MAKING IT BETTER

Posted on 06/15/2016

Screw-ups happen, but it is how you fix them that matters. So, thank you Air Canada, you did a great job. When I hear people rant and rave about Canadian charter carriers, I am, to say the least, not sympathetic. I’ve never had a bad flight on Sunwing or Air Transat. And I fly dozens of times in the course of a year, mostly on charters.

Unfortunately, if I’m going to have problems it is usually on Air Canada. I need to acknowledge here that Cam Norton, my late husband, died in the Vancouver Airport on route to Australia, and we were flying Air Canada. From faulty information at the Toronto Airport to the treatment at the Vancouver Airport it was a mess from start to finish. Now in fairness to AC, years later I’m not sure anything could have made me grateful at that point.
I could go on, and on.
My brother disagrees. Alan Salmon has flown 1.8 million miles on Air Canada and is a proud Million Mile Club Member, and an Altitude 59 member for life. He only flies Business or First, of course. He says he’s probably flown over 3 million miles in his lifetime, and never on charters except for Wardair.
I don’t have that kind of clout, and if you’re wondering, my passport name is nothing like my writing name, and Air Canada has no idea I’m a travel writer when I’m travelling. And I don’t do the “Don’t you know who I am?” routine.
This time I was flying to join 150 agents on a Palace Resort Fam to Cancun. I arrived for check-in three hours early, waved good bye to my husband, and lined up for the automatic boarding pass system, lined up to off load my luggage, checked in, and then lined up behind many, many others. After a while it dawned on me that everyone else had nine suitcases and I just had one. I was in the wrong line.
Hopeless, describes me before that essential second cup of coffee.
So, once I figured it out, no line up, and a check in clerk who looked at my file on the computer and said, “You need to go to the next agent to your right.”
“Why” was my response.
“You have no seat,” said the agent, “but don’t worry, we’ll get you out today.” I thought she was joking.
I’d never flown Rouge before.
Went to the gate, and waited, and waited, and indeed there wasn’t a seat for me, and others too.
“We’ll get you out today,” she said, before searching for a flight. “Oops, there isn’t another flight today. Please go to customer service.”
I tend to do an amazing rant when rage overtakes me, but I spoke sternly to myself all the way to customer service.
I explained my situation calmly to the agent. “Well, there is no other flight today.”
“Find another airline, please.” I responded.
My choices were grim. Fly to Montreal, fly to Pittsburgh, fly to Houston, and land in Cancun after midnight. Finally I said, “Can you get me on the same flight tomorrow?”
“We’ll try,” was the response. I know I’m weird, but when I have a ticket I assume I’m going on that flight, and there would be a seat for me and I’ll bet your clients think that too. “We’ll try”, doesn’t quite do it.
Then, the agents, three of them had a chat and returned back to say, “We’ll send you $800 for your inconvenience.” That cheered me right up.
Then they said, “this is our fault, so we’ll put you up for the night, pay your transfers, and $32. to cover three meals.”
I called my husband. “Wanna come and spend the night with me?”
I’d never heard of the Toronto Airport West Hotel, but I’ll use it again. They’re busy giving it an update to make it a Delta at the moment, but even so, we had a pleasant stay, and the restaurant was delightful. Not as good as the Palace Sunrise of course but a reasonable substitute. I wondered how your clients would feel if they lost a day of their holidays.
The next morning I started again. I had a boarding pass, and they had kept my luggage.
“Did you know you don’t have a seat?” said the agent. It turned out I did have a seat, in business class, and for the return too.
I had fallen asleep in those comfy seats, and landing with everyone else behind me anxiously waiting to get off was a rush.
But wait there’s more.
The Cancun airport was a breeze, my suitcase had come too, and my ride to the Palace was waiting to greet me. Check-in at the Palace was instant and Juan Carlos Calderon greeted me with open arms.
So I got to my room, started to unpack and realized my computer was under the seat on the Rouge Aircraft. My life is in that MacBook, so sheer horror.
I called the front desk, and they were amazing. “We’ll stay on the phone in case you need an interpreter. Don’t worry we have the number.”
Air Canada listened, and said the plane hasn’t left yet, we’ll send someone on to check. Ten minutes later, it was on its way to me in a cab.
Thank you Air Canada.