pych

Just returned from YQB last week with the family. When departing for YQB I tried to use the AC gift card to pay for our baggage fees (travelling with an infant, I felt like we brought along our whole household) and there was no place to use it.

Decided to try it at the the counter on our return and when I tried, the CSA laughed and said something to the effect that she would have no idea how to apply a gift card and that I would need good luck to find an Air Canada counter anywhere that would take a gift card as they have no idea how to do that!

Decided to take a look at the AC website and lo and behold:

http://www.aircanada.com/en/giftcard/faq.html#faq:4-5-*

Seems like this whole gift card thing is useless. If AC sends me a $50 gift card as compensation and I cannot actually use it in the way I would use other gift cards what is the point. Just send me a flight voucher then! Nevermind the fact that you advertise something on your website that the CSA aren't able to do, which is what I complained about at first and for which I received the gift card AC seems to be an irony rich airline!

gdoucet

Dear sir,
Your situation was brought to our attention in YQB. Unfortunately, the acceptance procedure for gift cards seemed to be unknown to some of the staff. Rest assure that this has been rectified since. Should you travel through YQB again, we will accept your gift card with pleasure.
We are truly sorry for the inconvenience it may have caused you.
Station Manager

The Lev

Merci!

Geoflying

This is scary - I bought my son a gift card to pay for his checked baggage fees when he flies home from University YHZ-YYZ

I hope he does not have this experience there (or when he does OLCI)

canadiancow

I figured I'd try it for my flight to see if a gift card came up as an option. I said I have 4 bags, and it said to proceed to the counter to pay any fees

RCyyz

Fast response from the Station Manager @ YQB. ^

One hopes this isn't a station by station incident though. AC may want to refresh everyone on the procedures.

margarita girl

These stories make me cringe.

Since this was gdoucet's first post, what makes you think this was a fast response? In my experience, Air Canada and fast response are oxymorons. In contrast, complaints to UA submitted in the morning are usually responded to in the same day. Once, I asked for a quick response and got it 12 mins later. ^ The day AC gets back to me in 12 mins, I will switch 100% of my business to them.

canadiancow

Use Twitter?

The only time United ever responded to me same day was for a "delay verification form". Complaints and other issues have not been solved in 24 hours.

Were your messages sent to a special 1K desk?

margarita girl

Yes, there is a 1K email address. Since I went from 0 to 1K in only a few months, I guess I don't know the response time for the other Premier members. What is your average response time?

As an SE, I never got a response back from AC in less than 12 hrs. Have they improved?

(I don't do Twitter. Isn't that a public forum anyhow or can you send private messages and get a private response back immediately?)

canadiancow

The response time for UA to foreign *G is at least a few days. Better than AC to their own members, but certainly not "12 minutes".

On Twitter, you just publicly tweet them and ask them to follow you, and then you can send them a private message. It's brare to wait 12 minutes for the initial reply, and you'll absolutely get something same day.

Is it reasonable that we have to go to Twitter for those response times? No. But it's available if you want it.

CanuckFlyer

margarita girl, private communications are possible, fast, and easy in Twitter using a "direct message" to anyone who is following your Twitter account.

I had a phone agent at the SE desk refuse to accept an AC gift card a couple of days ago. I was trying to pay a change fee and was informed gift cards can't be used to pay fees. Stuck by the fact that this seemed like something AC would do, I opted not to argue.

pych

Thank you for the response! Much appreciated!^

Same happened for the wife, since she was also checking in a car seat which is free. Dropped her of at YYZ and she was not allowed to go in the Baggage Drop but sent over to ticketing, where it took about an hour for the one CSA to take care of everyone in front of her. They sure make it hard to take your money.

Reread the Gift Card policy and it seems that it won't work on OCLI. I'm new here but have been creeping for a while and noticed how much FT's love AC IT. Guess this is another one where something otherwise simple is not that simple.

jasdou

Can one use a gift card to pay for preferred seating when doing OLCI?

canolakid

not to get side tracked but I will- Your 1 day experience in UA response coupled with my 3 month seemingly never ending refund request with UA intl/refund/customer care/intl/refund... desks gives UA an average response time of approx 45 days... based on our n of 2.

Re the AC gift card- glad to know it appears to work on site vs only online. All I have ever received is a 'virtual' voucher vs physical card version so never had expectations of using it at the airport.

alc

I know you can pay before hand on Manage Booking as I did it before with a coworker.

So if you do plan to pay for the seat but not available during OLCI, you can also go to Manage Booking and do it before hand.