yyznomad

Steverino

Thank you to Mario in YUL for greeting us at the plane door with boarding passes for an earlier connection, and for hustling us through the airport, and for persuading somebody to open a door for a shortcut!

The best part of all this was that my wife was travelling with me to witness this service. (The worst part is that now she thinks this happens to me all the time.)

yyznomad

expert7700

Thanks to the YYZ concierge tonight for standing up to less than enthusiastic gate agents.

5min before boarding AC33, a seat opened up for my return next week so that I could fly the same route that my wife and son had ticketed.

Unfortunately Aeroplan couldn't reissue my ticket since I was checked in and about to board AC33 long haul. Gate agents refused to offload and recheck me a few minutes later since boarding was imminent. They DID dial up a friendly concierge...

while on the call:

Gate agent "you may lose your seat from yvr-syd"... "the agents in YVR are going to take it out from under you, you'll end up in economy."

Concierge: "I heard that, don't worry, I have seat XX on hold for you till we finish the call just in case".

Gate agent's face when I told him this: PRICELESS.

canadiancow

Yeah, the concierge vs. gate agent battles are "fun".

Or at least... dramatic.

I had 4 instances in 2017 (that I can recall) where I was offloaded from a flight without my knowledge or consent. Two were fixed by the gate agent (one was easy - downgrade a non-rev; the other required downgrading a revenue passenger). The one where I had to get the concierge involved had a very clearly unfriendly back and forth between the GA and the concierge. The concierge was completely on my side. The GA wants to get the flight out, and the concierge wants to help the SE.

In my case, the concierge wanted to fix a problem that someone at AC created. In your case, I'm actually a little surprised the concierge would have done anything to make the GA's life that much harder for what was clearly a voluntary change. But I'm happy it worked out for you.

dibby

In my experience, they do things like this all the time. What's not to love?
Happy New Years, SFO Concierge team. I hope I won't have to rely on you as much as I did in 2017, but I know you'll be there if I need you!

run&fly

Haven't had to use the concierge service much over the years (lucky me in a way!), but my last two AC871's (CDG-YUL) were delayed by several hours for various reasons. Both times, the Concierge team at YUL was very pro-active in taking care of my onward connection to YQB, nicely waiting for me at the gate with a BP on the next flight home. Is it just me, or are we seeing an improvement in Concierge service as of late? Anyways, just wanted to say thanks to the YUL team!

canadiancow

I've actually noticed a marked improvement since around the time they introduced AQD.

Aeroplan tickets getting rebooked onto Alaska during IRROPS (delay, not cancellation), etc.

I've even seen them waive SDC fees a lot more easily (i.e. I didn't ask because I was willing to pay) lately.

24left

I've had exceptional service from the AC Concierge teams in YVR, HKG, NRT, HND, LAX, BNE, TPE, YYZ, SFO, LHR and FRA over the past number of years.

These teams have been pro-active during IROPS, and/or provided escort to APEC, Nexus or other Fast Track lanes, and/or helped resolve issues with BPs or *A partner PNRs on AC tickets, as well as helped with a hotel booking and arranged for car service, among other things.

In recent months, some YYZ concierges helped to make sure I got out of YYZ before storms so I would not miss my onward connections. The LAX team helped with issues on a ticket and connections. SFO dazzled me last year by pulling my carry on and running with me to make my flight to YYZ.

The most recent TPE trip had the YVR and TPE teams making sure that I and others made our connections due to the IROPS mess that YYZ weather caused along with the delays on AC 11 and 12. This weekend, the inbound AC 11 was delayed due to strong headwinds, arriving in TPE quite late and with pax deplaning after our AC 12 scheduled departure time. The concierges kept us informed of the delays and advised that extra grooming teams were brought in to speed up turnaround and she also informed us that she had sent messages to YVR prior to our departure.

On arrival in YVR, we were met by a concierge who advised that our various onward flights were cancelled, and had new BPs for us. Then we were whisked by "chariot" to Nexus, and then to the C Security.

I have sent personal thank you messages to these teams, but I think it is equally important to thank them here.

While we may spend the money and earn the status that allows us the concierge service, it is the creativity and problem-solving skills of some of the concierges that can really make a difference in travel, especially when one is on the other side of the planet.

vernonc

Thanks Denise, concierge at YVR. YVR-TPE-YYZ last week, had a foot issue so asked for assistance and she had a cart waiting. I chose not to follow FOTSG @yyznomad past advice about going out and going back in using the normal security line and went with the connection line which was a gong show - 50 people ahead of me and one x-ray line. Eventually they opened another line. I got picked for extra security. Then my Kavalan single malt from duty free set off the alarm on the spectrometer or whatever it is they use. So they xrayed all my stuff twice, swabbed all my electronics twice, sent me for a pat down again - and decided they were not going to let the bottle thru. The concierge came looking for me and helped pack the bottle in my carryon which she checked in baggage and then brought the bag receipt to the boarding gate. Awesome.
YVR needs to do something about that connection line. Last time my liquor also set off the alarm and some supervisor came over, recalibrated and all was good.

yyznomad

tsk-tsk.

Never not-listen to the FOTSG advice of yyznomad.

vernonc

Yes off course. Sometimes we get these crazy ideas in our heads like trying to check things out ourselves :-)

Silvercity

Shout out the the Concierges at YYZ . Who got my and family protected on the next flight after 1627 canceled 02/10. They also helped work with customer care to get refund quickly on my Hotel . When the flight canceled and hundreds rushed to the counter. I just stepped back and called them. Super service always. I have been SEfor 12yrs and bispite all yelling here. I think it’s very good program for what it is.

SYM

Thank you to Cindy, BOS concierge, for an amazing job last night. BOS was a sh*t-show last night with rain and sleet and an A/C going mechanical (extraordinary story - the same a/c had the same issue at BOS the previous night, cancelled, patched up my maintenance yesterday morning and continued to fly, then the problem re-occurred but because it was already noted in the log, apparently they couldn't apply the same patch-job a second time. Why would AC send a questionable a/c as the last inbound of the night?). Cindy did a great, very subtle job of getting all 5 SEs offloaded from the (at that time) delayed flight, moved over to the one flight that was likely to operate, and getting us all home without infuriating the dozens of other pax milling about who were not so lucky. THANKS Cindy!

100,000miler

The Concierge team in GRU are the best .....Christina, Fabriola, Racia. Each is so professional and have helped me so many times. I just want to put in a good word for this team.

100k