Sunday, September 11, 2011

Dear Air Canada

Hello,

I just checked-in from Pearson Airport and received a really rude treatment from one of your staff. I noticed when I checked-in that my seat was a middle seat, despite that the travelling coordinator at my company paid a surcharge to allow seat selection. When I dropped off my baggage, I asked the service staff why I would get charged for seat selection if I ended up with a middle seat (who would pick a middle seat if they had the option, right?). Despite that I was being polite to her, she informed me that the reason why I got that seat was because my ticket was "cheap" and if I didn't pay that price, I would have gotten no seats, since the flight was overbooked. When I told her my seats were not that "cheap" as they were over a thousand dollars, she replied to me, in a quite condescending tone, "let's put it this way, there are many tickets that are way more expensive than yours."

I have the following concerns:
1. Whether her reasoning was sound or not, I implore you to see the problem with her attitude. Is it common for Air Canada staff to speak to a customer in this manner because she thinks they don't have money? I would have walked away without a problem had she told me politely that sometimes the surcharge is a way to ensure that you have a seat, since sometimes flights do get overbooked; however, she instead decided to demean me without a reason.

2. Is it really true that if I pay $1k for a ticket and you are overbooked, I would not be able to continue with my travel? If that is the case, I can hardly imagine that I would want to travel with an airline with operational strategies as such. I am sure that there will be plenty of airlines who would like to take my "cheap" $1500 and guarantee me a seat on the date of my travel.

Your disgruntled frequent flier,
Lynn

2 comments:

Calebini said...

I've a complaint for BA that I can't seem to find the right words for. Are you for hire?

some grad student said...

Not sure about Canada, but the one nice thing the FAA allows for is if you get bumped due to overbooking, you get double the ticket price as compensation plus a flight to your destination. There are also precedents where missing the flight resulted in significant loss (vacation, business engagement) and the airline could be taken to court over it (usually small claims).

However, that was quite a tanget -- sorry about your experience! Hope it's an exception, rather than the rule.