aircanada_loyal

I fly to and from YOW every week. Every AC personnel I have met at YOW has been professional and super-nice. AC personnel @ YOW, in my opinion, are substantially better than at other airports, EXCEPT for a recent experience.

I booked a T+ ticket, YOW-YYZ-YHZ. It was MUCH cheaper than booking the direct YOW-YHZ.

I had no bags to check-in. I asked at check-in agent of the possibility of a seat on the direct YOW-YHZ flight which was leaving in an hour...the agent said to ask at the gate. I proceeded to the MLL, and the agent also suggested of the direct flight. I went to the gate at T-35, and the agent rudely said "I only check-in passengers, and do do not deal with passengers like you who do not have a BP...go to customer service near gate 15". I arrive at CS, and there are literally 10 passengers in line, but no one for a departing flight at a nearby gate . So, I politely ask the GA, if it's possible to get on the direct flight to YHZ, I'm a SE, and I have no bags...his response shocked me "You have been told twice what the rules are, so why are you bothering to ask me..pay $75 and I will give you a seat". His response shocked me.

Yes, before FTers, get to any conclusions, I understand there are rules, but if you have a flight that's leaving in a few minutes with empty seats that will leave empty, and a passenger who has no checked-in bags is going to the same destination why can't you be courteous and offer an empty seat to him/her. If, at anything, I was freeing up space on two flights for AC, YOW-YYZ, and YYZ-YHZ. AC could sell these seats, or do whatever they want to do with them. This is a win-win situation.

Other airlines do this frequently, and it makes sense. Why not AC? Thoughts?

yvr76

This is exactly the reason why AC has change fees, so we don't try to game the system.

If you're trying to do a same day change then be prepared to pay $75. If AC wanted this to be waived for SEs, then it would be a published benefit. I've had it waived for me one time, but I never expect it to be and I never try to coax them into doing so.

gglave

Because AC has done the calculations and has determined that they can do this without losing their SE's business.

Or, to put it another way, you're an SE: Does this rule + the rude FA mean that you'll definitely move your future business to WestJet / AA (+ Porter?) or does it mean your flying patterns will remain the same?

If the latter, well that answers your question.

skofz

Yeah, this attitude never ceases to amaze me. Here you have an opportunity to leave the customer thinking "wow, AC is awesome", for the cost of 15 seconds of punching keys on the computer and printing a new BP. Instead you p*** him off and have him posting on FT about how miserable the airline is.

KenHamer

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.448 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

The solution of course is to go to the MLL (twice) and consume copious amounts of food and beverage.

Away from YYZ

Cuz (most) AC staff don't give a crap about customer... It is not like they will get a raise or even some recognition. Plus they have union on their back... Not very surprise.

canfly15

I have also been surprised at AC's reluctance to let people switch to an earlier flight without the change fee if there are empty seats. As aircanada_loyal noted, it seems like a win-win if it opens up other seats that they then might be able to sell. I don't see how this is gaming the system. Most US airlines are far worse than AC for almost everything, but I have found they are much more flexible about putting you on an earlier flight, regardless of what class of fare you have. If there are empty seats on an earlier flight, they seem happy to fill them.

The Tsar

Same thing happened to me trying to connect YVR-YYJ an hour earlier than my booked flight, since my YOW-YVR flight arrived early and I could make the connection. This USED to be a snap, no fee, and a cheery exchange of boarding passes. I was told $75 and demurred. We got into a conversation and the AC staff said they themselves would quite willingly make the change but that they had been told explicitly NOT to do it on pain of punishment, but to charge the fee. They have no latitude in this. This is what Ravinescu calls 'empowerment' I suppose. Ridiculous. It frees up seats, makes happy passengers (I am Elite) and the AC staff feel good doing you a favour. Always grab for money, and to hell with the customer is AC management attitude. I wonder how many pay the $75 fee?

Away from YYZ

+1

I understand there is empty seat, but if everyone start doing things like this, who has higher priority?

In this case, rule is rule. But I dislike their attitude.

wolvie007

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9900; en) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.391 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Interestingly, I've run into a few agents who used to be lenient but over past 12 months have changed. One is a friend now and claims that AC corporate watches all system keystrokes and they are called to explain any change outside of company rules. There are some nasty agents as well who don't give a crap but for many, it seems like they are afraid for their jobs even if it means p*****g off the customer.

OttawaMark

While I understand the sentiments in this thread, here is how I would look at it from the position of the OP:

I can save a lot of money by flying YOW-YYZ-YHZ rather than flying YOW-YHZ. If I can then make a same day change at the airport for only $75 I'll get to YHZ a little earlier AND still save a lot of money over the direct YOW-YHZ fare even taking into account the same day change fee.

Essentially AC is giving you three options:

YOW-YHZ at an expensive price
YOW-YYZ-YHZ at a much cheaper price
YOW-YHZ (with space available, of course) at a much cheaper price +$75.

I've used a similar strategy myself. In days gone by I've traveled YOW-YYZ-YHZ on cheap Z fares. Such fares meant no stopover in YYZ. So I would book evening flights YOW-YYZ-YHZ and go to YOW early in the day. I would pay the same day change fee and get an early flight YOW-YYZ and have some time in Toronto.

The $75 change fee was far cheaper than a ticketed stopover in Toronto.

zorn

Gate agent was rude.

You were cheap.

Flews

Bingo. And in my own case, I finally concluded SE was not worth being treated this way, so I cut my ties with it.

Cheers,

annehamnitz

Recently had 3 aeroplan tickets London (Ontario)-Toronto-Ottawa.
Was very pleasantly changed at no charge to an earlier and direct London-Ottawa flight.
We have no status. Just said please and thank you.

Tedgrrrr

I don't think "cheap" is the correct word. I refuse to pay the $75 out of principle unless I get a change from UA to AC out of it.

Incidentally, on US I keep a rough tally in my head of how much money they've saved me by waiving fees: i.e. free same day changes, ignoring a suitcase which is 55 or 57 lbs (since US is only 50 lb limit for *G), free emergency exit row at check-in, etc. and I try to reward them by booking personal J flights to "pay them back.". In other words, my thinking is "They saved me $350, I wouldn't usually pay for J for personal travel, but I'm going to since they've saved me $350, and J is only $375 more" sort of thing.

I still can't believe AC is oblivious to this sort of thinking. From my experience and talking to others, and others on this forum, a lot of people refuse to pay the $75 out of principle. And in the OP's case, he would be better off going and spending the $75 on a nice dinner while waiting at the Airport, rather than doing the same day change.

What irks me the most (but is irrelevant now that the YVR domestic MLL has lost the mini-offices), is trying to take an earlier flight to YVR from YYC, even though I'll get to my end destination at the same time, and them demanding I pay the $75, as though it makes a difference to them - and if anything it prevents them from selling the seat on the later flight, and makes things more difficult for them should IROP situation develop.