CloudsBelow

2 colleagues arrive at GVA today to find their return flight is cancelled (AC 831 July 7).

These guys paid $7,500 each for full J. Disappointing to hear they were not made aware or proactively re-booked (though might have been too late?) Though they could have been rerouted to LHR to connect w/ AC859).

Guess I assumed full J would have some additional perks (I never pay/fly J), Is that not the case?

Told them I will help them go after AC for the 600EU they're entitled to as they're not getting out until tmrw.

The Lev

I think you answered your own question.

Paid full J with knowledgeable flyers does help - they insist on being re-routed rather than simply accepting the airline's preferred option which is to put people on the plane once it is fixed the next day.

Stranger

Even if in Z they have to rebook you in business if you insist.

They may offer you non-J alternatives assuming your priority might be to get there ASAP. But you don't have to accept them.

Jasper2009

IME business class pax and SEs get preferential treatment in that:

- there are typically two lines for vouchers/rebooking: one fairly reasonable line for J pax and SEs and one line for everyone else where you�ll often wait for hours
- they will often be accommodated in the nicer hotels
- AC will rebook them first
- AC may pay compensation "as a goodwill gesture" and not just flat out refuse compensation (regardless of whether pax are entitled to it)

For anything more than that (such as rerouting on other airlines, rebookings that include additional connections etc.) you�ll typically have to be a little proactive.

JTXC

My last flight (paid J travelling YVR-YYC-YWG) was cancelled with about an hour in advance. I found out when AC sent me a text message informing me of my new itinerary. Sadly my luggage did not come with me.

CloudsBelow

looks like GVA-inbound gated roughly on time. Must have found a mechanical issue and had to cnx.

I imagine the 763 fleet is super thin with some subbing in at SFO.

The guys are not impressed with the handling of this from AC. I let them know if the flight is cancelled around noon in GVA, there's not much that can be done to get back to NA this evening. Still stings.

yyznomad

The sad part is that you have to insist. Just sad.

yyznomad

On another note - I was booked on a Z booking to LIS via LHR back on May 30 of this year. My flight to LHR (it was either 856 or 848... forgot which one). To my surprise, the concierge called me to tell me the AC flight was heavily delayed and that I would misconnect on TP to LIS. She helped me rebooking a later flight on TP. It was a nice touch, but rare as he!l.

Stranger

Actually pretty normal for concierges to do that.

I have had a concierge calling me at home to let me know the later LHR flight was delayed and she had rebooked me on the earlier one. With my upgrade.

JTXC

And paid J would get first crack at J seats on the new flight. I gather this is one of the reasons why so many eUps do not clear until the gate. I probably caused a SE/E to miss an upgrade that day.

KenHamer

In my experience, on Air Canada, not at all.

My experience on other airlines in premium classes (US, UA, BA, QF) -- significantly.

yyznomad

Good to know... and good that I do not experience IRROPS enough to have to talk about this!

The Lev

Horsefeathers.

GVA-YUL leaves at 12:10 PM

There are a number of flights on BA and LX from GVA - LHR leaving in the afternoon that would have given them plenty of time to catch the 18:00 flight to YYZ - depending on how early they knew about the problem they might have caught a connection to the 15:00 flight.

They also could have been routed via FRA on the 17:00 flight - LH has a 13:35 or 14:55 departure from GVA which provide legal connections.

AC should have proactively protected J passengers on those alternates, but probably only did so for people who knew enough to ask.

Caveat: it is possible that the alternate transats or connectors were already fully booked. If that was the case, AC could have earned some goodwill by telling passengers that they checked the alternates but nothing was available.

montrealer

Sorry about your colleagues. I regularly fly paid J. In my experience, Air Canada is hit and miss in proactive rebookings in IRROPS. "Hit" enough that it often works quite nicely (esp. when concierge gets involved), but "Miss" enough that you can't depend on it. And whether AC or others, what they proactively rebook you on may not be what you want - I've had polite but insistent discussions on this in the past couple of months with BA, United, and (before) Singapore Airlines.
Therefore I think any semi-regular traveller would do well to
a) If they are willing to use roaming data on their smartphone, get an app like FlightTrack Pro that for the cost of a few bucks (one-off app purchase) lets you on demand find alternative flights with *real time* delays. (There are others, this is the one I happen to have on my iphone)
b) Download onto their laptop the offline version of eskyguide. The user interface is very clunky, but when things are messy the last you want to be dealing with is overloaded 3G and crashy WiFi login in airport lounges.
c) Proactively learn the latest intercontinental flights that are your backup. For Canada-Europe that's the 9:45 YYZ to FRA, 10:30pm (in Summer) YOW to LHR, or 11:20 YYZ to LHR, and the 6pm LHR to YYZ return (with the Virgin 8:30pm to EWR as backup though you then need to overnight there)
These discussions go much better if you are able to specify exactly what flights you want them to try instead of what they've rebooked you on.

ABG

There is always the ZRH-BOS route. The latest out of Switzerland to NA