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| Hearsay: |
So my trip to “Ottawa” just took me to Halifax, half way to Montreal, then down to Moncton where we sat on the tarmac for an hour before heading back to Halifax. So I’m here in the airport, waiting for a 6pm flight to Ottawa, assuming of course it doesn’t need to take me to Chicago and Jamaica first. Sorry, no updates today. I need to expend all my psychic efforts willing the grusome deaths of many executive decision makers. I love how Air Canada thinks it can charge you for everything from chips to actually ensuring you get a seat* but then can’t get you to where you paid to go.
*Next time you book, make sure you check—-the lowest rate (Tango, usually) is now basically a standby flight, and because they’ve made a policy of heavily overbooking, you’re not guaranteed to get on unless you’re paying for one of the more premium packages. Nice eh? The best part is, they’ve tried to sell it as a perk, some kind of high class club. Someone said to me at a party recently that the business folk really love AC’s new model, and I said, Yeah, that’s the problem—-I’ve come to learn that the kinds of things busines folk like are usually no good for guys like me.
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June 18th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Heard at Heathrow over the tannoy, a couple of weeks ago, waiting to fly back to Toronto: ‘Due to our policy of overbooking, this flight is overbooked’. :)
June 18th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Remember that all those national airlines were privatized and then the industry deregulated because the former model didn’t work.
That people got where they were going and were treated humanely during the trip was, evidently, not the issue. In this “branded”
age think of what that stinking, corrupt outfit is doing for “Canada”. If not nationalize it, rename it. I’m advocating for “Air
Shite”
June 18th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
They could at least have the common courtesy of diverting some of their executive bonus cash into installing tanks of laughing gas which would hiss into the cabin in such situations. Either that or showing WKRP reruns.
June 18th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Last night on the news a guy said because of conditions at Air Canada the staff may become surly.
If this thread is going to be people complaining about air travel, it could get even more comments than a Leah McLaren thread.
June 18th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
That’s a tough beat, George. Unfortunately, the entire airline industry is a
dinosaur, with oil prices going up, up, up because of worldwide peaking oil
production and inflationary pressures, and things will get a lot worse.
Three things will continue: higher fares, cutbacks on flights, and cutbacks
on service.
I was planning a trip to Costa Rica with friends this November, but by then I’ll
have to be Jimmy Pattison’s loan-happy beneficiary just to make a down payment
on a ticket.
June 18th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
We just discovered the hard way that unless you pay to pick your seats on Tango you might not get on. Everyone we dealt with save the flight attendant was either incompetent or bastardly. I honestly wonder if AC is trying to lose business; if so, they’re sure to succeed sooner or later.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Did you say you got on a flight to Ottawa and landed in Halifax? Did you have fresh lobster at least?
Unfortunately, all airlines overbook. That’s because they often get cancellations, so they want to make sure all seats are occupied.
June 19th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Ahhh come on, they’re just trying to make a buck too, you know? And with all those government handouts so Air Canada can have a virtual monopoly, of course there will be some issues now and then.
I dislike Air Canada enough that, living in Ottawa, I have been known to drive to Syracuse and fly out of there rather than be forced into a constant holding pattern with them. Once, on a trip back from New Zealand, I managed to make it across the entire globe without delay, without a single problem, until I hit Air canada in Toronto where we sat on the tarmac for 3 hours, were taken off the plane, put back on 5 hours later, taken off, repeat. The trip from Toronto to Ottawa took about half the time that it took to get to Toronto from New Zealand.
June 19th, 2008 at 10:47 am
George, have you considered the possibility of karma being a factor here?
June 19th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Sharon Stone? Is that you?
June 19th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
But isn’t it miraculous how ginormous aluminum tubes can defy gravity? Really, getting there on schedule is a bonus. You should take the train instead. We’re always late; you can set your clock by our delays.