CPlus Flight Award Waitlisting Changes
 

For those CPlus members who are currently Club status: you'd better get those upcoming awards quickly because as of Mar 1 no waitlisting for award seating will be allowed for Club members.

Some agents are even trying to enforce this rule as myself and a friend (who is a lowly Club http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif) found out when we tried to book him and his mother Y seats from YYC-YYJ in early Mar and were told the same two things by three agents:

1) most "shuttle flights are now AC so no seats left" or " 11 am oversold, 1 pm full, 2 pm full" - totally false! - the only "problem" the agents seem to be having with the new schedule is that both AC and CP flights appear in the CP timetable which is confusing for FFs not to mention some CPlus agents.

2) award waitlisting as a Club member now comes with a huge catch: only the member can be waitlisted - no one else - meaning that if you are travelling with Aunt Mabel for a weekend together, she can't go with you but will have to fly WestJet!! This rule was news to both of us as we have had no problems before (as little as two months ago)with waitlisting and have always been successful, even if it took a few days to come back confirmed.

Thank God I'm Gold. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Has anyone else experienced difficulties and frustration with the CPlus agents lately with booking awards or making enquiries?

I was used to told that there are no waitlist for award seats at all when I was a CLUB and GOLD. Of course now that I am EP, I have no problem. I have claimed 4 tickets in the last 3 months.

I don't think AC and CP schedules being in the same system is an excuse for confusion. I can easily distinguish which are AC flight and which is CP flight so far with the codesharing. CP operated are usually 3 digit flight number. PLus on those shuttle flight, CP doesn't use A319, D8... The agent works there everyday, so they should have no problem identifying them.

What else is new beside being told.... no seat here, no seat there.... buy a full fare!

So what other big changes are there?

I agree with Empress. I was scouting for some fares on the CP site on the weekend and noticed that AC flights were listed too. It was quite easy to distinguish the AC flights... they had AC next to the flight number!

What sort of games is Milton playing? Four cheers for WestJet!

Just got off the phone with a great CPlus agent who was more than happy to help me with the award waitlist request in question (Mar 11 YYC-YYJ return May 13). This guy was excellent. He asked me if I would mind holding for a few minutes while checked the 'loads' for the early afternoon flights and then he came back with everything comfirmed that I wanted (except for the YYJ-YVR flight - my mother will have to take the 10:45 instead of the 10 am Dash 8). http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I just wish that all CPlus agents would try to go the extra mile to keep us loyal CPlus members happy.

BTW, I agree with you guys that it is easy to distinguish the CP vs AC flights on the CP timetable, however, I wish that CP's would come up first, followed by AC's connections.

Bear in mind that as Canadian Plus becomes a carbon copy (anachronistic reference to typewriter technology http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif ) of Aeroplan, we will see things like Club-level membership having no real value, just like AC Prestige.

For instance, I'm guessing that Club-level members won't have access to the priority checkin or priority boarding.

andrew


[This message has been edited by Andrew Webber (edited 02-22-2000).]

Well.... Milton & friends are real real smart. They make sure they trash us real good at both Aeroplan and CPlus so that we can't switch.

Well, checking in for my YYC-YYZ-YGK flight that ended up being YYC-YEG-YYZ-YGK on CP this morning, a Club member checking in beside me was told:

As of 2 days ago, Club do not get Priority baggage, and will not be able to board with Gold/ExecPlat.

An interesting chat with the flight attendants on my YEG-YYZ flight in J on a 737. It was one FAs last time doing the "French Style" service in the asile for the meal service. She said that changes are as follows:

- no more slices of butter, it will now be packages
- cheese will be a slab of processed cheese wraped in plastic
- NO MORE ICE/SORBET, it will be a piece of cake
- salad with kraft dressing will replace gourmet appetizers

...and yes, I did get $300 in travel credit for my reroute! I got to YYZ 25 minutes earlier than the original YYC-YYZ!

Fisch - I have found that some of the YYC agents for CP tend to enforce some rules either too early (the new Club downgrading wasn't to take effect until Mar 1) or they follow things to the letter (with 'Virtual Tickets', only YYC agents have asked for my photo ID on the return portion of my trip!). Was the other Club guy ticked off?

The Club member was mildly upset. They said that they got priority baggage on the way to YYC which they said was 3 days prior. I didn't really pay too close attention, as I was sorting out my re-route, and upgrade to J class on the YEG-YYZ. It took the agent and I a good 25 minutes to get everything done to my satisfaction. It was a scheduled 9 minute connection in YEG, so theyy had an agent waiting at the door of my Dash-8 to walk me from that flight to the outdoor stairs of the jetway for my next flight! It was quite enjoyable to walk along the tarmac with all the roaring jet engines! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by Fisch (edited 02-28-2000).]

You know, I have sort of given up on the 'priority luggage' thing anyways. Almost everytime I've checked luggage, with the exception of SFO, my 'priority' items come right in the middle of the 'regular' stream of the carousel. Am I just giving off bad karma?

FISCH, glad we had a relatively mild -- albeit overcast -- day here in Edmonton yesterday, so you could cross the tarmac without a gale force wind or blowing snow storm! Hope your ski vacation went well "down south". Sorry to hear about cutbacks in service. Guess my flight to YYZ on the 10:05 am will be a last Cdn lunch of distinction. (WINGWALKER, are you on that flight ex-YEG tomorrow, or a later one?) And you AC guys wonder why we never really thought Executive Class was that much of a deal domestically: Kraft salad dressing and wrapped cheese!? And I'll savour my final bowl of gourmet Italina gelate!

PointWeasel
I am thinking about complaining about the Priority bag issue. I saw them load the Prioirty bags last on my flight this afternoon, but of course, the priority bags were not delivered to the baggage area first. There were lots of other bags on the conveyor before the red tags started to come out. This seems to be happening with increasing regularity recently.

Uh oh! Thread drift....

Not to rub salt in the wounds, but the priorty bags thing reminded me of yet another small improvement in AA service recently. (re: the CP Membership 2000 thread.)

When checking in in Boston on Sunday morning, the agent noticed my CP Priority tag, but added an AA Priority tag anyway. He mentioned that sometimes AA baggage handlers don't "recognize" CP tags, so putting an extra AA tag on would insure that the bags got priority handling at both ends.

My two bags were the very first off in Vancouver.

The real issue is not so much to the food. It is whether getting 50% vs. 100% miles for domestic flights. Even if you buy a K class fare and don't get upgraded, then you only get 50% when you could have gotten the same seat for $200 less. Just like KH said elsewhere, it's like buying a lottery ticket with the 1st prize being getting an upgrade.

I've just fired off a email to CPlus asking for an explanation as to why we cannot use the upgrade stickers on a standby basis.

Don't know whether you guys have noticed, there are a lot more employess in J class lately. Sometimes even couple AC pilots.

[This message has been edited by Empress (edited 02-28-2000).]

Agree with KH that we are drifting off topic ... nonetheless, the priority bags (including mine) on CP 650 (YVR-YEG) this evening came out well towards the end. Have only had this problem on flights that depart out of YVR. Noted that those off first were all connecting so it might just have been late transfers. The flight was oversold in Y (per the check-in agent) yet we departed with an empty seat in J. Sure hope there wasn't a GLD or Club out back who was denied an UPG. FAs were in top notch form. Will be on CP 956 (YEG-YYZ) tomorrow so I guess it will be the "last supper" for me.