Bravada04

Thank you.

We are confirmed in J on 161 and 8332.
Crossing my fingers.

jsl42

To what do we owe the honor of this repugnant subsidiary’s presence at O’Hare?

C-FMWQ

Looks like a diversion. RV1707 (YUL-LAS)

tracon

Usually if it's a diversion the flight tracking sites say so.
This looks like a premeditated tech stop.
The flight plan below has the arrival route for ORD in it.
You wouldn't normally see that if it's a diversion.
Not sure why AC would pick the busiest airport in the world to do a tech stop. Though I'm sure it was the lesser of the evils.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...440Z/CYUL/KORD

C-FMWQ

You're right, I just looked at the flight status. Looks the winds were pretty strong (170+ kts at 34,000') and they're filed pretty low so I think they just couldn't make it direct today. Dispatch would've likely come up with a plan for ORD. My bet is they chose it because ORD has ground staff (as opposed to an outstation that may not have AC employees incase something happens).

Bravada04

Wow, did myself and my wife just come off a recent horrible experience with AC. No word of a lie, the worst one-way experience we both have had ever had flying. I know this can happen with any airline but just one thing after another. LOL.

Coming back from CUN on Wednesday connecting to AC271 for YWG. Flight is great coming to YYZ - on time with some extra time to spend in the lounge before our YWG flight which is on time. There is the snow storm happening but it wasn't super bad as flights were still leaving and arriving as we were there. We leave the lounge and get to our gate and things look very normal as they are just getting ready for boarding. All crew is on board except one pilot.............here is where the fun begins.
Agent announces that unfortunately one of the Pilots did not arrive as they were over their hours so operations is sending out messages to see if they can find another pilot to fly the plane. This same message is stated about 3-4 times in her update when finally probably 2 hours later she says sorry, they cannot find another pilot so the flight has been cancelled. They gave no assistance whatsoever other than saying all bags will be on carousel #1 for pick up and just check your app or email for further information.
I would say we are fairly experienced travelers but there were so many older people and just people that do not fly that had no idea what to do! No service at all.
We go down to #1 and of course we are left standing there with no bags. We make our way over to the baggage window and the agent looks it up and says your bags are at carousel #8 in the International area but we have to get you in there. I ask him for any further assistance and he says he just does bags and "if I'm lucky there might be someone left on level 2 or 3". He gives me a ticket and tells me to go outside in the main hallway and someone will get me? Ok, the main hallway is full of people and how on earth is this supposed to happen? Well, It didn't. I finally found a security guard that assisted me and took me to this girl ( have no idea who she was and no idea how I would have found her ) - she takes me through the back end of customs and tells me to grab my luggage and go out the exit area and leaves. I grab our luggage then realize I have to actually get in line and go through another area of customs! Tired and not happy at this point. I get through customs again and find my wife.
We venture upstairs to level 1 and 2. Lights out - not an Air Canada rep to be found anywhere. We see some of the older couples on the flight standing around not knowing what to do.......they see us and approach us and I explain what will probably happen next but there is no guarantee. They say they are trying to find a hotel tonight and anything close by that has vacancy is $400 / night. I told them to take a cab to something farther out for a couple hundred.
My wife then says we just got a message of re-booked flights on the app for 06:30 a.m. It is now well after midnight. She says it will not allow her to confirm.......I look at it. Yes, it says 06:30 a.m. but for FRIDAY. I am pissed at this point. So we can't confirm or even see any other options so I get on the phone. Yup, on hold till around 03:30 in the morning sitting at the airport. We didn't want to leave just in case I could figure something else out first thing in the a.m. She says nope, that is the only option. Been up now for 24 hours and need a hotel badly. Those older couples were correct.......next to no availability around. Long story short I booked the Hilton using points and called for the shuttle.......got there knowing that we can't be expected to check in so early but just said hoping that once the cleaning staff get in you can let us go to sleep. The guy was an absolute arrogant P%$^. First saying listen we are all booked up and you will NOT get into your room till 3:00 p.m. no matter what because we are FULL and busy but if you want give me another $125 and I might be able to get you in around 1:00 p.m. - This morning is turning into an nightmare. I just thought I would book this as I have some Hilton Points to use up to finally get that account to zero rather than keeping it active. A new guy came on and I explained the situation - he was super nice and cancelled everything for me and gave me the points back.
As a Plat member with Marriott I called the Four Points - the guy was awesome and said he will see what he can do as soon as the cleaning staff show up. We then grabbed the shuttle there and got there around 05:30 a.m. - sat on the couch for probably 3 minutes and he walked over and told us to get checked in. Never been more tired and happier. Outstanding customer service and maybe paid to be Plat at that time. We power slept till mid afternoon.....woke up for a bit and had dinner and back to bed to wake up around 02:30 a.m.
We had to fly via YYC to get to YWG this morning but just wanted to get home. AC131 delayed but thank goodness 8332 was delayed also out of YYC as we literally walked off of our plane directly into the other. THEN, we sat in the plane at the gate for I believe 1.5 hours as the Pilot said that there were no crews available to push us off the gate! Unbelievable. We finally get into YWG late but happy to just get home. Guess what, yup, NO luggage for either of us made it to YWG. What a gong show and incompetent managing of operations and customer service.
I sent my communication to AC this morning and will be very curious to their response! These are the times where you realize because there is no competition or accountability this continues to happen because we have no choice if we want to fly.

Sparty3

Just trying to prepare myself, and trying to make this as painless as possible.
I am flying alone with my 2 year old for the first time, and just want to know how to deal with this once I arrive to the airport.

Booked YYZ-FCO direct about a month ago (PE lowest fare on AC's site) selected seats at the time of booking (Row 15). Went to check in at T-24 and we are both on standby (boarding pass shows SBY). The good news we are #1 or #2 on the standby list.

Upon further investigation while I was holding for AC I noticed there has been an equipment change (original flight was new A330 configuration, aircraft is now the older A330 configuration). The PE cabin only has 3 rows VS 4 rows on the original aircraft which has displaced 7 passengers. Economy shows available as well as 4 seats in business class (as per the upgrade list).

AC denied this even though I have screenshots... they would not help without paying $1000+ in change/rebooking fees/difference in fare. I asked to be confirmed on another flight via FRA, MUC... I asked to upgrade ($7200 per person lol) EVEN downgrade to economy.. nope can't do it. I am told I would not get a seat assignment until the gate.

To complicate things further, I have a notarized letter to travel alone with my daughter containing the flight details/dates (my husband is away on business and is meeting us in Europe). One AC agent said that if I don't get it on the original flight I would have to go get another NEW notarized letter (not easy to do considering it's a weekend).

I have been down this path before with AC... overbooked and long lineup to rebook, having to wait around to collect luggage that never showed up and go through immigration. I just don't want to relive that nightmare with a 2 year old in the middle of the night.

Any tips? Planning to go to the airport 3 hours prior.

RatherBeInYOW

Minor issue, but there are only 3 fewer PE seats on the older 330s, not 7.

The people at the top of the upgrade list for J are not on the PE upgrade list, which means that they probably are in PE and are waitlisted for J. Which probably means you'll get their PE seats.

Failing this you should end up in Y and then AC is going to owe you some money.

canadiancow

The flight is O2.

The people at the top of the J "upgrade list" are not upgrades. But they are also on the J/O/Y lists. Which means when they clear, they're not releasing space in other cabins.

There are also 5 fewer J seats on this aircraft.

The lists start to get really wonky in these situations. Though I'm a little surprised they're selling seats if it's actually overbooked. I could definitely go buy 2 PY seats right now.

vancouver25k

It *was* O0 a couple of hours ago.

It is definitely wonky - on the J list, #1,2,3 seem to repeat at #10,9,8.

I think 4,5,6 were the top of J earlier.

YYCCL3

Don't overthink this too much. These letters, although helpful, are extremely rarely requested. They are not a legal requirement to either exit Canada or enter Italy, although it makes explaining oneself easier if even questioned at any point during the journey. In this case you'd easily be able to explain any discrepancy in the flight details.

ctf12

Anyone know why AC791 has been rerouted YYZ-DEN-LAX instead of YYZ-LAX direct the last two days?

StuMcIlwain

Probably a fuel stop due to winds. A number of westbound transcons have made fuel stops in the last couple of days.

RatherBeInYOW

Yeah it is completely different now than when I posted. At that time what I said was true but something has happened in the meantime and PE space opened and the lists all look very weird right now.

tracon

Wednesday night YYZ....

https://dailyhive.com/canada/angry-p...rs-stuck-plane
AC 90 .... scheduled departure of 9:30 pm, all as snow descended on the airport.“It’s 3:10 am on Thursday, and we are still on the tarmac,”...“It’s been almost six hours since we boarded. This is a prison. Cereal bar and a cup of water. .... de-iced one hour ago.... probably have to be de-iced again.”