smallmj

The torstar article is yet another example of bad experiences made worse by poor customer service. When the only way to get timely satisfaction from AC is through the media, then the AC brand is sure to take hit after hit.

imverge

Totally agree. Especially when you pretty much have EVERY media outlet in Canada reporting poor experience after poor experience.

smallmj

You also find out that as soon as the media gets involved things get fixed -- as they should have been fixed by the customer service people.

stevendorechester

I don't known why the CTA doesn't order airlines to pay IDB compensation in cases like this has the passengers didn't chose to be offloaded. If this happened to me I would just stand my ground at the ticket counter just to see what would happen in the post- Mr Dao era. Seems that escalating things on the spot is now the best way to get justice, given the media and the public's opinion about airlines.

Guava

CTA? They are going to tell you to get lost because you were never denied boarding to begin with unless you think check-in counter = boarding gate. More to the point, if AC tells CTA that your ticket was already cancelled or otherwise invalid in AC's opinion, that's all CTA cares. They are not going to question why it was cancelled or how it became invalid. AC's side of the story is all they care about. With all these national media talking about cancelled tickets, surely, there are similar complaints among the files they already received. Yet, did you ever read anything about CTA issuing any statement regarding this worrisome phenomenon? Of course not, they are deaf and blind until some Federal Government Minister or MPs knock on their door, then maybe they will scramble something. Until then, it's business as usual. This is the sad reality of this country. Fortunately, I never had to deal with the CTA. Even if I have a major dispute with AC in the future, very unlikely, but I wouldn't go to the CTA either. Legal action is the only thing that will compel AC to act. Or if you don't mind your name all over the national media, you can go public with your story.


I wouldn't recommend you do such a thing. First of all, you are not on a plane. Secondly, if you intentionally create a disturbance while in the airport, they will call security on you. Last but not least, there may other pax in the queue who need to see a check-in agent or they could miss their flights. It wouldn't get you anywhere.

The most important thing is to remain calm and reasonable and document everything that was said to you by AC representatives. I would start with the ticketing counter or customer service counter, the staff there tend to be better trained to handle ticketing issues than a check-in counter. Be firm but never raise your voice, make them understand your situation and appeal to their emotions if you have to. When I was stuck in Europe because my ticket was incorrectly re-issued by Aeroplan, that's what I did. I was able to get the staff and manager of the partner airline to my side, they totally believed me and went out of their way to help me. Unlike the couple stuck in Portugal who had to furiously put Euros into payphone to make their calls, I was given a landline phone to make long distance calls for free while the airline manager on duty himself was making calls on my behalf despite the excessive long wait time on a Sunday and holiday weekend to both AC and Aeroplan. He was so engaged that he was constantly checking my file even while on the phone. At the very end, when AE finally fixed the issue, even while I was still on the phone with AE, he was already printing the my boarding passes for me. You could tell he was so relieved that this was resolved. Granted, you will not get this kind of customer service with AC, but it is still important to remember people don't help those passengers they don't like or they otherwise perceived as demanding or rude.

stevendorechester

Thinking back I probably wouldn't refuse to leave the counter as it wouldn't be fair to other passengers but who knows if anything would change after the fact. Before the Mr Dao incident if anybody had suggested they would never leave a plane most people would have replied that it would get you nowhere. And one person did just that... He managed to have an airline lose billions in stock market valuation, raise the maximum compensation, cost an airline millions, have an airline CEO summoned to Congress, have a new passenger bill of rights in Canada and got airlines to change their COC. And he's now a multi millionaire. So who knows these days. I'm also suggesting that the laws be changed to give the CTA authority to order compensation in these cases, as would be the case in Europe.