You could do either. The SE desk should be able to help, but there may be issues getting through right now.

Last night at 01:00est my YYZ-LAX flight was cancelled. I called YVR Concierge as I thought they would be the only one still available in Canada. They rebooked me in the last seat on the LAX flight this morning (whether that flight goes is another matter). The SE phone line was very backed up.

I'm really late getting this up, but the YYZ concierge named Grace was really helpful with me and Dr Hussar whilst on reward vacation 26 Dec - 2 Jan in ANU.

AC had re-assigned the priority seats I had requested at booking. They used re-sched as an excuse It was a matter of minutes, neither substantial nor even a change in metal. Not only were we on window and aisle around row 25, we weren't even side by side! I didn't even find out until on-line check-in.

AC and AP played the blame-the-other game, neither could / would sort it out. It took some time but Grace was able to get us back together. She put us on the UG list as I wasn't given the option on-line. <one J seat cleared at the gate, but I declined so that Dr H and I could sit together.>

I called back for the return flight because the check-in agent wouldn't put us on the UG list. It was Grace again; she remembered our prior discussion and helped once again.

It was the only time I have needed the service, but will miss it because I have dropped to 75K for 2014-15.

Okay, new question.

http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelin...concierge.html says:
But the Altitude Report today (along with anecdotal evidence from FT) says:
And when you call, after selecting a language, you get:
"If you are travelling today, press 1."

So can they help me with a restaurant reservation or not? Or only if it's on the day of travel? What if I want to make the reservation for a flight in two days? I highly doubt the SE desk (I'm assuming that's where that option goes) is going to get me a table.

Personally, I can't see myself using a concierge for anything that isn't related to flights, but they do advertise the service.

I assume you could send an e-mail to the concierge, but honestly I wouldn´t bother a concierge with anything that isn´t flight-related.

I´d also think the process would be less efficient vs. me just calling the restaurant myself; and I doubt they have access to any tables you can´t book yourself.

You obviously raise a valid point - I´d guess the feature is very rarely used by anyone, so they didn´t give it much thought. It may have been useful before everyone had a laptop / smartphone etc., but I honestly can´t think of a good reason why anyone would ask an AC concierge to handle a restaurant reservation.

I like the idea of 24-hour concierge service - although I guess this would be limited to major stations like YYZ/YUL/YVR (LHR/FRA?). I certainly hope it's not just for YYZ.

This is probably linked with the recent job postings for 8 new concierge positions at YYZ...

Very good point! But yeah, I can't see myself using it for that.

Even if you had to call YYZ, the ability to get in touch with someone at an airport is still a great service to have 24/7.

Or the fact that half the concierges in Toronto are either just regular agents or are just idiots.

I have had excellent experiences there, and very bad ones; depends on who's working!

I asked once or twice over the years about restaurants, or hotel bookings, and as much as they are apparently full trained concierge staff never had much luck. I had better luck calling a hotel I've stayed at in the past and asking them.

Great for flight situations, less good for other stuff.

On that note, I hear all of these changes are coming from a new Director of the program that AC has. Let's just see how much longer you're able to call an individual airport's Concierge office with this new phone system in place...

If AC eliminated the ability to contact the concierges directly, it would to a large extent eliminate the usefulness of the this benefit - one of the few benefits left where AC outperforms its competitors.

It seems the new system is designed to reduce the workload for concierges by re-directing any issues to the SE line that don´t necessarily need to be dealt with by the airport staff and cannot be handled by the general res line.

Since there probably are quite a few SEs who don´t really know when to call the SE line and when to call the concierge line (or to phrase it less politely: SEs who waste the concierges´ time), that´s fine with me.

I agree, it'd be a ridiculous change for them to make. One of the parts that was nicest was getting a hold of them directly and quickly.

I have already had the SE line tell me to phone back and push 1 when I am travelling the next day and needed to speak to a concierge. The agent at the end of the SE line acknowledged that the concierges have the ability to do things that we cannot. I just wanted to get on an earlier flight the next day from YYZ to LGA.

If they are making changes how about having the concierges actually provide some service to non-SE international J passengers as they are meant to do - rather than just making it very clear to us that we don't count.

Hah. I wonder what would happen if everyone began to ask the SE line for a restaurant reservation :rolleyes:

I agree that would be nice, but they've added a huge barrier. However, most phones can have contacts programmed with pauses, so just add ",1,1" to the end of the number and it will get you right through :)

If they want to improve the system, there are two things they need to do:

1. "Hello, I see you are calling from a number registered to an SE account whose language is set to English. Are you travelling today?"
2. "Hello, I'm not familiar with your phone number. Would you like English or French" - "Do you want to identify yourself with a booking reference or Aeroplan number?"

I think this IVR is a great first step in the right direction for keeping people away from concierges who don't have access, as well as ensuring access for those who are entitled.

But as was seen with the eUp issues, sometimes it's hard to implement a huge technical change at once. I have had no problems with the new system (not that I've used it much), so I can only hope they'll continue to improve it.

I don't see how the new system helps non-SE international J passengers as we are not given any SE phone numbers in the first place.

Why not have a central concierge telephone number for international J passengers where AC can check the locator and easily verify that you are indeed eligible for the service.

AC makes it as hard as possible for J passengers to reach concierges and then the concierges themselves are often dismissive to non-SEs if you do manage to track one down in an airport.

As I said in the two lines above the one you quoted, there are two other things AC would need to do. I think this is the first step in that direction. It doesn't help yet, but it allows for other changes to be made so that J passengers can access the concierge.

If they can secure the IVR, then they can make the phone numbers public.