Down in the trenches
Jul 28, 2002 | 6:58 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: YVR
Programs: AE
Posts: 869
Down in the trenches
Sorry, no link that I could find, but the following was in the Vancouver Sunday Province.
[QUOTE]Sunday's Vancouver Province: by Rick Cropp and Barbara Braidwood.
Reprinted with permission.
"How Air Canada employees face slavering hordes.
For a lot of Canadians, Air Canada bashing is almost a national sport.
We had a first hand look at the trenches recently and it gave us a better perspective on our national airline.
On our trip home, the Toronto airport closed for two hours because of thunderstorms. Chaos erupted with cancelled and delayed flights and some passenger's behaviour just wasn't pretty.
As we waited by the check-in desk, we had a ringside seat to an hour or so of Air Canada personnel battling the minions of darkness complete with black storm clouds and lightning silhouetting them through the gate windows.
A pack of slavering passengers strained at their luggage straps on the other side of the counter.
The ticket printer broke, a wheelchair didn't fit, the flight was overbooked, passengers tried to slide on to the plane ahead of others and everything that could go wrong did.
Through it all we marvelled as we watched J.M. (name witheld by Fax - initials correct) of Air Canada and her partner (Sorry, we didn't get your name) sort out the whole mess with aplomb and smiles. Lots of smiles. Never a raised or irritated voice, always helpful and somehow staying focused on the orchestra of people and machines they were conducting.
Yes, we were impressed. Not to be too Pollyanna-ish about it, Air Canada did a fine job of living up to the reputation of its name-sake country with personnel that were relentlessly nice as well as competent.
Now if we could just do something about some of those passengers." [/UNQUOTE]
[This message has been edited by CPYVR (edited 07-28-2002).]
[QUOTE]Sunday's Vancouver Province: by Rick Cropp and Barbara Braidwood.
Reprinted with permission.
"How Air Canada employees face slavering hordes.
For a lot of Canadians, Air Canada bashing is almost a national sport.
We had a first hand look at the trenches recently and it gave us a better perspective on our national airline.
On our trip home, the Toronto airport closed for two hours because of thunderstorms. Chaos erupted with cancelled and delayed flights and some passenger's behaviour just wasn't pretty.
As we waited by the check-in desk, we had a ringside seat to an hour or so of Air Canada personnel battling the minions of darkness complete with black storm clouds and lightning silhouetting them through the gate windows.
A pack of slavering passengers strained at their luggage straps on the other side of the counter.
The ticket printer broke, a wheelchair didn't fit, the flight was overbooked, passengers tried to slide on to the plane ahead of others and everything that could go wrong did.
Through it all we marvelled as we watched J.M. (name witheld by Fax - initials correct) of Air Canada and her partner (Sorry, we didn't get your name) sort out the whole mess with aplomb and smiles. Lots of smiles. Never a raised or irritated voice, always helpful and somehow staying focused on the orchestra of people and machines they were conducting.
Yes, we were impressed. Not to be too Pollyanna-ish about it, Air Canada did a fine job of living up to the reputation of its name-sake country with personnel that were relentlessly nice as well as competent.
Now if we could just do something about some of those passengers." [/UNQUOTE]
[This message has been edited by CPYVR (edited 07-28-2002).]
Jul 28, 2002 | 11:37 pm
#2
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: YYC: UA 1K, HH Dia, SPG Plat
Posts: 422
There are far too many pax and FF's who suddenly become rude ignorant boors because of a flight delay/cancellation and unfortunately take it out on the gate agents.
It's a shame but it's certainly not restricted to AC - I've seen it in every airport and with all airlines, especially in the summertime when they start shutting down airports all across the US because of a storm 2500 miles away! People just simply go nuts!
The story as written suggests that Canadians are acting that way simply because they dislike AC but that's an incorrect slant simply to get a story published, IMHO.
It's a shame but it's certainly not restricted to AC - I've seen it in every airport and with all airlines, especially in the summertime when they start shutting down airports all across the US because of a storm 2500 miles away! People just simply go nuts!
The story as written suggests that Canadians are acting that way simply because they dislike AC but that's an incorrect slant simply to get a story published, IMHO.