Tedgrrrr

This thread is both a warning to those of you who decide to fly a companion with an Aeroplan ticket, or a ticket that was booked separately, as well as to serve as a rant against this despicable airline which I'm getting ready to sue.

Going to a wedding in Toronto with a new gal, looking forward to a nice weekend - booked Flex for my ticket, Aeroplan for hers. Call SE desk three times before booking her ticket, and three different SE agents tell me "Free same day change from LGA to YYZ applies to Aeroplan tickets." Should be safe?

Get to LaGuardia hours before our flight, and go the standby route. Get paged and told we'll be put on next flight, and get handed boarding passes. No charge for standby on her Aeroplan ticket- this is about 30 minutes before boarding starts. 10 min later, they page my gal, and I go to see what's up. They tell me, they had to offload her to make room for another passenger. I tell them, "Listen, we have a boarding pass, you can't just kick her off" - The lady says "tough luck, you can fly and she can join you on another flight." - I tell her "that's unacceptable" and she offloads us both off. There is another flight an hour later, so I don't make a big deal out of it. Though, they told me that my status would not protect my gal at all. That it was possible I'd clear on to the next flight but that she wouldn't and that there was absolutely nothing they could do. E.g. that she would not benefit at all from my status. Can you guys believe this?!?!?! Do they think SEs travel alone everywhere?!?! So then this thug employee, says "you'll probably make it on to the next flight, but Ms. **** probably won't, because there are only a few seats left", so you can meet her in Toronto." I'm like ...?!??!"

10 minutes after the first flight finishes boarding, the one which we were offloaded from, they page us again and give us new boarding passes. This time, they demand $75 for her Aeroplan ticket, same day standby. I say "Listen, we didn't pay for the last standby, which you involuntarily offloaded her from, how can you possibly make us pay this time - at the very least, you should waive it as a courtesy." The lady is the biggest @()#*@)#*(@ and makes the Newark people look like exemplary employees. She says "no" - and so I asked to speak to a manager. I explain to manager what happened, and he says that he has to charge us - I throw in the "three diff. SE agents told us that there is no fee for same day standby on Aeroplan, and that Aeroplan gets same day standby on Rapidair." - this piece of filth basically calls me a liar and says that SE desk would never say that. So we agree that I'll call on speaker phone. I ask SE agent (again, he's right there listening), "Can you please tell me, how much do we have to pay for a same day standby on an Aeroplan ticket from LGA to YYZ." Agent promptly says, "there is no fee, but it's best if you standby for an earlier flight, so I'd book a later flight, and then use the free same day standby to take an earlier flight if I were you" (her exact words).

So I'm happy, thinking, ok, this "manager" will take pity on the fact I was "misinformed" and will waive the $75, on that ground if nothing else. Instead, he takes my phone and tells the SE agent that she's mistaken. And, she actually hung up on him (lol). But he STILL REFUSES TO WAIVE THE FEE - disgusting. So I remind him again that my gal got kicked off the last flight, after getting boarding pass on the earlier flight (the one before this one), and he still insists on charging me. So I'm like whatever and hand him my Amex.

Today, we fly back from YYZ to LGA, same routine with same day standby. And, I ask FOUR different agents at YYZ, every single one says "Yeah you get free same day standby on Aeroplan to LGA". We had actually done the free same day standby for her AE ticket before I asked the last three, and i just asked three other agents for good measure to see if our first agent at YYZ was mistaken in not charging us, or whether the freaks at LGA were mistaken. With four agents at YYZ, and a total of four SE agents saying "Free same day standby on Aeroplan" - I'm pretty sure we can safely conclude that AE gets free same day standby.

So at issue here are three things: 1) A warning about buying spouse/gf/friend/family member an Aeroplan ticket, if you're flying on a "real" ticket, because apparently your status will not protect your AE guest at all. 2) A warning that even with a boarding pass they can take your seat away (or your guest's seat away); and 3) What compensation ought I to get?

The way I see it, I have three options. 1) Write in to AC , explain what happened, and demand a refund of $75 + compensation; 2) Call Amex and dispute the $166 in scam charges I paid along with the 15,000 miles for gals ticket, on the basis that three SE Desk agents defrauded me by "falsely" advertising "free same day standby on Aeroplan", thus leading me to pay the $166 for an AE ticket (rather than buying her a proper ticket); or 3) Filing a commercial claim against AC in NY City Court (one step above small claims).

The way I see it, #1 = no chance in hell at getting $75 back, or any sort of compensation. #2 = virtually guaranteed due to my Amex spend, and an invitation to the claims examiner to call the SE desk (i'll give him number), and getting him to ask whether buying an AE ticket includes free same day standby - this would be a slam dunk. #3 = waste my time, and i'd pay $30.75 in court costs, to win back $75 + interest, but AC would have to hire a lawyer, since a corporation can only defend themselves through a lawyer.

What say you?

Btw, I'm officially moving to UA as a result of this

upgradesecret

You (and your date) are victim of your own attitude.

lcohen999

Why not get the concierge involved?

They are usually great at LGA?

Seems like you got the short end of the stick today. Hopefully you will get more than 5%

jlisi984

And the 75 USD back!! I would dispute the charge on the AMEX, say that you never approved it.

@upgradesecret - who the heck are you and why do you always post such crap?!

Tedgrrrr

What attitude? I was completely polite, to a tee, if for no other reason than to make sure our bags didn't purposely get sent to Montreal, or elsewhere. All I did, was politely explain that three SE agents said "free standby" and then called SE desk in front of "manager".

I'm E*75 this year, not SE, I just got the SE Desk # from someone on this forum

This was last week - the return from YYZ was today, and they were great on the YYZ end.

Tedgrrrr

I did approve the $75 though. So I think I'm better off contesting the $166 (not because it's more money, but because I paid the $166 "scamcharges" with assurances that by paying 15k miles + $166 I would get free standby)

jlisi984

In the future you should ask for a concierge. Even if you're not SE, they usually take pity on such situations and are quite knowledgable...

farmerbrown

Hopefully some day it will be your turn! The same thing happened to me where my AE ticketed guest was offloaded and the agent wanted to know why I didn't want to fly ahead without her. Attitude is in plentiful supply at AC. Maybe you work for the company??????????

airbus320

This thread should get very interesting.

Doc Savage

Whenever you do something out of the ordinary, the chances that something will go wrong increase substantially. Just book a flight, get your tickets, and fly on the flight. Why try all the SDC stuff?

When dealing with low level employees, Keep It Simple, Simon.

Jasper2009

Did your GF receive a confirmed BP for the earlier flight or just a stand-by BP?

1. In any case, according to this Aeroplan site it would seem free same-day standby only is available on Rapidair flights, but not the LGA flights (if this is correct, the policies for LGA flights would be different for award and revenue tickets; I wouldn´t exclude the possibility that the AE just hasn´t been updated since the free same-day standby option for LGA revenue flights was introduced, but I guess nobody would know for sure)

2. Your GF not getting the same priority as you was not due to her flying on an award ticket, but rather because she wasn´t on the same PNR. It can help to have both tickets linked, but it´s no guarantee. This is pretty consistent with most airlines´policies: You need to be on the same ticket to enjoy the same priority on waitlists/upgrade waitlists, else you´re poretty much out of luck.

Tedgrrrr

Confirmed BP, not just standby. Initially we had standby, but then we got confirmed, and it was a few min later they paged her and ripped up her confirmed BP.

I know what you mean, but the fact she had a confirmed BP that revoked should have allowed her to jump some people, if necessary on next flight.

And who said "gf" - this trip was our 2nd, 3rd and 4th dates

CloudsBelow

Exactly.
Can we assume OP's real flight choice was more $ and/or not avail for AP. So he calls AP a bunch to confirm rules then books less desirable (cheaper) flight to play the SDC game.

Doc Savage

Brrrrrrr.... That is a Canadian Arctic chill....


Better hope she doesn't read FT!

Jasper2009

Well, if that was indeed the case then yes, somebody seriously screwed up and I´d have to pretty much agree with your frustration. If definitely sounds a little weird, but stranger things have happened.

Didn´t realize "GF" was offensive. Does she agree with not being your GF? I can think of various other titles, but I´m sure those would be equally offensive.