jc94

Well it's sucks but hopefully your Mom appreciated the trip. Mines in Spain somewhere currently :P

And at least you got the train, last time a colleague was trying to fly YXU-YYZ for a connection and weather cancelled 6/8 flights he was told Via wasn't an option unless he wanted to pay. They preferred to move everything on an entire day. Then tried various routing to YYZ via YOW, or my personal favourite was via YVR. This was paid J.

Clearly in this case, status matters. Do let us know what AC offers if possible.

canadiancow

It's not even so much "status" as "concierge".

The res agent who called me was clueless. I definitely mentioned being Super Elite at least once. That's what had her offer "Monday". It was like she expected me to say "oh I guess I won't go". Which is funny, because that would be Trip In Vain, and I'd want to be sent back to SFO, in J, and given a full refund

But yes, I'm not convinced an E75K MM would have been able to do this nearly as easily. Or at least, they would have had to do it themselves. And therefore, they'd have to know how.

But yes, I'll report back when I hear back.

expert7700

It's interesting that AC Concierge even had to issue you a VIA ticket. And much more surprising that jc94 above mentioned AC refused to issue them a VIA rail pass.

From the articles I read, it is already built into AC's contract that AC tickets can be exchanged by anyone/anytime for VIA tickets and vice versa.

In your case I'm sure that since your flight was cancelled so far in advance, no boarding pass meant you had no acceptable voucher otherwise.

I'd have totally done the trip-in-vain, carryover carryback and paid for a car or train ticket Or at least had them list you as standby for Y cabin to see where your name showed up on the list.

Here's the link I had found:
http://dcta.boardingarea.com/2015/04...ion-agreement/

canadiancow

I don't know if she had to. But it certainly saved me time.

Trip in vain would suggest immediately flying back, no?

I think you'd be hard pressed to declare trip in vain when you have an ex-YYZ flight at 0855, but say you can't make it there by then

expert7700

Yeah, trip in vain wouldn't have worked, unless you could have cut your trip short by not flying the middle pair of flights (so train or car both ways). I don't think turning on the very next flight to SFO would have been necessary. Especially if you hung out at the connection city as long as possible to see if a reroute option opened up that would still get you home on your booked return flight schedule.

Biggest problem when I declared trip in vain was that nobody at airport or call center was empowered to immediately confirm they would be refunding. All they could do was say it looked like I was eligible and notate my PNR, telling me to contact refund dept later.

I am sure Aeroplan's first offer would have been to calculate % of journey flown in miles vwrsus miles originally ticketed.... and refund like 1000 out of 50k miles. So train ticket may not have been so bad.

pitz

I've not heard of "vice versa" being true, that VIA tickets are exchangeable into AC tickets.

Are people entitled to a refund of AIFs/NAVCAN/etc. if they end up taking the train on an AC ticket rather than flying through an airport?

canadiancow

I doubt it. Those charges are not collected or refunded when you SDC or hit IRROPS that result in a different all-air itinerary.

SparseFlyer

:O I wonder...

But I dont think so though. Id assume AC woukd treat it as any regular IRROPS and not refund if you get routed out of YYZ?

What I'm really curious to know is if I see that my flight is cancelled / delayed ahead of departure, can I just go straight to VIA and board?

Also, if I'm departing from YUL, do I HAVE to depart from the VIA station at YUL? Or can I just stay downtown and board at station centrale?

Same from YYZ to YUL. Do I need to get off at YUL YUL or can I get off at YUL downtown? IIRC the train that goes to downtown stops at YUL airport anyway.

karlpenney

A few months ago I booked YHZ-YYZ-YGK for Feb 29 that was to get us to YGK in the morning. With recent schedule changes there is now just one late night YYZ-YGK flight on that date. I asked an AC agent if we would be able to use our AC tickets to take VIA from Toronto to Kingston instead, but she didn't know. My son has used the VIA agreement a couple times recently due cancelled flights. I'm wondering if it can also be used for a schedule change situation like this one?

SparseFlyer

This is a really interesting question, and I'd like to know the outcome.

My guess is no, on the premise of technically requiring a FIM which is issued under IROP not SKCH. Maybe if you leave your ticket as is and "find out" on the day of?

canadiancow

Do you need a FIM?

I had an actual train ticket handed to me by the concierge, but I was doing YYZ-YGK-YYZ on the same day and the latter was the cancelled flight. But I was pretty sure you could just trade your boarding pass. If my flight is cancelled, I'm not driving to the airport to get a FIM, then driving to the train station. I'm just going to the train station.

karlpenney

I don't think a FIM is required. When my son's YGK-YYZ flight was cancelled a couple weeks ago he simply traded his AC BP for a VIA ticket at the train station. I will try to check with VIA to see if there are any restrictions.

yyz_consulted

Does one receive AQM, AQS or AQD for segments that were completed by VIA?

Jagboi

You should be able to ask for an original routing credit and get the miles.

sokolov

There is no passenger rail at YQY, and YHZ-YQM runs only three times a week. It's also a bit of a trek from YHZ to XDG (that's the IATA code for Halifax's train station). You may be better off going to the next stop on Truro, but then I don't know if you can board there with your AC boarding pass.