Air Canada Does It Again

After my previous encounter with Air Canada, I was hopeful that our experience getting lounge passes would be smooth and without complications. We logged in today and, sure enough, we could get lounge passes... for our flight from SJ to Orange County. However, we could not get a lounge pass from Orange County back.

I called the number and got Rosie. She tried to be helpful but insisted that we couldn't purchase lounge passes for the flight home because our flight from SNA is operated by United. What the hell? We have two flights owned and operated by Air Canada on the way home, but because of the one flight during the day that we DO NOT want lounge passes for in the first place is not run by AC, we can't get ANY passes for the ENTIRE flight?

I have to admit that I lost my cool a bit with Rosie. I tried a couple of tacts to get her to see our position, but she was a company woman and couldn't see it and didn't want to hear it. I finally asked to speak with a manager. She put me on hold for quite a bit of time and then came back and said she couldn't get anything except voice mail on any manager's line. She took my information and left a message for her direct manager. I made sure to confirm that a call back would happen today.

What we don't understand is why AC would be so insistent that they don't want people to use the lounge if ANY part of their flight is run by another company. This is, basically, free money to Air Canada. If I was AC, I would accept ANYONE who wanted to pay the $30 per person fee, regardless of flight ownership, into my lounge. The lounge is there 24/7, AC has to staff it... why not allow anyone in who wants to pay?

If I were AC, the lounge passes would be just that... passes. You purchase them from AC and it gives you a physical pass that says "Paid - Admit One". If the airport you are in has a lounge, that pass is taken from you, and you are allowed in. Period. End of story. AC has $30 and I have access to a lounge.

Why, oh why would Air Canada, in this economy and with the financial issues that it claims to be having, be turning away found money?

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As I was typing the above, I received my first call back from Air Canada on this issue. The manager is checking into the issue and will give us the passes if she can. She said to expect a call back in a half hour or so with the results. Hopefully, for her, the results will be positive as otherwise she's going to get an earful from me on this issue.

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Just got the call back from MaryEllen at Air Canada. She's sorry, but because the first flight out of Orange County is code shared with United, there is simply NOTHING that they can do about getting us lounge passes for our return flight home.

I think my wife can verify, I let her have it. I actually laughed out loud at her and said, "From everything I read, your company is struggling in this economy, and, you have a customer who is willing to work with you, wants to pay your company more money, and you can't figure out some way to get him the passes?"

"Sorry, sir, there is simply nothing I can do."

She recommended that I put in a complaint via the online system, to which I replied, "Oh, I'll be putting in a complaint."

My ire prompted her to ask if I wanted the situation escalated to the VP level, and I jumped on that (ironically, that was going to be my next statement to her, so she knew where this was going).

She is passing along my information to a VP-level Air Canada representative and I should expect a call tomorrow on this. M and I, meanwhile, are laughing our asses off... wouldn't it be easier to physically send us passes as a good-will gesture to get me off their backs?

Of course, what they don't know is that I am perfectly willing to keep on this like a dog with a bone until I speak with the CEO of the company. I'll MAKE the time to speak with him. I'll rearrange my schedule to accomodate his, if need be. I will let AC know how absurd this business practice is and how stupid it is to leave money laying on the ground or, in this case, in our pocketbooks. It just makes no sense whatsoever to us.

I'm willing to bet that most any other person we walked up to and said, "Here's $30 for each of us, can we sit in your front room and have access to some drinks and the bathroom for a couple of hours?" would be happy to accept the money and let us in. But no Air Canada!

I'll post another update after I speak with the VP.

Lounge Lizard

We are traveling to SoCal in September. On the way there and coming back, we have a 2 hour and a 3 hour layover in Toronto. My wife once had an upgraded ticket on a trip out to see me and she used the Air Canada VIP Lounge and loved it. So, we wanted to use that service again if possible (you can with standard fares for an additional fee per person).

The strange thing is that Air Canada will not accept you purchasing a VIP Lounge pass if your destination or starting location airports do not have a lounge. Since we are in the small town of Saint John, NB, our airport does not have a lounge. So the fact we are WILLING to pay this additional fee means nothing to AC, they will not accept our money or give us the pass.

This has irritated my wife more than once, and today she found the rule, sent it to me, and asked me to call and argue with them about it. Rather than argue, I took a different tact.

When Mike, the AC representative who fielded my call came on the line, I said, "Mike, I have a problem. I want to give Air Canada money and your company doesn't want to take it. Can you help me to give Air Canada more money, Mike?"

This completely took Mike by surprise and I heard him give a little laugh before he replied, "I'll see what I can do. What seems to be the trouble?"

I then explained to Mike that I was willing to bet that the vast majority of people flying do not feel the need to use a lounge at their starting destination, as they are likely arriving at an appropriate time and getting on their planes fairly quickly. Where the majority of people need a lounge is at connection cities; they have long layovers and may have had a trying flight for a number of reasons, and they need to unwind before going up in another plane. Mike agreed that made sense.

At this point I explained that it almost felt like AC was discriminating against NB because none of our airports had lounges, so we couldn't purchase this option at all for any of our flights. I told him this was like AC turning down free money. He laughed and agreed.

Mike was so amiably surprised and pleased with the conversation that he then tried some workarounds to see if he could get us the lounge passes. Each failed. But this led him to check to see if there was any more information about this service available. He found an article that says that, starting August 6, 2009, AC will allow these passes to be purchased by any individual for locations that have a lounge. He recommended that we try again to purchase it online at that time and, if it still didn't work, to call AC back. He went so far as to give me the location and name of the file so I could tell anyone who argued with me to look it up and get it done.

As we were signing off, he again said, "I see your point; seems strange that Air Canada would just leave this 'free money' on the table. Maybe this new policy is addressing that."

Sometimes, you just have to know the right tact to take and doors will open. This is, by far, some of the best customer service I have received in my calls/talks with any AC employee. Kudos to Mike for going the extra step.

Do you think if I had called up with angry voice and only complaining/demanding satisfaction, I would have had the same experience?