superangrypenguin

Well he used to post more often but Andrew Yiu was one. Obviously Ben Smith was one. A few others as well. Their names are fairly obvious but they
have not publicly said so.

Ps. Hasn't Ben gone for more than a week? Sure has felt like it.

acysb87

There are more employees of AC here than we realize. I know of a few personally that post here and many more that follow this board.

acysb87

What difference does it make if Ben posts here or not?

superangrypenguin

Perhaps I'm lost with your query but I appreciate his insight and help on this board

EDIT: 2 weeks...(plus, if you were out of office, wouldn't it be nice to see people miss you when you came back?)

Amen!

YYT82

Well, in reality it makes no difference to your flying experience or the amount of money you pay, whether Ben posts here or not. The intangible difference his posting activity makes is that you get an explanation of the things you can't figure out yourself (e.g. ticketing rules, upgrade priority/policy, etc.). Unfortunately whenever he tried to do it, there are people here ready to jump all over him.

You can't expect Ben to solve all the problems at Air Canada. The corporation has too many internal issues to be solved by just one person. Disengaged and disgruntled front line employees openly defy company established policies (such as zonal boarding) with little to no enforcement from front line supervisors because they themselves are not aligned with higher ups. Upper echelon guys are too short-sighted and devise schemes to only increase near term profit while alienating customers, customers get pissed off and the front line employees take the brunt of the backlash, employees get pissed off at the higher ups...

Back on topic, Ben is only absent for two weeks. I have been off FT for longer than that and it hand' affected my life. I am sure he feels the same way.

SparseFlyer

Maybe Ben took an impromptu 2 weeks in UVF, YUL style

Hello again

If I was him I would have very little motivation to come on this board ON HIS OWN TIME just to take abuse. He has quietly helped many here off line resolve problems they have had.
.................................................. .
"You can't expect Ben to solve all the problems at Air Canada. The corporation has too many internal issues to be solved by just one person. Disengaged and disgruntled front line employees openly defy company established policies (such as zonal boarding) with little to no enforcement from front line supervisors because they themselves are not aligned with higher ups. Upper echelon guys are too short-sighted and devise schemes to only increase near term profit while alienating customers, customers get pissed off and the front line employees take the brunt of the backlash, employees get pissed off at the higher ups..."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I would take exception to your short term thinking comment and your disgruntled employees defying management. First of all, as some one who flies nearly every week to almost all corners of AC's world.I see employees gladly using the zonal boarding to stop the pushing and bad behaviour we used to see at the gates. All of whom I have asked have told me they like it and expect it to get better refined over time.
Calin and his team have been long range thinkers for some time now and didn't purchase all the dreamliners on a whim just to make a short term splash. Their planned moves to better the lot of FF'ers through better services is starting to take shape with new top tier lounges planned and other amenities to follow. Yes, the free rides are over but I was surprised they lasted as long as they did. At the end of the day the only short term thinking is to have good news a the end of each quarter and that doesn't happen on a whim either.

24left

Then you and I are not flying the same Air Canada. Not only are the zone boarding and bag measuring threads full of recent examples of these ideas not working equally across the network, I and others have heard otherwise regarding "liking" from employees.

It will not improve over time unless there is consistency of deployment. Part of this consistency will come from all staff following the same set of rules. Another part will come from fliers who will finally figure out how to read their BPs. The physical space at the gate gate areas are also a challenge as they are not all well-designed or set up to handle the lines for the zones, which is not ACs fault. Still, there is room for improvement.

canadiancow

I've never heard that phrase/story before, but it definitely describes a few people here.

Yeah, you'd actually be surprised how many SDs not only have FT accounts, but also post somewhat regularly (i.e. 3 digit post counts).

Also, Ben has been helping out in the background since before he changed his name to a green "Ben Lipsey". In March 2013, I posted a question in the R games thread. Ben sent me a PM to answer some questions. It might have been better that way, without anyone knowing he was around, so that he would be able to help, without being harassed by people who want to feel big on the internet.

rankourabu

Your would be very confused to find out not just the employees, but people are heavily invested with AC, post here (some even hide behind many multiple handles)

At least with Ben L - you knew to expect him to stick to the party line, and be heavily intoxicated on the AC koolaid, and as a corporate mouthpiece, its very understandable. He didnt hide who he really is, and what his purpose here is.

YYT82

Agreed. Ben has been helpful more often than not. Unfortunately when he ends up defending/explaining his company's positions publicly, (most of which aren't in his control), he gets jumped on right away. It's better for him to just stay in the background and help those who really seek help.

YYT82

I too fly on a weekly basis, and I would agree with 24left that I don't think we fly the same Air Canada. The air crew have been pretty good in my experience, but the ground crew (especially GAs) seem to make up their own rules as they go. Some stations do zonal boarding by the book, some don't. I have yet to experience zone 1 boarding strictly enforced on even one complete itinerary. You can look up other threads to find examples of frustrating experience that many have gone through with the ground crew.

The aircraft purchase example you brought up is a capital expenditure, and requires long term planning regardless of whether you have a short term or long term mindset. Short term measures to increase profit - nickel and dime each customer to increase ancillary revenue. Yes, it will always work in the short term, but once customers are well trained to avoid the fees, are they going to then introduce further schemes to nickel and dime? If there are competition in Canada, consumers would have alternative options and it wouldn't be so bad. The lack of competition and the nickel and dime is what frustrates customers because they don't have a choice. The ground crew whose job is to enforce the nickel and dime measures then get the brunt of the backlash. Vicious cycle.

bingocallerb22

Ah, come'on. "ON HIS OWN TIME". You are not really that naive, are you?

canopus27

I don't imagine he's paid hourly - just like, I suspect, most of us here - which is always going to make the question of "when is it your own time", complicated ...

But there are plenty of examples of Ben posting on weekends, and late at night ... a quick search found this one from 8:30am on a Sunday morning. That doesn't seem like it's part of a normal office hours schedule ...

SearsTower

Ben also responds to PMs after normal business hours. I really appreciated his comments. I also agree that maybe sometimes he was to loose with his words, but he is after all human. I really miss his regular comments, but understand why he has cut back.