ajcopley

Had to book two separate reward tickets per AC's system limitations back in February for travel in two weeks: One reservation for my family (three seats) using three business priority rewards. Another reservation for myself using a 50K reward certificate. At the time of booking, I was able to secure preferred seats for all 4 of us (I called AC and they booked them for me). No charge and never once was there any mention of "oh and by the way, make sure you call back to pay for them otherwise we're going to cancel them 4 months from now". Received a confirmation of seat assignments email at that time showing $0.00 owed.

Fast forward to yesterday. I find out all three of their seats have been cancelled, and when I call the SE desk, two different agents are telling me that the seats were cancelled for non-payment, and the only way to get them back is by paying $130 per seat!!!!

NOT HAPPY AIR CANADA

AND when I ask to speak to a supervisor, I get a "Our Supervisor's don't take calls". Really???? Ok then how do I speak to someone above you to get this fixed???

canadiancow

Sucks, but they're correct. You need to be on the same PNR to get free preferred seats.

There have been a LOT of people taking advantage of things like this (or worse - booking 4 pax selecting seats, and cancelling themselves), so they do need a way to retroactively "fix" bookings.

ajcopley

Then why the email confirmation saying $0.00 owed for their seats?

I just asked if they could grab my seats while I was on the phone with them booking the flights, and no problem...aeroplan grabbed the seats I requested and sent me an email confirmation. Why send me a confirmation email stating seats confirmed and $0.00 owed, but then wait until 4 months later -- 2 weeks before the flight -- to cancel them, AND even worse, not bother to tell me they did this? I only found out by logging into my account today to see that they no longer had seats!

canadiancow

A bug that wasn't charging you because your account is SE?

Plumber

Yeah- this sucks. Happened to me the other day.

But it seems that SE have been getting away with something (ie free seat selection on lower fares when we are not on the reservation) for a while. That part that sucks is that they assign the seats for $0 , but then later cancel the seats with no notice whatsoever. And then claim the seats were let go for non-payment, despite the fact I was never asked for payment.

But yeah, I get it.

ajcopley

Thing is...I wasn't trying to get away with anything. They offered to get all of our seats, so I took them up on the offer. Don't send me an email confirmation showing $0.00 owed and lead me on for four months thinking all is good, only to cancel them without telling me. And then same thing..I get the "they were canceled for non-payment". I was never asked for payment!!!

canadiancow

For waht it's worth, the booking flow is now asking me to pay for preferred seat selection on both TG and FL redemptions when I'm not on the booking.

RangerNS

I presume the tool the agent can use to assign seats isn't connected to the billing tool; they billed you $0. The unrelated audit/fraud tool detected the misalignment in its own good time. And then just fixed the glitch

canadiancow

The website used to allow this for redemptions in TG/FL from a SE account regardless of whether the SE was on the booking.

ajcopley

Perhaps, but don't retroactively penalize those of us for a system glitch. Fix the glitch and make it effective going forward.

foothills county flier

Most business fix glitch, once they find them. I would take it as a life lesson, move forward and buy the preferred seats for your flight. Also, in the futures, I would check my booking every month or so, when you book so far out. Not checking your booking for four months, sounds like a mistake.

Stranger

Most businesses might.

However once you have entered into a contract, you are supposed to be in. That your employee or your system made a mistake is not a valid reason to unilaterally change the deal.

RZR

Some of the replies in this thread make me feel like they work for AC

canadiancow

It's possible to agree with AC without working for them.

Looking at it another way, this was a way to scam your way into free preferred seats, thereby taking away my ability to legitimately get them. Does it make you feel better if I give you a selfish reason for my opinion?

Plumber

It wasn’t a scam- AC offered seats for no cost. SEs accepted them.