Good Evening folks.
I'm currently sitting in the Air New Zealand lounge in LAX. I am Air Canada Elite member flying on Lattitute with confirmed upgrade.

I was scheduled for flight AC 573 which was to depart LAX at 3:50pm. Well, it appears upon landing the tire burst, so they need to get a new airplane. The next airplane will arrive in SEVEN HOURS. Which means instead of arriving in Calgary at 8:10pm tonight, I will arrive around 2:30am.

I asked the AC Lounge if they could reschedule me on tomorrows flight, which was agreed, but was refused a compensation for the hotel stay. He explained to me that the flight isn't cancelled, it's just delayed. I tried to understand from him how this is considered a Delay, and not a cancellation.

All they will give me is a $50 meal voucher for this seven hour delay. No free hotel stay, or anything of that sort.
My party won't be able to meet me in Calgary, so now I have to pay $50 for a cab, and the lounge guy said they won't compensate that either.

What am I to do? This seems pretty poor for a seven hour delay.

I called AC Reservations but they said they could do nothing for me over the phone.

I Just found out it was $15, not $50. Ouch.

Yeah, I about to say, $50 meal voucher... Schweeet!

But no, you got shafted.

IMO any airline in this type of situation should be giving a minimum of 100 dollars out right away. I would email MB if nothing comes of this, you should get at least 100 dollars. AC does it this way so that only pax who complain get anything, it's a new cost cutting measure. If they gave an ounce about customer service all pax on this flight would be sitting in hand with a compensation voucher.

If cancelled, they'd be trying to accomodate all the passengers. By sending people the same day, with a long delay, they have far fewer passengers stranded. Most people would choose the delay over going the next day.

For some of us, myself included, staying and being rebooked on the next day is a better plan. By choosing the flight the next day, you're basically accepting the new date as being satisfactory.

I'm assuming they'll honor the upgraded seat. This is important because it makes your other options much less attractive. I'm guessing that you could ask for an endorsement to another carrier, as the 7 hour delay is too long. They'd likely book you in Economy if you chose to fly another carrier.

Mechanical delays are their responsibility, so your taxi question is a good one. Obviously if you fly the next day, arriving at normal hours, I don't think taxi compensation is warranted. But arriving at 2:30 am presents difficulty organizing a ride home. The expectation to provide compensation here doesn't seem unreasonable.

In a similiar situation which I ended up needing a hotel because I had to on the ball for work the next day. The counter agent wouldn't provide any help and the person over the phone would not provide any help.

I ended up writing a letter to their complaint departments. Sent via the good old postal service. Although it took several letters back and forth my hotel room was refunded and I was given 5000 ae points as a "gesture of goodwill".

Might be worth a try...

What others have said but basically
Delayed - They don't give you anything really
Cancelled - Hotels/Vouchers etc etc

Is there any ruling on how long a flight can be delayed for, before it's cancelled ?

To answer the upgrade question, I was told I would be on stand-by. I explained I have a Lattitude fair that I did instant upgrade with, but they still said would be stand-by upgrade for tomorrows flight, plus hotel at my cost.
They said if this flight was scheduled for 11pm, but was delayed till 6pm. then there would be a hotel, but because it was late evening no hotel. It's so frustrating.
I live in AIRDRIE, about 15-20 minute drive from Calgary, so im looking at $50 taxi ride. I'll speak with the Concerige in YYC but since im only Elite and not Super Elite I don't even know if they'll give me the time of day.

I'm very, very dissapointed, and upset that now im going to be out money, not to mention sleep!

On a side note, this Air New Zealand lounge is great. They had no problem letting me and my spouse in.

I remember a few years ago someone from AC posted some compensation info. I believe it stated that after a 3 hour delay pax were entitled to something, it may have only been meal vouchers, but I think it was more than that.

As I have said a number of times on this board (and got flamed for the other day), when this type of situation occurs, as they inevitably will, the attitude of the AC people sucks. They simply don't care about the customers.

Some will argue that they can't afford to pay the compensation some people expect, they are overwhelmed by major weather delays, their duty is to the shareholders to be profitable, etc. While there may be some validity to these arguments on a purely technical basis, what matters to the individual passenger is how AC responds to their particular situation. If the message sent by AC through their actions is, "We don't care, you'll just have to bl**dy well wait" they can and must expect a negative reaction. Anyone at AC who expects me to patiently wait around for seven hours in exchange for a meal while you sort out your problem will be disappointed.

I rest my case. Those who disagree can flame away.

Furthermore, having to go the route of customer solutions or further does not help the situation, even if the pax gets what is fair, as they still had to go to all that trouble. Is AC's target market pax who want decent J seats with crappy service? If so, they are doing a very good job.

Weather delays should mean no voucher or compensation, weather is outside of AC and any other airlines hands.

Mechanical delays should be vouchers and compensation after 3 hours!

At least you have the NZ lounge in LAX, one of the better ones!

Well it's 3:45am and im finally home, should of been home around 8:00pm. I checked with AC upon arrival once again to see if they would pay for my taxi, or a hotel, again, was given no. They said it's not in their control. I explained as an Elite I've witnessed how Air Canada treats us good when everything goes Air Canada's way, but when there is a little hic-cup related to air canada, it's every PAX for themselves.

He advised me to keep my $40 taxi receipt and e-mail Customer Relationships.
I'm sure I'll be waiting months for anything to happen, which I shouldn't.

For the first time, im checking other avenues for my upcoming flights to BOM and LHR and YYT , YHZ.
I was flying "First class" but treated like a third class citizen.

Even when flying AC, I would always go inside the NZ as oppose to the next door MLL.

That has been my experience with concierge. Simple question about directions in a concourse, and basically told to .... off since I had no status.

Any employee of an airline, no matter the role should always be available to the customer.