managed to do what none has done before - print me a BP that showed my status correctly and in full. (I was armed with Cow's FQTR/FQTV solution, but not sure if that's what the Concierge used). I said that the suggested solution came from FT, to which I was told "oh yes, we all read that".

But my companion's BP (same PNR) said Zone 2 (CC benefit) and I was allowed the 3 free bags (although I noticed later that the tags were printed with my companion's info, but the priority tags remained intact).

No, it was booked from my account, which is why everyone was so confused about it. The FQTR field showed my Aeroplan number, but it came out as AC*A, and while the concierges seemed to know what they needed to do, the system wouldn't allow it.

So instead, hours of their time was wasted. And not an insignificant amount of my time.

You made sure that your status wasn't actually revoked, right? :p

Still shows up on Altitude :p

My wife and I were delayed on the evening YYZ-SFO on NYE Caused by inbound delay, the 767 needed towed from the runway, then we waited for an incoming crew. Our connection to MEX on UA was reduced from 1h50 to 22min. The concierge in YYZ had arranged for the SFO concierge to ensure we made it. She boarded as soon as our door opened with our name on a sign. She power walked us to the gate. She kept her eye on us until we were physically on the UA flight.

The funny thing is, this is 100% the ONLY reason we even boarded the MEX flight. It had been booked on our most recent miniRTW, and we were planning to abandon this last leg.

Why didn't you just tell them you didn't want to fly to MEX and avoid wasting everyone's time?

We were on the fence leaning on abandoning it when when the concierge proactively found us in SFO we decided it was fate. Ended up being the right call. Saw the grounded Interjet Sukhoi Superjet 100 fleet in MEX, booked a $50 flight to Cancun, and had fun.

United surprised everyone in J with a full meal instead of just snack service advertised on the redeye. The pilot gave us a hand writen thank-you note on behalf of himself and the company. My buddy-a $30k/yr UA 1k is quite jealous.

Great experience with YYZ Concierge today. I was en route from YOW to SFO via YYZ. After arriving at the TB MLL, I realized I left a piece of clothing at security, which is before customs.

The lounge agent suggested I call the Comcierge Desk to see if they can grab it for me and bring it to the lounge. And that's exactly what they did! Saved me the trouble of exiting the pre-clearance area and going back through security / customs. Very thankful. :)

I love that they're more proactive than TripIt (where is my TripIt notification???).

But...

1. RMKS/DELAY DUE LATE INBD ACCT MTC FIN682 AUTO PILOT ISSUE XYYZ

Weather???

2. Are those lounges going to be open? I'm pretty sure Centurion closes 2230, and I wouldn't get there too early for a 0040 flight.

Things seem to be getting more proactive on the concierge side. Two weeks back had the LAX concierge call me to tell me the LAX-YYZ was delayed 1.5hrs and I could stay in the lounge. Call was made quite early and I was actually in another lounge in another airport :-) but appreciated the heads up.
Last week SFO concierge called to inform me that my flight was closing and I had not yet dropped off my checked bag. I had elected for one checked bag during the OLCI process but changed my mind but again appreciate the diligence.
Oh and I hate the current AC gates/terminal at LAX, hope the upcoming move is too a better option.