Bohemian1

But there's still Zone 1 boarding.

Oh, wait....

TheViperOne

Something something…unprecedented demand…something something…staffing challenges…something something post pandemic recovery….something something….insert cliché buzzword excuse here.

TheViperOne

Emailed the concierge about the new baggage policy I outlined in the interline baggage agreement thread. Asked if it was going to be an issue for me coming back where my travel is all on the same PNR but starting with the interline airline.

Also asked if they could facilitate a SDC for me on my connecting flight to an earlier flight as there was still J space open.

Received an email back with a form response about number of bags allowed when traveling with star alliance airlines and also said I couldn’t standby with checked baggage. Neither of which things I asked about?

There seems to be an awful degraded service lately. Is it so much to ask that the agent read the email and comprehend it before responding? Had to write an email back basically saying you didn’t answer any of my questions please re-read my email (in a more professional tone of course)

PointWeasel

Flew LH/AC TUN-FRA-YYZ recently on a paid J fare.

Arrived into FRA at a far Z gate with 80 mins for my connection and arrived at the MLL at 408 pm wanting to use the facilities quickly before heading to the gate for the 5 pm departure.

Upon entering the FRA MLL, the lounge agent commented 'you are no longer on this flight Mr PW, they have off-loaded you for some reason'. I waited while she tried calling the concierge, to no avail, then a call to the gate and after many words back and forth, including the comment "Mr PW is standing in front of me. Yes, in. front. of. me" The lounge agent just shook her head. Luckily the gate was right below the MLL, so I popped down into the crowd only to be stopped by two gatekeepers telling me that I had to get to back of the boarding lines. No concierge to be found anywhere. I finally squeezed thru a side entrance to approach a gate agent, who happened to be the one that spoke with the lounge agent a few minutes earlier. No apology nor comment regarding what/why/how this happened or could have been prevented.

During the flight I double-checked both Air Canada and Star Alliance services that should have prevented this from happening, but apparently its just marketing fluff:

https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/...ervices.html#/

https://www.staralliance.com/en/connection-service

To complete the AC Signature experience, no bag up arrival.

Stranger

Do you mean to say you e-mailed concierges during the flight?

Would by any chance 80 minutes now be less than the MCT, and was the flight full? (It seems the system does very odd things these days. I should tell our recent experience, possibly in the other concierge thread.)

PointWeasel

Just 75K here, so concierge only on the day of departure at the airport. Concierge was MIA.

FRA MCT is 45 mins for Intl - Intl so no issue there:

STANDARD.D/D...D/I...I/D...I/I.
ONLINE .45 .45 .45 .45
OFFLINE .45 .45 .45 .45

The website links in my previous post refer to the services that should have been available, but without the proactive lounge agent I would have lost my pod and overnighted.

Have not written in yet, but plan to.

Adam Smith

You need to scroll down through the list of exceptions. LH-AC I/I is actually 60 minutes: LH-AC II 1.00

Doesn't change the situation with your case though, your connection was definitely still legal. Bizarre that your seat was given away and disappointing the concierge didn't do anything about it.

Stranger

It really seems the system does strange things these days. My horror story does not really belong in the "no thankas concierge though." More in the "thanks concierge for fighting the system. And again. And again." Will take me a while to write it though.

canadiancow

There were at least 4 SEs connecting from 223 in J to 572 in J tonight.

One of them contacted the concierge. A concierge showed up for that one SE, completely oblivious to the others.

If the squeaky wheel gets the grease, watch how squeaky I get.

TheViperOne

How does a concierge not take 2 seconds to look at the manifest and be like “oh look I can help all these 4 people at once”.

canadiancow

I agree. She brought a cart that could accommodate three people.

And I say at least four because my group of three did not contact the concierge, but we talked to the person who did.

The SD said we had 14 people on the connection, but I didn't press for status or cabin. Because I had a tight connection to make.

​​​​​​

D582

How does a concierge not monitor potential misconnections for all their SE pax for the last flight of the night and proactively offer assistance to begin with?

Bohemian1

Wow! I overheard that conversation too.

By the time I was off the plane (to let others with tight connections deplane) you guys were gone, so I figured it was all goodness.

Really crappy job by the concierge.

allbrosca

Was transiting from United to AC 794 LAX to YYZ Sunday night. Sunday morning I received an email that my United flight would be delayed leaving me with a 35 or so minute connection. Emailed the concierge and asked if they could alert the LAX concierge to monitor the situation and if warranted to assist me in making the connection. No reply (that day). I was going to phone, but I got an update from United that they had made up time such that I would have 50 minutes to connect so I let it be. Finallly got an email late Monday afternoon, the text of which was:
"We trust that this email finds you well. We apologize for the delay in responding to your request as we are receiving higher than normal call and email volumes. We appreciate your patience​ and understanding in this regard.

We are sorry to see that we missed the opportunity to assist you with your travel needs. We look forward to assisting you and regaining your trust with your future travel requests. Thank you for your continued loyalty and support of Air Canada."

One of the main reasons I strive to attain SE status is the concierge benefit. Not so much anymore I guess!

TheViperOne

Staffing is obviously a huge issue right now. The turnaround time for emails to that concierge box I’ve found is about 48hrs. Anything I need less than that I usually email the airport concierge directly and it’s usually a pretty fast reply. Within an hour or two. If you’ve ever been emailed by a concierge team just look at the address and change the airport code for the one you’re trying to get ahold of they all have the same format.

You can also call but I’m pretty sure they just email the local concierge team your request on your behalf.