A couple of wks ago, I was travelling home the pacific west coast from St. John's Newfoundland on a latittude ticket upgraded to business class. Wife was travelling with me (a rare occurrance) on a business class aeroplan reward ticket. Plane departed St John's for Toronto 35 mins late, jeopordizing our connection to Vancouver. However, with a little airport sprint we arrived at the departure gate in YYZ before aircraft for YVR started boarding. Even had to wait 5mins! When boarding, it was discovered that my wife had been offloaded so we were sent to customer disservice for assistance. We were told that since her checked bag could not make the connection, she was offloaded and would have to wait for the next flight, jeopordizingng the connection to the island. I was asked if I wanted to proceed on my own???!!!

These tickets had been booked well in advance of our travel date, although we had to change our return date so we cold attend the funeral of a friend. For this, a change fee of approx $400 was charged for the two tix. Air Canada no longer allows free ticket adjustment for bereavement travel if traveling domestically.

A very caring service director on our next flight took our complaint forward and a few days later I had a call from AC. As I had suspected, my wife had been offloaded from the flight as it was oversold and the lowest revenue passengers are bumped first. No consideration that the ticket had been booked from my aeroplan acct; in fact the excuse is that her ticket had a different booking reference so how would they know they were linked!

I have travelled 1.75 million miles with AC and have been SE for the last 8 yrs. In fact, I have already travelled in excess of 150000 status miles this yr.
WJ does not fly from my point of departure yet but I can't wait until they do. AC does not seem to be able to improve their customer service and just when one thinks it can't get any worse..............

We did get a little "compensation." a travelvoucher for future travel on a AC flight for the $400 we paid to change our flights. Nothing for the inconvenience of the forced delay or the frustration of how we were treated.
There is also no committment this won't happen again.

It's not just because she's "no-status" - I got kicked off YYZ-YVR (en route from FLL to YYC, upgraded J) last week I was told by the FA before we landed in YYZ, and when I called the concierge she said there was no chance for me to make my flight even though there was an hour left. She said my bag had to be on the luggage belt past customs 30 min before connection or I wouldn't be allowed to board, and that she would meet me there. I got to the belt at 29min, and didn't see her, and had to talk to her so I could get put back on to what she had said was an oversold flight. I finally walked back to the desk, and saw her sitting there.

And here's the kicker. I had to spend 30 minutes trying to convince her to put me on the direct YYZ to YYC flight that left in an hour. And she kept insisting I had to go through YVR or pay the change fee (upgraded J). I told her, "no, I paid extra to get a pod seat on YYZ to YVR, I'm not just going to waste time flying to YVR on a 319 or 320, when you have a direct flight to YYC." After 30 minutes, and consulting with another concierge she finally agreed to do it. It was strange how scared she was of AC. I felt bad for her. The other concierge though didn't seem to give a damn about AC or its stupid policies.

I ran into this 30 minute rule a few years ago connecting from FCO to YVR. We were directed into the line for rebooking. After waiting 5 minutes and going nowhere I spotted a moment when the Dragon's back was turned. I dropped our bags on the belt and we ran for the gate. Both we and the bags made the flight.

It's all part of the AC culture: We're not happy until you're not happy.

So true .... We had a situation 2 weeks ago with AC flying from Europe on LH (great) and then AC from YUL to YYC but the above stories are good examples so I will spare the reader our experience with its service.......

One piece of advice - when travelling with another pax on separate PNRs always call AC in advance and request they link the PNRs. Chances are your wife would have been protected on your original flight as they wouldn't want to offload an SE.

Last time I flown rev and my g/f was flying with me on an AE ticket; the agents insisted that they could not link the two reservations together because they where made at different times. I called twice and got the same answer with the second one sarcasticaly adding that I had already been told that (notes in the file it would seem)

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This is completely wrong. As long as it's an AC PNR, there is no reason why an agent can't link them. Doesn't matter if it's different channel, date, etc...so long as flights are all the same.

Indeed. My dad and mom have had their PNRs linked. Dad's AC*E and mom has no status however, when he books a revenue flight and books a reward one for mom, he subsequently calls and has the bookings linked. He then selects seats, special meals and all that extra jazz.

They can link even if the itineraries are not identical.

No sure I believe that. Might be true if in economy, and even then, if without a seat assignment.

Current rule being that passengers without a seat assignment get bumped first. (Read: people on tango who did not pay for a seat assignment.)

My take is, they offloaded her because they did not expect her luggage to make it.

The term "link" isn't as correct as "cross-reference" as separate PNR's can't really be linked per se but a remark can be added to one that you're travelling with somebody else and that locator can be given so staff see the other party.

BTW, title thread makes no sense. Issue is with AC, not Aeroplan.

Not that Aeroscam is any good though.

I am sure that they don't really care any more about pissing off an SE if there is a commoner involved. I have seen it first hand.

No one really cares about anybody nor anything anymore .....

Current rule also requires asking for volunteers first in any oversold situation.

And, since when does AC care if the luggage makes it with the passenger on a domestic connection?