YVR72

Symmetre

This is still one of my favourite posts ever. But the definition of "on time" as it applies to AC needs to be updated since it's now been stretched well beyond 15 minutes. A couple of weeks ago I landed in YYZ and the SD comes on the intercom welcoming us to Toronto and noting our on-time arrival. Problem is, we were 35 minutes behind schedule.

CZAMFlyer

I don't believe the practice of overbooking comes as a surprise to many. The story, as we'll see below, is not that AC overbooks it's what they do after having done so. The suggestion that overbooking should be well known because CBC published an article about it two years ago, or that it's a commonly-discussed feature of social media (?) is interesting. I, for one, have never run across such information using these sources.

One of the basic tenets of journalism (as I understand it) is to create a relatable story. Readership depends on more than the printing of hard facts; stories would otherwise read like sterile police reports. Who would care if the reporter interviewed a passenger who claimed "yeah, that was an inconvenience, but I rescheduled my meeting a day later and did some other work in the meantime". The inclusion of "crying kids and missed honeymoons" (I didn't detect empathy in your post but could be mistaken) add the human element, and supports WHY the AC agents felt badly enough about the issue that they chose to resign and go public. Many news outlets regularly go overboard in the drama, but I didn't feel this was the case in this story.

These excerpts from other posts might also help:

MasterGeek

Jebby_ca

tracon

I watched a part of this last night.
Erica Johnson asked "any airline insider with a story to share" to get in touch with her.

More hyperbole to follow.

AC7E7

canadiancow

There are GTEs on virtually every flight with a load factor over 90%, and they're almost always resolved by PDM 5 minutes after the flight closes.

For example, there were several GTEs on 34 YVR-YYZ this morning, but it ended up departing with 14 empty seats in Y.

GTE does not mean overbooked, and the vast majority of GTE BPs are not on overbooked flights, so any article that says "GTE means you probably won't get on the flight" is completely inaccurate.

I wonder if these people just don't understand why they were being told to let customers know that GTE doesn't mean anything bad. Because it sure sounds that way.

entropy

AC's policy document leaked shows that the families/UM/urgent travelers are indeed to be protected from IDBs, contrary to the story claims...

There's no problem overbooking, if its done properly and the compensation policy is generous enough to mitigate "misses", in my experience, AC is remarkably stingy when it comes to comp (offering a 200 MCO when a 400$ one would do the trick).

Bohemian1

MasterGeek

CZAMFlyer

Hardly. It's easy to find stories with the country's largest and most dominant airline. Keep perspective: even if we read one of these stories per month, it's a tiny blip among the 50+ million passengers carried and lord-knows-how-many annual flights they perform.

I'm consistently amazed how poorly the PR machine works at Air Canada, both at addressing negative stories, and also at playing catch-up to feel-good videos generated by competing airlines and even the airports they serve. Here's a department that needs a drastic overhaul, perhaps even more so than IT.

rickg523

I find there are quite a few qualified candidates right here on this forum

24left

Yes, but this is FT. We're not running a multi-billion dollar airline, we're just generating enough entertainment for popcorn.

marchelli

I thought the snack of choice for this crowd was the kit kat... or is that assumed, in addition to popcorn...