ricktoronto

The agent said " I do not like green hair and ham, I do not like it, rapper man".

24left

It is sad that you felt you could not share your thoughtful response.

yyznomad

MaxFlying

So. this post worries me. And its not actually about whether Kardinal Offishall pointed to a racial element in what occurred while waiting to board. What concerns me is the invoking of the playing of the race card rhetoric. What is key is not whether a gate agent or even AC are "biased against people of colour" or even one of "evidence". Confusion and mix-ups are not without bias - whether conscious or not. Racism is structural and endemic, it is deep rooted, institutionalised and bound up in histories and narratives that still exist and are perpetuated today. Read Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jesmyn Ward, James Baldwin - or even the recent issue of the Sunday NYT as any will speak to this far better than I.
And to be clear, I am not accusing anyone of racism, but raising a concern about a lack of awareness of systemic racism, and this is something that merits attention.

24left

@MaxFlying
Thank you for sharing your post. And thanks for the suggested reading.



And because Kardinal Offishall did not in his IG post but the Narcity article did, I felt it was important to point that out.


I think that the main issue in the OP is the IG post his list of mistakes, errors, poor customer service by AC and so on that was described.

Davvidd

It is something that I have experienced with AC too. I bought a ticket with my credit card and it was paid and a ticket issued with a ticket number and my card charged. About a month later I went to the agents of AC in an Asian country and got my seat allocated after paying the required amount. They even gave me a printed copy. This was for a domestic flight. I tried to check on line and it kept rejecting. So eventually on the day of the departure I went to the domestic check in and found out that they are saying something about my ticket. So they sent me to the ticket counter where the agent was extremely rude to me and demanded that I have to pay for my two tickets. I told her that I have paid already a month back and the money was taken out of my card immediately and I can show her that my statement that states paid to Air Canada but she was not interested. The problem I found out was that it was paid by my old credit card that had expired after I had used to to purchase my tickets. I did offer to show them the initial purchase email with my old card details on it but she refused.
I called by bank immediately and they confirmed that my card was charged the same time I bought my ticket. It is obvious that since the ticket was already issued I did not have my old card with me. She gave me a take it or leave it. She said do you want to fly or not. Eventually I had to buy news tickets again and I missed my original flight too and the airport pick up too. I was lucky that I still had some money after the end of a very long trip to purchase two tickets. I would never fly AC if I have a choice but I do not have one as the only domestic one that is flying around in Canada.
However, I would like to point out that the agent was oriental.
Eventually AC did refund the money after I wrote to them and Canada Transport Authority.

Transpacificflyer

What happened to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty? Mr. Harrow has made some very harsh allegations such as fraud and intentional disrespect . He hasn't substantiated these claims, and yet we are to accept that the Air Canada employees were of malicious intent and that the airline intended to defraud him because he kept ordering upgrades, without verifying if he had been upgraded before purchasing again.

No, I will not walk on eggshells for fear of upsetting delicate sensibilities. I appreciate the impact of systemic racism and do not deny that it has occurred in Canada and that it is still common in some ethnic communities in accordance with their views on castes, skin pigmentation, religious sect etc. However, that has no bearing on the underlying issue here , which was IT related

As I stated, I think everyone is sympathetic to someone suffering an AC transactional software issue. And it has been stated multiple times in the forum, and even in this thread, that many of us have been told by an agent that we are in the business class line. I have been told the same at YYZ and YUL, and surprise, surprise, I am of a demographic group that supposedly this isn't supposed to happen to.

Let's deal with business class line up item because it has been blown out of proportion. Almost always, it's the same generic, non confrontational statement. The methodology has been reviewed multiple times including within the context of applicable human rights statutes in Canada. There is a sound legal reason why a neutral, bland statement of fact is used. It is unfortunate that some people get upset when the statement is made, but the interaction is neither threatening nor harmful. It is a low key method of spot checking an honor system that holds that only premium status pax are to be in the premium status line. One of the reasons why Altitude tags are given out is to provide a visual cue to the agent. Since I put my tag on my travel bag this year, I am not bothered. Mr. Harrow does not mention if he was tagged. There is no pleasing some FTers because one of the common complaints they have is questioning why some people are present in their "line". On my last flight, I watched a woman get upset because the SE agent took a person from the J line.

Mr. Harrow has a long standing position that he is subject to overt bias. Over the past decade he has adopted a more vociferous affinity for certain political positions. The cynic in me notes that it has an inverse relationship to his popularity. Insinuating as he did was unfair. Note that he used trigger words such as "disrespect" . I am surprised that no one picked up on the code words. Well, that's most likely because he writes for his followers and not for the folks at FT. He claims "lies" and "false promises". Ok. What were these lies and false promises, or is one just to accept such an accusation unchallenged?

Why I am annoyed, is that the narrative suggests a negative intent where there is no evidence to support such an intent. It's galling that a man who's lyrics reference violence, and who participates in videos with sexist portrayals of women has the audacity to suggest that he was targeted for fraud and disrespect.
Yes, the desk agent could have said sorry, but Hr. Harrow is a big boy and for a man who features weapons in his some of his promotional photos, regularly uses the N word, and sings about 'Ol Time killin, I think he's street worthy enough to suffer the horrid affront of an agent not saying sorry , or the end result of a screwed up seat upgrade. It's not as if he lost his original seat reservation He should have just stayed with the facts and left his dramatic hyperbole for his sales and promotions events . I don't like when people try to manipulate public opinion.

canadiancow

This is not what we experience.

"Sir, that line is for business class passengers" in a condescending tone as they refuse service.

"Are you using your dad's Aeroplan number?" as an agent pulls up your PNR.

Those are not generic, non-confrontational, neutral, bland, or statements of fact.

They're not threatening or harmful, but that still only makes 2 of your 7 assertions accurate.

If you're getting generic, non-confrontational, neutral, bland, statements of fact, then you are NOT experiencing what we're describing.

Jagboi

Mine when travelling on an international paid J ticket and asking for the concierge was met with "You're not supposed to know about that"

GetSetJetSet

mjrobson

I've had the LMU at OLCI issue. YYJ to YYZ was ~$245 to J on the red eye - I tried 10 times to book the upgrade and it failed with errors every time.

My Amex had all 10 attempts charged.

Transpacificflyer

You consider the statement condescending. Fine. That's your perception. Some people are quick to take offense and that often, whatever anyone says or writes, is considered hurtful. Others who get the same treatment, myself included, don't see it that way. Try and use some empathy here and understand that the AC employees are in a difficult spot. They have to manage a line and after a few hundred pax in a shift, can get tired and not maintain their composure manner in the way you desire. Keep in mind that these are not mediation nor intervention therapists, but are are relatively low paid workers in jobs where they get abuse day in, day out, often by customers with an inflated sense of self importance. The complaint against AC line staff is like the complaints against the poor souls who work the counter at a local fast food outlet because they make mistakes. I get it; It is wrong to be rude to customers, but it happens and that's the world we live in here. Turn your frown upside down, smile and bring happiness to someone who may be having a sour time. It's not hard to turn unhappy people to happy people,using a bit of charm. The sales people on FT call it people skills.

The reality in what you have described is that there is nothing specifically discriminatory as much as you believe it to be. He was not asked about his AP number. Your personal travails in that regard are not germane to his allegation, which relate to the statement of his being in a priority line. Unfortunately, we do not live in Japan where people are honest and respectful of lines, so AC asks. All that an agent said was that he was in the priority line. The same statement made to me and hundreds of others on any given day.

Just what 5 assertions are incorrect? Mr Harrow has claimed fraud; intentional disrespect; lies; misleading statements etc. He has not backed anything up.
Have you stopped to consider that while the desk agent may not have said sorry, that you have no idea how she was treated at the desk? Did Mr. Harrow show up at the desk and in a low key manner address the situation or did he adopt an aggressive and belligerent position, haranguing the agent. Surely, you have seen some of these aggressive pax, tearing a strip off the AC desk staff, who are often young women. I expect that as a 40+ year old man, he is much calmer than the days when he had his thug persona on display. I also know that he can be well spoken and polite. I am giving him the presumption of innocence here until facts of the event are confirmed. The AC employees merit the same consideration. Running up the trigger word "Disrespect" within the context of this event is lame.

Oh, what I would give to know something about the agent at the desk and the agent's version of events. At YYZ, there would have been a 75%+ chance of a female and a 50%+ chance of a non European ethnic group. I am hoping that the other side of the story comes out.
Because something appeared on a twitter account used to promote the latest entertainment activity, does not impart accuracy or reliability. You and some others can continue along slamming AC for an uncorroborated allegation, but I am going to stick with position that people are not guilty of wrongdoing until proven guilty.

24left

My SE tags were on both of my bags yet the AC YUL employee/agent said that this was the priority line and for SEs. I told her that my tags show that I am SE. She said: That is no proof. Family members use the tags of those who are SE.

What she DID NOT do was what they politely and gracefully do in NRT and TPE for e.g..: just walk the line, ask to see BP, initial it and if someone is in the wrong line, they say "Let me show you to your line or let me show you to the correct line".

This was not the way the AC employee in YUL behaved. Not only did she make an incorrect assumption, when I said I was SE, she suggested that I may be using SE tags belonging to others in my family, as if I was committing "fraud" by being in that line.

If she thought I did not belong, her first words should only have been, "can I see your BP."

And to be pedantic but clear, this nonsense and the thread I started was because each morning that I approached the Priority lane at YYZ - with my peacock SE tags on full display - I was told "this is the line for Business and Super Elites". Not once did they ASK who I was, look at my tags, or as if I was flying in business. This idiocy went on for months if not a year.

And when I asked one bouncer if she could not see my SE tags, her reply was: well they are black and your bag is black so it's hard to tell".

.

24left

I understand your points and agree with this statement.

However, it is not the customer's fault that AC employs people who may not have the right personalities or be adequately trained in all manners of how to be an effective customer-facing staff person. AC had some outstanding gate agents - a couple of whom I see often in YYZ and YVR and have been at it for years and watching them manage the boarding of a triple, is impressive.

AC also has some GAs who have the charm and personalities of some TSA agents or burly security people and can barely smile or be pleasant. Is AC short that many potential candidates that they need to be represented by this bunch?

But if the GAs and other AC airport staff are too tired to manage their jobs, that is on them. And it may also be on AC because there aren't enough of them to board the wide bodies and that is not the fault of the customer.

vernonc

I do not mind if they state 'this line is for business class' to ALL passengers. Ideally they should ask. But when they only state/ask the question of some, thats when there is an issue.