Grog

It's more probable that "some editor" suffered much more than simply the lack of a hot towel. After all, it is Air Canada.

Always? As in 100% of the time when dealing with AC? Alrighty then.

True. Just as nobody know what "some editor" actually experienced.

And so it is that you're free to trash CBC all while viewing AC through a permanent set of rose-colored glasses. Three cheers for all-round objectivity.

weero

Sure you can but it doesn't do you any good. Airline - as evil as they all are - act with great inertia and driven by protocol. They rarely act proactively. Sure when there's a scandal proper than this may happen.
Of course not, it makes it unsupported. The news agency just publishes what it was told by both sides.

I'd not blame the CBC here, I just think that this is a matter for the courts and not for an opinion based on next to no insight.

weero

When I was proactive, I caused often more trouble to my itineraries than by doing absolutely nothing. On some airlines it helps to be elite on others it's worthless.

Plus the vast majority of us lived through the age as commoner - my first 2 years of flying, I did not even think it was worth collecting miles and status. The gap between elite treatment and base or non-member treatment is smaller than it has been in 20+ years before.
So most of us know well how it is to travel as non-elites. It isn't much more terrible IMO.

StuckInYYZ

Fair enough. I still believe there is something henkie (however you spell it) with the TA. Typically the travel agency is also named... this just doesn't smell proper.

24left

hink·y

ˈhiNGkē/

adjective
(of a person) dishonest or suspect.
"he knew the guy was hinky"

(of an object) unreliable.
"my brakes are a little hinky"

TemboOne

Great answer but just one question. If this is a "private fare" between the TA and AN airline how common is such a private deal likely to involve two entirely separate airlines? I can't help but wonder if this was a situation with a TA within and catering to specific ethnic segments in the GTA who had a deal with AI but had to find a way to manipulate the passengers onto a flight to connect from YYZ to LHR. The passengers could have been saved at least $300 EACH by routing via PVG on China Eastern instead of via Europe.

I've been offered some fantastic fares to SE and East Asia from TAs in Chinatown and certain areas in Scarborough - but once I started examining details I knew they were fraught with lots of potential headaches.

TAs are great, as I am sure tcook052 is. Not too long ago an excellent one convinced me to turn one of our YYZ-TYO trips into a mileage run, continuing down to SIN and straight back to TYO for no extra fare!

However, TAs dealing only or primarily within certain communities scare me because all too often there is a hidden agenda!

StuckInYYZ

Proactive doesn't necessarily need to mean knowing a plan B (in terms of alternate flights). Proactive could mean... Hey, I have 1 hour 30 minutes til my flight takes off. It will take time to go through security (and I don't know how long the lineup is). I have been waiting 15 minutes with no movement, maybe I should make some noise so that the cattle herders know that I am at risk of missing my flight instead of waiting for someone to "get back to me" since it appears they have brushed me off.

Also, did the passenger just let it go at "Family of five not flying"? Did they ask why or just accept it? If I went to check in and was told you're not flying, I'd be asking what the issue was. The article only states that they assumed that it was an overbooking... did they question the check-in staff or the manager and find out why?

AC is not clear of any wrong doing (and not doing themselves any favour by not saying that they're looking into it at the very least). But the way I read the article, neither is the passenger totally innocent.

tcook052

You seem to forget that the only thing that brought the passengers back to the TA's door is how they were handled by the airline staff which to put it mildly was sub-optimal.

Sorry but we don't know that fare was available at the time of ticket purchase and I don't find it hard to imagine an AI contact allowing AC as a transatlantic carrier. The notion however that this family's plight could've stemmed from some shady, nefarious ethnic TA is frankly absurd to me as they would've been fine had things gone differently upon check-in at YYZ.


Gary Leff said it well in this post shared by 24left that it seems misplaced to expect an infrequent flyer who according to the article hasn't travelled home in 17 years to know how the system works like us far more frequent flyers. There were a number of opportunities to help this family that weren't handled well by AC and if anything this should be taken as a lesson on how front-line customer service could be improved.

eigenvector

If you are considering this as a voluntary change, it's probably impossible even for the ticketing carrier as nearly all restricted fares have no residual value after no showing one segment. So if all AC ticketing at YYZ was going to do was help them make a voluntary change according to the fare rules, then sure that might have been impossible. What AC should have done is taken responsibility for the missed flight, taken control of the ticket and rebooked them gratis as they would during IRROPS. I am sure they do this many times every day for missed connections, cancellations, etc but in this case it seems they just didn't want to take responsibility for the missed flight.

SparseFlyer

Possible. But without any additional info it's not hard to believe AC wouldn't just foot the bill for rebooking that AI flight.

I wonder if it would've been handled differently had it been an AC only itinerary.

Nevertheless, isn't there AC staff at the entrance of each line to see if the pax is in the right line? Seems like someone went on break a bit early...

FlyerGoldII

This sentence is inaccurate or at least imprecise:

From London, they were booked to fly on Air India to Sri Lanka for a family vacation. It would be Maheswaran's first return to his homeland in 17 years.

AI does NOT fly from LHR to Sri Lanka. It flies from LHR to some AI hubs in India incl. DEL and BOM. AI from those hubs may fly to Columbo, Sri Lanka.

So if we have inaccurate (or not fully accurate) information in that CBC article, then could there be other inaccuracies.

What is the current AC policy - let us say you stand in domestic (or transborder) check-in line erroneously; and then you wind up with a very few minutes to check in waiting in the line for international check-in line, before the 1 hour check-in cut off comes into effect - but let us say that that line is 1-2 hours or longer. Does the agent in the original line have the authority to physically take the passenger/family to the head of the line at the correct check-in counter? Or even check-in a passenger at the domestic check-in counter, for international flights. (at least this thing would less likely happen at an airport like YOW - the international/domestic check-in take place at the same counter, but still different than the trans-border check-in counter)

jamar

I'm curious about something- from Reddit, this comment seems to indicate that these unpublished fares are usually for unconfirmed seats and that might be the source of this family's troubles. Does this actually happen?

D582

I don't believe AC or most other airlines permit the selling of 'stand-by' tickets to regular revenue passengers anymore, regardless of it being a public fare, private fare, or bulk fare.

Unless this TA is unscrupulously selling an industry discount or zonal employee discount fare, I don't see how this would happen.

This is speculation, but what I'm guessing happened is this was an AI-plated ticket (098) with the YYZ-LHR segment as AI codeshare operated by AC, and the TA sold them some sort of "special" fare on AI. When these sorts of "special" tickets are sold, the TA will typically charge the pax through its own merchant code, and then settle the ticket to the airline through the monthly BSP settlement process. The difference between what the TA charged the customer and pays the airline is its profit.

However, if the TA did not properly issue the ticket or AI did not receive its money, it is likely that AI put the ticket on hold. (Some airlines will literally change the coupon status on held tickets to NOGO). If this was the case, then AC cannot do anything, unless they want to fly the passengers to London and not get paid for it.

simpleflyer

I really liked your post because it suggests the sort of reporting that would actually have been educational. People have mentioned that infrequent flyers are inexperienced, but that doesn't mean they don't watch CBC or read news stories. CBC can do better than just another 'ain't it awful' story.

The facts: the family claims AC directed them into the wrong line, but what exactly happened? Was it a case of their needing line B but AC told them line A, or were they told line B but they went and stood in line A?

One other point the CBC could emphasize: Many people fly infrequently. But experience isn't a matter of frequency but of engagement. IOW, to get experience, one has to actively check and cross-check information. Letting oneself be passively directed everywhere will leave one just as naive on the 100th flight, as on the first or second.

YYZC2

Doubtful this was a factor. I will defer to tcook052's superior knowledge in this arena, but I share his belief that the TA is not likely to be at fault here and the usage of a "private" fare did not put the family at any disadvantage vis-a-vis their ability to fly as booked.

As I understand it, these types of fares differ from those generated by a GDS in that they are typically sold from a sub-inventory of seats made available to high-volume third parties (major TAs, tour operators, cruise lines, etc) and subject to non-public (and usually discounted) pricing. When an e-ticket created under such circumstances is viewed in the airline's system, the pricing breakdown, which would be transparent and fully disclosed on a ticket purchased at market rates, is suppressed. While the analogy is not perfect, I would compare it to buying a store brand grocery item vs. a national brand. Same product, different packaging and pricing.

You may hear the terms "bulk fare", "consolidator fare" or "private fare" used when referring to these types of tickets. You may also hear TAs that deal in these fares referred to as "bucket shops".

As for the family's plight, I usually take these sob stories with a huge grain of salt, but I am very tempted to take their account at something close to face value, simply because I've heard a version of it so many times before. No aspect of their retelling stands out as being hard to believe or embellished.

The decision of the usually verbose AC spokesperson to keep uncharacteristically quiet in regard to this case also speaks volumes in my mind.