WildcatYXU

So, here is it: I had a reservation for a trip to YEG and YCG. Planned to depart on July 21. All Tango. But suddenly a request for urgent help came from our local plant. It was within 24 hours from departure, so I called AC to change it. Postponed the departure few hours to give myself time do what had to be done. Paid the change fee and the fare difference, my flights to YEG were now in Flex. Unfortunately, life changed everything and I woke up with severe abdominal pain next day. Went to the ER, was told it's a kidney stone and that it will leave on its own. So I rebooked my flight to the 28-th to give the stone time to depart. Change fee and fare difference again, this time the whole booking is in Flex. Unfortunately, the plan to depart on 28-th turned out to be too optimistic, so I called again and had the trip rebooked to Aug. 18. I asked for same fare classes and the same flights. Fare difference and change fee again. Next day I open my booking on aircanada.com with the intention to select seats. Guess what? I found out that I’m on a flight I did not ask for and my YEG–YVR-YCG and YCG–YVR–YYZ-YXU flights are in Tango again. So I’m calling AC’s reservations and asking for a fix. They put me on hold for over an hour. Had to leave since I had an appointment with the anesthesiologist, so I interrupted the call. Next few days I was in pain, in the hospital and busy at work. So I could only call back today. And I’ve been told that they can’t and won’t do anything with this ticket. I should have called back the same day. Really? So their agent screws up and I’m to blame now? The agent even said that my ticket is about $300 lower value than I paid, but she can’t change it. Unbelievable. Is there any way to correct this mishap?

dr_torch

No offence, but the enter key is your friend. Your post is really hard to read.

So you have a ticket for Aug 18th and the change you made was not processed correctly? I think if you are patient and ask to speak with a manager then you can probably get them to make the required changes for you. Emphasise that the change was done wrong and that you could not call back right away. I would call the number on the back of your altitude card, but even then I find that HUCA sometimes works well

At first, when I read you message, I thought you were booked on the July 28th flight and were a no-show. After reading it again, I believe you have a valid ticket for Aug 18th. Is this correct?

SparseFlyer

Call in, quickly explain the situation and ask if the call can be escalated so a manager can listen to the call and confirm the agent made a mistake.

Don't waste your time with the first person. As far as front-line employees go, most cannot help you even if they wanted to. This goes for airlines, telcos, manufacturers, banks, etc. Give a legitimate reason for the change, and most employees will escalate it to a manager/supervisor.

You probably can't escalate a request to be protected in J if you booked Y and there's an IRROPS, but if someone made a mistake, then I don't see why they wouldn't be able to help you.

Try it, and see if it works.

But my other tip for next time, don't dilly dally on these kind of things, no matter the reason. If you go to the bank to deposit $1000 cash and the agent deposits $100 as a mistake, don't wait a week to come back no matter how busy it is. You're still right in that the bank owes you money, but you just made your situation 1,000,000x harder.

Good luck.

yyznomad

+1,000,000

WildcatYXU

I do apologize for the confusing post. I was still upset when I wrote it, so I didn't pay attention.
And yes, I called in to change the ticket always with some time to spare, so I have a valid ticket for Aug. 18th.
@SparseFlyer:

I did ask the agent to escalate the issue. She put me on hold several times and came back saying that the only way to fix this is through customer relations and suggested to email them So I did.

As for the delay, the biggest problem is that I called from home to re-book the flight and the itinerary was sent to my work mail. That's the reason why I only looked on it the next day - logging onto the company network from home can be annoying at times.
Not to mention that I didn't feel the best in last few days. But in the future I'll definitely do what you're saying.

SparseFlyer

Wow. That really sucks.

Give it another shot. Ask if someone can listen to the call, and that they will see that the agent booked the wrong flights.

Worse case just bite the loss, do the exchange, and then write in to customer care. It's just the change fee anyway.

dread_specter

If I may suggest, customer relations has a 45 business day turnaround time.

Social media usually gets you acknowledged right away and usually have some contacts with reservations, which can get it going faster for you.

Also, in the future, travel cancellation insurance is your best friend. Some credit cards offer it for free.

WildcatYXU

Good to know about the turnaround time. I'm calling again today.

The CC I used to pay for the ticket does have travel cancellation insurance. But I didn't cancel anything. I don't want to cancel the ticket. I just want the same fare bucket I paid for.

dread_specter

Cancelling a ticket and sending the bill to the CC, then rebooking a brand new reservation might be cheaper when it comes to tango fares. Would've avoided the issue you're going through right now also, but nothing you can do about it now except fight it out.

Good luck, and see your PMs.

The smallest state

WildcatYXU. ""the only way to fix this is through customer relations and suggested to email " This is how an AC agent is getting you off of the phone. Sadly things of no importance to AC like customer service, customer satisfaction or AC errors are met with this response. HUCA - Hang Up Call Again. An email to AC is simply a lost cause.

One thing I always do when I talk to AC (plus a few other select companies), I always take down the name of the person who I am speaking too. I will also use the name of the rep a few times during the call. The reason for this is it automatically puts the onus/burden on them to provide the correct answer.

I worked in call centers/centres in metrics for many years, the number of calls the reps would get from a random caller saying "I called in a few days ago and spoke to someone about................". They have no dates, times or names, which means they have nothing.

If a call center rep knows you know their name and you ask to escalate, they are on their A-game. As an aside if they try with the "just email us again" line remember two things.

1- emails to AC can take 30-60 days to be responded too
2- requests to speak to a supervisor or manager on a call should be met. Unless they give you an actual solution to your problem keep repeating you want to speak to a manager.

WildcatYXU

Well, just got off phone with AC again. No success. The agent simply refused to listen what I had to say. He wanted money for upfare to Flex and putting me back on the desired flight. When i asked for a manager, he told me there is no manager. When I repeated the request, he hung up.

yul36

Sounds like this is a case where the CBC is your friend. You may have to go public to get any satisfaction.

yyznomad

This is why 98.275% of the call centre agents SUCK.

I bet I know more about ACpedia than they do.

SparseFlyer

I wonder if you have more BIS miles than all the call centre combined. Non rev flights don't count.

Adam Smith

Actually, considering how short I imagine the call centre tenure is, even if non-rev flights are included, I wonder whether yyznomad might still win that calculation.

Assuming he actually flies anywhere near as much as he says. Part of me wonders whether he's just some homeless guy who trolls on FT from wherever he can get on WiFi with an old iPad or something.