Adam Smith

A FOTSG friend of mine had his flight cancelled today. No automatic re-booking, and couldn't even get on hold when he phoned in. I suggested he drive to the airport. There, he was told to... pick up a phone with a direct line to central reservations. But at least there they let you get on hold!

AC needs to figure out some way of triaging calls, or having people at the airport actually deal with this stuff. I know many people are frustrated about their flights for next month or next week and trying to get them fixed, but it is absolutely messed up that they have people handling calls like that when someone who is supposed to fly TODAY can't do any better than being put on hold for God knows how long, even after driving to the airport.​​​

rankourabu

E35 line has called it quits.
We are unable to take your call or place you on hold.

Where are these supposed self service tools?? Flight is delayed, connection will be missed, yet everything is greyed out.

nomadic.relief

That's absolutely ridiculous.

Honestly, and I know this might not get a lot of support, but I think there should be a triage where you enter your PNR before even AE number, if it's >7 days out, recorded disconnect. And agents can only deal with 1 PNR per call, so you can't fool the system with a refundable near-in PNR. At least until things level out.

If ppl AT the airport can't fix this, I can't see another reasonable way forward *right now*. More staff is a brilliant thing to say, but that takes time. So apparently does hiring someone to fix the IT side.

HerpaYvr

Today I finally experience what so many have complained about already. My LH flight from IST to FRA became delayed, so I knew that was only the start and I was right, 20 minute delay became an hour and a half. I could not find a phone to use in IST to call AC and the airport staff who knew more than passengers because they work there, well did not and could not allow me to use a phone. So I had to turn on my Rogers phone, pay that $15 per day extra and then call long distance to Toronto and was on hold for over half an hour. Meanwhile, I sign up for messenger while on hold and finally got an account (i am not on facebook) only to learn they go to bed overnight, so that was a waste. I sent an email to the concierge and of course, they are busy and I support them.

I much rather fly AC J product than the LH A340 dated product. When they booked me it was a 747, Queen of the sky and I was OK with that as I choose 1K, front of the plane. I get to my hotel and it's a A340!!!!

I know, first world problems

yyznomad

So far as SE I've waited 30 mins each time in the past week and hung up.
I guess I'll need to put my brain back to E75-lowered-expectations mode from the past/pre-covid.
Now I need to find 75mins of time doing something else while in the queue.

Things like this exposes and amplifies AC's already-known weaknesses even more.
I feel for FOTSGs trying to get their stuff sorted out.

tomvancouver

As an E75 I also held today for 75 minutes, and used the time to make pastry for, and then filling for a chicken pie. Oh the joys of Bluetooth!i

yyznomad

I woke up extra early today to phone in and got through in 21 minutes.

D404

Imagine in you will: "If you are due to fly out today or tomorrow, and your booking requires manual intervention, please press 4. Please say or key in your record locator or ticket number now. Thank you, your info has been confirmed." The technology (term used very loosely) has been around for ages to allow this.

Or, like, a functioning rebooking system, I guess.

CanadianGnome

Ugh was on hold for an hour on the E75 line, call got dropped. The music just makes me angry now.

anishm

I called today as I couldn’t eupgrade a flight and I received the option to enter a callback number. Sure enough, AC did call back, even before they said they would and it took about 30 seconds to speak with someone. I’m not sure if this is just for SEs but definitely better than waiting for an agent.

Having worked in call centres before this is definitely a service customers like.

john2003

I spent over 2 hours yesterday to Air Canada and had to give up. Was never offered a call back. This morning I woke at 6 am PDT, called in and used the call back option. I then slept for another hour! Got callback about 730 am.

The agent was great so fixed my issue very quickly.

zappy312

Wow, they do actually answer the phone! Called the 75K priority line (option 3 for everything else) at 08:44 EDT, no call back option, but wrapped up the call after 53 minutes (the actual time with the agent was a couple of minutes, she was pleasant and took care of my eUpgrade request without issue).

stevendorechester

This is getting ridiculous. Trying to change an Aeroplan flight and I gave up after 30 mins on the phone. I wonder if AC executives or AC flight who have to dead head have to wait when they call.

What' s worse is that a lot of these changes could easily be done online but AC has decided not to allow this on AE tickets.

There should be laws forcing airlines that allow any ticket sold online to be changed online as well as a maximum hold time of 30 minutes wait.The technology is there. All we need is a law, with the penalty for non compliance being the immediate repayment of any taxpayer money. No other industry treats people this way.

Bohemian1

Not sure I get the whole oughta be a law or taxpayer money angle, but I do agree that changing AE flights should be more self-serve, at least for some things.

Some of this may be tied up in the actual way AE was implemented when they rolled out Amadeus, some of it may simply be the whole dynamic pricing thing. But you are correct that it's just compounding the problem of workloads directed to their call centre staff.

I also suspect it is no where near the predominant source of calls, nor does it impact the vast majority of the flying public. So the 80/20 rule most likely applies here when it comes to priorities for a 'fix'.

canadiancow

You mean, knowing they'd be entirely on 1A by the time it launched?

Like cash tickets?