durberville

I was trying to fly out of YGK to LAS, via YYZ today. Unfortunately, due to soul-sucking fog, everything was on a rolling delay/cancelled. Recognizing that I wasn't getting out that night (nobody else realized it yet and were patiently waiting for the inevitable doom), I brought up the VIA Rail Protection arrangement to the AC agent. She said 'no prob' and told me to just show my bp to the VIA Rail agent. Really, that simple? No FIM?

I went to the Kingston Train Station, and within 3 minutes, using my Bps, had tickets on the train going to Toronto! Unfortunately I still missed my connection to LAS and will be getting it tomorrow, but with my insurance, I'll have a good night in YYZ

So yeah, good experience with the AC-VIA Rail Protection Agreement.

PLeblond

I did not know that existed. Thank you for sharing.

24left

Thanks for sharing.

aircanada_loyal

Thanks for sharing, but sorry to hear that you missed your flight!

Did VIA give you business class?

superangrypenguin

Does anyone have more details on this? This could have saved my hiney a few weeks ago!

rehoult

http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelin...p_viarail.html

superangrypenguin

Thanks! And thanks to a certain person for the PM too about this!

pitz

Any idea if the opposite exists, ie: a long-haul VIA trip is cancelled (say, Edmonton to Prince Rupert -- a trip that I hold a reservation on for the summer) -- can a VIA ticket be taken to AC for the trip? Or even more recently, with the Toronto-Winnipeg trains being cancelled -- can those tickets be taken to AC for a flight?

The online literature makes most of its references to taking the train if the plane is unavailable, but what if it is the train that is unavailable? I haven't been able to find any details of the "agreement" that works in reverse.

shaner82

This is good to know. I'm flying YGK-YYZ-ATH in May, so if the weather is bad I'll keep this in mind. I'd hate to miss my flight to Athens

pitz

How bad could the weather possibly in May that you would somehow be advantaged by taking VIA over waiting an hour or two for the thunderstorms to dissipate?

yyznomad

I still learn something every day here on FT. ^

Geoflying

Looks like you're stuck with AC for the rest of the journey though

iceblueshoes

It's cause you didn't use the train
Only VIA Rail can cross the Atlantic. They don't call the train the "Ocean" for nothing

Seriously though, I think this may only make sense within Ontario and Quebec. Maybe to a lesser extent for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, but still nice to see one has an extra option.

Perhaps out west this could work b/w BC and Alberta, which infact might be a good thing if you're not too pressed for time since you'd get to see the Rockies.

24left

^

drvannostren

This is interesting, didn't know it existed either. It's probably not gonna help many people but it's a great way for AC to be able to calm things down after a cancellation or two. I would've loved if we could've gotten our employees from YQY/YHZ to YQM via train perhaps, not sure if it exists though.

Also, this is useless for those of us out west I'd think.