ecc

Want to add a datapoint, but haven't had time to till today.
On Nov 24-26, was trying to book a multicity trip via ac for business, but ac for business's site said to call in for any multicity bookings due to the transition.
Could not get through, maybe a dozen times if not more. One time I actually got on the hold line, got a rep within 5 mins, and the call dropped on ACs end,
Emailed AC for business asking for a callback.

On December 5th I got an email back, apologizing for the delayed response, and asking if I still needed assistance. I explained what happened and gave my PNR, and the route I actually wanted to price out and book.
Got a callback the next morning, AC priced it, $112 fare difference (which was in line with my searches when I was making the placeholder booking) and they waived any change fees due to the call center issues.
The CSR confirmed it with the ticketing agent, charged the fare difference, and then came back to let me know I'd be getting a ~$32 refund on the original fare due to different taxation.

Overall, a satisfying outcome on my end. Will be posting in the thanks CSR thread - she was great.

Another bit of info, apparently it took the ticketing agent 20 minutes to price the itinerary. Yikes! No wonder AC is clogged.

skybluesea

delete

lallied

I called in today with some trepidation to make an AP booking. The waffle about the issues with the Amadeus transfer took longer than the wait for an agent to answer. Took a couple of minutes longer than usual to get the flights because seemed to struggle With a priority reservation but all done and dusted in 15 minutes

I hope I haven’t just jinxed myself

yyznomad

No, but you've forever jinxed the rest of us.

ecc

Fwiw, the fact that they reached out, waived all change fees, and rebooked me to what I wanted at the prices the original day I was looking was imho reasonably fair. The CSR who called me was friendly, apologetic for the delay and website issues, and was extremely courteous.
Was the transition to Amadeus botched in terms of the impact on the call centers? Undoubtedly.
Subsystems like eups and AC for business? Absolutely.
I booked that placeholder ticket because my time is valuable and I didn't have time to futz around waiting for AC.
It wasn't a bad itinerary - but it wasn't exactly what I wanted.
Did they have to waive change fees at that point? No. Not according to the fare rules. But they showed flexibility, and I'm getting to travel the route I wanted, and they get a reasonably happy customer.
Kudos are due imho.

Bartolo

[QUOTE=yyznomad;31826294]No, but you've forever jinxed the rest of us

The sucess extended to me.

Data point: Booked an AE tx last week. Seat assignment was automatic and silly. Could not change it despite my best efforts. Not able to tolerate being on hold (if I even got there) for 1+ hrs. Tried just now to change seats online. Thankfully what I wanted was still available. Got it done with confirming email.

My wish for everyone else 🤞🤞🤞🤞

canadiancow

I booked a mixed cabin Y/J Aeroplan booking this morning, and was able to select seats on both segments. However, the priority seats at the front of Y are blocked per EF and not selectable by me, a SE. There's only middles there, and I grabbed an aisle a bit further back, so no harm here, but that's annoying.

PB53x11

There seem to be a lot of seats blocked when I look at seat maps on EF. Any idea why this might be?

canadiancow

Priority seats are reserved for Latitude fares and Altitude members. They showed "occupied" under the old system. "Blocked" is much more accurate.

gcashin

Had an aircraft change from a 763 to an A330, and of course, the Preferred Seats in the exit row on the 763 are now a regular seat on the A330. Ticket was booked directly on the AC website, but there's no option to change seats anymore, even though I was able to pick seats when originally booked. Spent 30 minutes on hold on the E35 line listening to AC talk about how with their self-service features, I can select seats online for trips booked on aircanada.com I had another commitment, so I had to give up after 30 minutes on hold.

Maybe if some of their self service tools like the website actually worked as they said they do, or if they had a functional app like UA that could do seat selection, or if they actually handled seat assignments better on an aircraft swap (like moving bulkhead to bulkhead, exit row to exit row where they can), people could actually get a hold of the call centers. What a mess when even simple things like picking a seat for an aircanada.com booking can't be done online.

skybluesea

delete

painintheuk

How the heck did you get through in 30 minutes?!??

Currently on 48 minutes and counting, but will likely fall asleep before I get through. But at least I'm being offered the choice to buy a gift card at aircanada.com (en francais - j'espere que ca sera plus vite en francais!)

Dr. PITUK

musicmtl

I'd like to select my seats for a flight I booked on AC.com. No equipment changes, nothing weird, except that I've flown the outbound already, and now want to change seats for my return flights. I log in, go to seat selection, see my flights, but when I click on the select seats link, it gives me an error message. Why? Because it's trying to select seats for the outbound flights and not for the actual flight I'm clicking on!

When I go to the seat selection page, the outbound flights correctly don't show in the list of flights. Only the two return flights appear. However, the select seat link is somehow pointing to those previously taken flights.

Since I can't change seats online, and the app also doesn't include seat selection anymore, is calling in the only way to change seats? I'd rather not. Last time I called, it was 90 minutes before reaching an agent.

eastexpress

If you've got Twitter, I highly recommend you go that route to get in touch for changes/issues. I had a flight cancelled on me last week and I messaged them on twitter, and called, to see which would happen faster.

Within 20 minutes they responded to my message, had me rebooked, transferred over Bistro credit, it was all done long before anyone ever picked up the phone. Added bonus is that you can go about your life without keeping an ear to your phone. Their agents on twitter seem to be able to do anything the phone agents can, and a second bonus, if something goes sideways you have written confirmation of what was supposed to happen.

gcashin

If you read my full post, I never ended up getting through - I just spent 30 minutes listening to AC's hold music talk about how I can use their great self-service tools to select my seat online before I had to give up due to another commitment.