yyznomad

Ugh, fine. Care to point me to the post?

(nevermind, you're saying just to leave it)

yyznomad

Currently, my butt is parked in 1G on AC123... seat deflated with an hour left into the flight... I did the 3-2-1 trick a couple times to no avail... SD then did a reset and it re-inflated after that.

Plumber

Did you get off the seat while it was trying to re-inflate (ie stand up)? I have been told several times to get off the seat and give it 10 minuteness or so.

I had a TPAC flight last week where my seat was quite deflated (but not completely flat). I did the reset and it stayed inflated for the rest of the flight. Other than that, no issues on my last few flights.

yyznomad

Yep, but only did so after the SD did a reset... so not after I did the 3-2-1. Stood and walked around while it reinflated.

RatherBeInYOW

Flying HND-YYZ I had a new one, at least for me. Seat bottom was inflated, lumbar was inflated, headrest was inflated ... middle of my back was partially deflated and it got slowly worse through the flight. I've had the seat back or bottom deflate before and it was obvious that they are separate I've never had only part of the back deflate. Wasn't sure if others had experienced this, admittedly I have not read all of the posts in this thread.

canadiancow

I've had each of the 4 sections deflate. Some are much harder to notice than others without really testing it, which is why I always do all 4 on boarding.

I should really write a manual for this.

WaytoomuchEurope

Sunday Sept 22, AC 117, 4D

Deflated seat section and a near screaming match with SD to get form as I neared the end of a flight that had historically terrible service.

I have written a scathing email and told them to keep their $300. They need to come at me with something far superior to that to shut me up.

Bohemian1

@WaytoomuchEurope - Your experience sounds awful. I was also flying from YYZ to YVR on Sunday, but on AC 103. I observed something interesting on that flight.

The guy in 5A clearly had a deflated seat early in the flight. So the SD and one of the FAs attacked the seat in the usual ways.

The thing I found really interesting was, as they were doing so, they were referring to an iPad (or some other tablet) which actually seemed to have some kind of seat reset procedure, including photographs of where the magic reset switch is underneath and the roundel-based reset. I didn't ask them about the tablet since they were busy working the problem.

If I'm right, this sounds like the process has become pretty much codified. I would hope that the comp process would be as well.

24left

Interesting observation.

Upthread, someone posted how photos of the inflatables have been circulating around AC.


A few here know about a letter I wrote to a VP at AC back in May. I never posted about it but another poster did drop a hint about the experience. I never received a reply from the AC person I sent it to, not even an auto-reply acknowledgement. A while later, I mentioned it to another manager at AC. And I've told others.

In my letter, I explained to the VP about the deflated seat on the TPAC long-haul, and that there was another SE MM seated nearby who had the same - and he was not amused. I wrote that the SD had called maintenance prior to departure, they boarded and did under seat resets. Nonetheless, that lasted us a few hours and then the SD was either on her hands and knees under our seats trying to reset, or we were playing with the 3-2-1 on the panel. Sure we received the form, but it did not solve the problem.

The SD did the best she could prior to departure and while we were over the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Where things really went to H--- was boarding my connecting AC transcon, only to find another deflated seat. I told the young SD, and I asked her to call maintenance. As we were in YVR and as there was still another 30 minutes or more to board the back of the big bird, there was time.

She refused. She did not understand what was wrong with the seat. She tried pressing the firmer/softer selection on the side panel. I told her she was not going to make a difference. I said maintenance can try to reset or even replace the bladder in under 10 minutes. She just looked at me, with that "I don't know" look and walked away.

There were no empty seats in J to move to. No non-revs to be tossed out of their seats.

I was really angry and not so much because THAT seat was deflated, or because the TPAC seat was deflated just prior to that, but because she did NOTHING and I was now stuck with this SECOND craptastic experience, now totalling the better part of 20 hours. In one single day.

Later in the fight she came by and I explained what she did wrong and she then told me that she came from narrow body aircraft and is new to these wide bodies and seats. She then said she was not told about the deflating seats nor was she trained on what to do.

I told her that is not the customer's fault and that she made things worse by not even making an effort. I also asked her for the form which she never gave me.


Thus, I wrote to the VP and I was clear that I did not need the compensation, but no way am I going to accept cluelessness and poor training compounding the fact that AC has chosen not to replace these idiotic seats.

In my letter I included links to a wide range of AC FT posts, some of which had photos of those beautiful and colourful Air Canada Camping mattress pads.

I suspect I was not worthy of a reply from AC - either because I am not Senior VP of Mega Big Corp - and/or because by replying, AC might think they are admitting liability on this issue.


But now we have cabin crew with iPads, and photos and instructions.

How interesting.


On a personal note, I am one of many who chose to fly AC and in J on the long trips, and I accept my responsibility for feeding the denial at AC and the lack of communication, especially with those of us they often "thank for our loyalty". I also know that some here may find it enjoyable reading about my experience on this particular trip along with the lack of a reply from my letter to AC. That's fine. I don't mind.

.

yyznomad

WaytoomuchEurope

Wrong date or flight?

AC117 is listed as a 321 Registration C-FLKX for Sunday, September 22, 2019 on both Flightradar24 and FlightAware

WaytoomuchEurope

Both? First off I flew on Saturday the 21st. Flight left at 1900 and it was a 788.

Just more evidence for the community that I am an idiot.

They were training a cabin crew and the SD was a rookie. I could go on for 20 minutes about how bad the service was.

nexusCFX

I remember posting here in May about my deflation on YYZ-CDG and I remarked that at least they’d be fixed by the time I flew SFO-YYZ home for Christmas. It seemed reasonable at the time. Fingers crossed.

One of the repeated trends here is that the SD will claim they’ve either never heard of this issue or never encountered it. If they operate flights on the 777 or 787 even occasionally that’s almost impossible; I have to wonder if they’ve been instructed to say that.

YULforever

Yesterday LHR-YUL. Seat section deflated 6X over the flight. Each time the 321 reset worked. SD was aware this was a recurrent problem and quite pleasant about it. After letting him know I just did the reset’s myself each time. Didn’t ask for compensation.

I have perfected the in-seat hover to allow reflation when you need to reset with the seatbelt light on. Good quad workout.

lallied

Perhaps they could work it into a video game type of thing that you can play while sitting in the seat for 7 to 14 hours, and the person with the most points each month gets a free flight or perhaps a super duper mattress. Or maybe it could be a new badge / wing for EYW2019?

aaamr

Well, you just made a case for me not bothering to push for SE100K this year. I've reached out to AC executives too -- on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc... -- and have been soundly ignored. I thought I might have been because I am less than the highest status tier. Turns out, AC is an equal opportunity ignorer.

The way they have handled this as a company demonstrates active contempt for their customers at the executive level. (I've generally had very good experiences with on-board SDs, who are left in the regrettable position of having to deal with it.) Make no mistake, this is a top down customer service problem.

A.