A new low for AC.
A friend of mine is going to CDG so I give him two SSWU and tell him you are not allowed to use these, but give it a try... if seats are empty they might upgrade you.
So off to the airport he goes... at check in the agent tells him" upgrades you will need to check at the gate...
He goes to the gate agent shows him the certificates and the agent tells him they can't be used. Here is what happens NEXT.

Quote:
About 25 minutes later the same attendant and a security guard came over and said "We are not going to cause any trouble for you, but we may wish to confiscate those upgrade certificates. The friend who gave them to you should have known better than to give them to you. If we do confiscate them and send them in with VOID written across them your friend could lose privileges.
WHAT???? WHAT??? a new low for AC!
I just read the certificate.... nowhere does it say I can't give them away! It does say they can only be used for SE,E,P members....
OH the passenger is "One World" I told him to switch to "Star" so he just flew AC YYZ-EZE, AC YYZ-CDG, booked LH YYZ-CPT for March...[he would have made SE in 5 more months] so hes Elite in 3 months..... way to go AC scare another customer away!
Comments??? Was I wrong??

I don't want to come across as a smart a$$...but you answered your own question....

You have to be E or SE to use them or travel with an SE or E.

On the other hand, the gate agent could have handled the situation in a more customer friendly manner without involving security.

Ahem...what authority does a security guard have here? Call the police if there is an issue and you wish to seize items from someone.

There is something missing here? The story doesn't make sense because most of the posters on this board would have lost their status by now if it was simply a matter of presenting a cert. Most GA's are too busy to bother with the type of tactics decribed here?? and many would try to upgrade the pax provided they were asked properly.

Until more facts come out I take this incident with a grain of salt!

DF

But nowhere does it say you cant try.... thats all he did...
Also I think he is P... he flew 20K with AC in Dec??? would that make him P???

I don't have one handy to check, but I believe the 2004 certificates had a previously unseen and fairly unequivocal restriction that stated "This certificate is not transferable" (or words to that effect.)

In previous years, the certs said something like void if sold or bartered, but in 2004 it seems they made the non-transferable, even as a gift. My suspicion is that this is in part why AP is eager to go to electronic certificates. That way, if they so decide, they can make absolutely certain that certificates are not transferred, even as gifts.

Yes. The terms of use are quite clear in that regard.
Besides not traveling with your friend, which would then allow him to upgrade as your traveling companion, you could be seen as endeavoring to preclude others from their own rightful upgrade opportunity.
The AC agent had the right to confiscate and void the certs without Security. Choosing to confront your friend with Security leads me to believe that there was more to this story, but to hear the other side of things, we would have to hear the agents version.

I really don't get it, if you do not have status you should not be presenting these certs to the check in agents. It does not give you a right to use them, unless accompanied by a member with status, as mentioned earlier. Don't blame the airline. Sorry whyfly

OK I guess I stand corrected.... I just re-read the cert it does not say CANT be tranfered.... ?? It just says can be used by SE E P or ONE companion..etc

SO nowhere does it say if used by another person they will call security and threaten to take the cert.... UGH I talked my friend into trying AC again... OOPS its still a bit early.... Just a different method of customer appreciation.

Over the years I've had a couple of conversations with check-in agents about non-status flyers attempting to use upgrade certs. In both of these conversations (one as recently as a couple of weeks ago in YOW), the agent said that it ususally happens when a status customer passes on a cert without fully understanding the rules. The agents told me they simply tell the person presenting it that they aren't entitled to use it.

There was nothing in the conversations that suggested that agents would get shirty about it; in fact, quite the opposite. It seemed to be something that happens from time to time and that it can be handled without jumping all over the customer or confiscating the cert.

But it does say that "Certificates are the property of Air Canada" on the back of the certificate under the "AT CHECK-IN" heading.

So, technically, you never actually owned that certificate in the first place. Therefore, they do have a legal right to reclaim their own property...

However, they would have no way of tracing the certificate back to you (unless your friend told them your name), so their "your friend could lose privileges" line was just a scare tactic...

P.S. A more appropriate title for this thread would be "Warning: AC calls security for misusing an SSWU"

Listen AC can have the certs back... I could not care... however I did'nt misuse them... NOWHERE does it say I can't give them to another person!

PS.... I have given away 30 certs this year I assure you I didnt check if the FT member had "real status".....

Anyhow if thats the case Moderater should close all threads wanting to trade certs

I never said that you had misused the certs -- it was your friend who tried to misuse them as he was not an E/SE member at the time he presented them to the agent(s). As mentioned previously, you didn't really do anything wrong and AC cannot go after you...

Like most of AC customers.... they have no idea how the program works...
Interesting he might even be P.... I will have to check when he gets back he flew UA to Vietnam [dec 04]... so thats about 18K... isnt that enough for P???

UGH I also was the one who talked him into switching from AA to AC oops... that was a mistake...

Personal opinion? Regardless of the specific terms of the cert.'s, bringing a security guard over was a little over the top. I/we don't know how the interaction at the gate went down, of course, but based on the story related here is seemed a little excessive.