Globe-trotting with Air Canada - Truly the people's airline

patwa_2

Hi. We often hear about the bad experiences people have when travelling, the rip-offs, scams or other complaints. But I'd like to give a report and credit which is well and truly deserved.

A week ago, I was returning back from San Francisco after a week there for a computing conference. the routing was supposed to be fairly straightforward, San Francisco > Vancouver > London Heathrow > Aberdee. And it was all going swimmingly until I got to Vancouver at about 14:30 on Saturday afternoon.

Air Canada had the pleasure of carrying me back across the Atlantic from Vancouver, but I was concerned to be told on arrival that the flight I was scheduled to depart on was overbooked. This was not really a problem, as they have another flight departing later on Saturday evenings. But they were not sure about this either, due to the backlog of passengers. And this is where they truly went above and beyond the call of duty.

I had a final software demonstration scheduled first thing on Monday morning here in Aberdeen, which, due to illness and other circumstances, including the schedule of the external examining authorities, I just could not put off any longer. therefore it was imperative that I somehow leave Canada that same night, as no other flights with connections would get me back on time.

Time was really getting short. Canada is a very big country, with only a few major airports with the majority of trans-atlantic flights departing the early evening. Connections from either toronto or Montreal were out, due to the time difference I could never get there in time. That left either Edmonton or Calgary. The only question; were there seats on these inter-domestic flights, and could everything be arranged in time? The flight to Calgary left in less than 50 minutes! At this point I should add that I made a request, that if a re-routing were to be inacted, would it be at all possible to bypass London, due to the extreme delays through security and extreme overcrowding and the difficulties this would invariably pose? I was of course prepared to bear any reasonable costs to support this.

I had received guided assistance from the arriving aircraft into the airport, and after giving the hostess my onward flight details and being told of the overbooking, was promptly led to the very comfortable and well-featured first-class executive lounge. Everything was handled very professionally, with none of the portrayed anxiety and rush that one normally gets from staff who find themselves in a fix. She was calm, and took everything in stride, just as though it were a normal event. After seeing that I was comfortable, equipped with laptop power, telephone and a selection of drinks and snacks, she went off to sort everything out. It was now about 15:15.

As for me, I was not too worried yet, as there was always that later Air Canada flight that I could somehow get on board. I relaxed, checked my mail, made a couple of calls (at the airline's willing expense) and generally savoured the luxury of having first class treatment for the first time in my life.

the hostess showed up in person at about 15:50 saying that everything was sorted out, that I would be in Aberdeen on Sunday evening and that there was no worry about the cost as it was the airline's issues that had found me in this unacceptable predicament. And this is where the real fun began. The proposed route? Vancouver > Frankfurt > Amsterdam > Aberdeen!


I was collected by that same hostess, still just as cheerful

and professional as three hours ago, at around 17:50, 15 minutes before the flight to Frankfurt departed. I was taken to the aircraft with no delays at all, no fuss about security and no hassle about tickets or boarding cards or anything like that. She took me right to the plane, turned left, to my seat, bid me bon voyage and left. Personal service if ever there was. I would now enjoy Lufthansa's comfort travelling across the pond.

Well, Air Canada's role in this pretty much ends here, almost. I am writing a much more detailed report on the whole return trip on my blog, but suffice to say the flight to Frankfurt, and onwards connections to Amsterdam and finally home to Aberdeen went without a hitch. Air Canada had arranged everything from Vancouver with the respective airlines
, had contacted the appropriate people and provided the appropriate paperwork (although I didn't really have that much). It's a credit to their superb organisation and co-operation with the airline partners that everything went smoothly, I didn't miss any more flights and my baggage arrived safely with me in Aberdeen. Actually, I had rather a lot of baggage, most of it stuff I'd bought in San Francisco. They actually sent the 'stuff' part of the baggage directly to Amsterdam via KLM, and the items I'd left with from Aberdeen with me as cargo to Frankfurt, etc. KLM phoned me up two days later to agree a time for delivery to my house, and the boxes arrived well-packed and undamaged as agreed (they had previously agreed with me that the boxes which were heavier would be delivered later, although they offered to have everything in one batch, but I opted to travel light).

This was most definitely an adventure for me, a person who usually boasts a fairly quiet life. It's also a pleasure to be able to positively recommend an airline that really does care about its customers over and above the simple A to B process. I had read positive reviews about this airline before, which is why I chose to fly with them (thus extending the flight time by about 5 hours) and I'm honestly glad I did. The alternative, flying British Airways, I'm sure would not have ended so satisfactorily.

Sam_Bee

patwa wrote: »

the routing was supposed to be fairly straightforward, San Francisco > Vancouver > London Heathrow > Aberdeen.

That made me chuckle!

se999

We had totally the opposite experience when our flight was delayed for 6 hours in Vancouver. My husband was due to fly on from Heathrow to Helsinki for work, no one helped at all, he obviously missed his connection by hours, missed the important meeting. Also the company had to pay for a new flight from Heathrow to Helsinki. Air Canada were useless and no help at all.

We'd already had problems on the outward flight and on an internal flight with them.

We are trying to avoid flying with them ever again

LesD

Which just goes to show it's not usually the airline, but the people working for it!

Take note those that criticise Ryanair!