I doubt that the FA "made up" anything. On the contrary, the FA was most likely told that the pax would be rebooked and their flights protected. The FA relayed the information. Following departure, the pax implicated either did not have their flights rebooked, or there were further changes, none of which was correctly conveyed to onboard pax. There is no incentive nor motive for a FA to provide inaccurate information. Yes it might occur with a misfit, but for the most part, the FAs are normal people doing a job with the tools and support provided.
The responsibility for this incident rests with the operations group responsible for rebooking pax and providing general service during flight disruptions. They continually screw up. Whether it is due to under staffing or a lack of resources, it is obvious that the management of pax needs under these types of circumstances is not a priority for Air Canada. How many times have we seen similar stories, or for those of us who are not SE experienced this? AC consistently provides a negative experience when there is a problem. (And before the SEs chime in with the but I am greeted and escorted and blah blah blah, please keep in mind that us mere mortals who pay business class fares and who are not SE are often treated like crap without access to the concierges advertised, and it is worse for the unwashed peons in the back of the bus.)

The passenger was not treated appropriately and should indeed convey those sentiments to the airline. people do not pay business class fares to be treated like this.

When we landed and got to the end of the jetway, the AC reps were there with piles of new printed boarding passes for all the missed connection people.. We told them our name, and they couldn't find our passes. Then we told them the new flight number we were supposed to be on, and they had no BPs for that flight (this tells me that it wasn't just wife and I who weren't re-booked, but everyone on that later flight. The FA told all 10 of us the new flight, but the reps inside had no BPs for that flight).

Back to when we were still on the first flight and the FA was telling us about the new flight, he did say we were protected on the new flight. We asked if we were protected in J seats, and he said he didn't know about our seats, but we were protected.

I was wondering the same as you mentioned...if we are protected on the 6:30 flight, have they cancelled our seats on the 4:30 flight? As soon as I realized we weren't on the 6:30 flight at all, it became obvious that the the 4:30 seats were still valid (and our only option), and then we began the sprint.

I assume in the later update , "he" is the agent on the bridge.

So easy enough problem: the flight crew doesn't understand the distinction between "protected" and "rebooked" (+ you don't know how to interpret 800baud friendly text printouts).

I agree this was a problem, and I frequently detect people who think they know what they are talking about going overboard. I'm not sure that this is especially endemic among AC staff, but I perhaps have built up an auto-salt deployment system when talking to them.

Write in, flag the problem. Don't expect more than a worthless apology or any change. But they won't change until they know its a problem.

Unlikely in the OP's case. Was initially told by an FA he was on a 6:30 flight, told at 4:10 he was actually on the 4:30 flight and still had to clear security and immigration? It's well below the MCT. Missing that flight isn't game playing and not grounds to cancel a flight on a no-show basis.

You missed my point regarding Rankourabu quote. Game playing can bite you on the ... sometimes and ends up effecting everyone after time.

You missed my point regarding Rankourabu quote. Game playing can bite you on the ... sometimes and ends up effecting everyone after time.

Your point even though you felt the need to state it twice was off the mark in this situation. It would have been entirely appropriate to not rush to the gate knowing that the later flight is full. My result would be the same because I don't run in airports. No games played at all.

I fully agree that the FA did not lie or make stuff up. He was simply mis-informed by operations. That's why I'm not really after compensation, but explanations. Also, when he said the mechanical issue was resolved (even though it wasn't), I doubt he made that up either. Someone gave him bad info.

The part about him telling me that I would not have to go through security at YYZ is clearly his mistake though, and that was the least of my complaints. "I don't know" is such a better answer than a guess/wrong answer.

It is simply hit and miss.

I've had a flight not too long ago where the SD came up to me and said "Mr. RatherBeInYOW, there will be an agent waiting for you on the bridge with a new boarding pass" and there in fact was. I've had concierges meet and run with me to make flights. I had a concierge with me one time where a flight to YOW had just been closed and she had the GA re-open the flight, issue me a BP, close it and re-print the manifest and walk me down to the plane before closing the door. I had a concierge call me while connecting YYZ, find out where I was, and then call the gate and make sure they did not close it until I boarded. Sometimes AC does all sorts of stuff that make me happy to be SE, and I think paid J gets a lot of the same treatment. This is when it goes well.

Other times they mess up. Nobody to be found with new BPs while getting off wildly delayed flights and then massive queues (even with priority) at the airside transfer desks in YYZ. Agents in YYZ Dom refusing to help you out. Deciding to proactively rebook me on to a later flight and not tell me about it, and then I find out when I make it to the gate of the flight I was originally on in plenty of time. This happens too often as well sadly.

Your best bet is to be as proactive as you can. Check online or call AC if you have a priority number to see where you are at, and whether you have been rebooked. Don't assume that you are being fed good information from an agent on the plane, or at the gate. Sometimes you can find out more than they seem to know by simply checking online or calling and finding someone who does know what is going on.

Finally; you are not going to get explanations. You're going to get, at best, token compensation. Chalk this up to "*&$% happens" and move on.

lol.. game playing... maybe one is just old and feeble and cant run... or maybe one who paid for J shouldnt have to run because AC had no idea what they were doing on top of a 2 hour mechanical delay....

But in a way, you may be right. Given this is AC, and given the general incompentence of AC - maybe they would have offloaded the OP and marked them as a no-show after their own delay violated the MCT. That does sound like something AC might do.

Agreed. Not sure why explanations need to be given for a foul up. An apology, yes, Compensation, perhaps, but they are not going to lay open their inner workings to satisfy idle curiosity. This is not a 60 minutes expose we are talking about here.

:eek: