Sutori - Stories Tagged With 'airlines'

Air Canada provides good customer support? Really?

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 14:54:02 -0700

Last week I was on vacation in Vancouver with my wife and 23-month old son. We flew back with Air Canada.

Yes, the cost of the ticket was insane (but that's a story for another day.)

We didn't buy a seat for my son cause he's not quite 2 and we always hope to be able to get an extra seat. We ask each person throughout the check-in process, "Is there any way you can get us an extra seat?"

The answer is typically, "No, we're overbooked."

The same was true flying home from Vancouver. And a fellow sat next to us (it was his seat), and so it looked like we would be on a plane for 5 hours with the kid climbing all over everyone. We were in the 2nd to last row on the plane; the row behind us was empty.

We asked the flight attendants about it, but they told us it was reserved for them, on long flights they needed a place to sit other than those fold-out chairs they have. Alright...

But, just before the plane was going to take off, one of the flight attendants came to us and said, "You can take those seats. We won't use them."

I was suitably impressed. We got an extra seat for the kid and the flight was almost enjoyable. I was impressed with the flight attendants and their willingness + effort to help us.

Most of the time Air Canada stinks, and WestJet plays on that constantly, but this time Air Canada did their thing.

I hate leather airline seats

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 16:01:02 -0700

Not really a huge customer service gripe, but inspired by the Air Canada story below, I felt like getting this off my chest.

I really like WestJet - the attitude, the service, the prices, the little satellite TVs in every row. But I wish they'd dump the crappy leatherette seats.

On long flights in particular, they're really just not comfortable. Your bum is sliding all over the place all the time, and there's no support. I just flew WestJet on the redeye back from Vancouver, and couldn't get comfy enough to sleep properly, as I kept sliding down so far in my seat. Short of wearing trousers made of sandpaper, I'm not sure what the solution to this is - other than just stripping out the darn faux-fancypants seats and putting in good ol' stinky airline fabric.

The great airline scam

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 09:46:20 -0700

First off, let me say that I should have read the fine print on the ticket. Of course, it was an e-ticket, so the fine print must be found, somehow, on a bad web site, but that's neither here nor there. I booked a round trip from San Francisco to New York on American.

My plans changed at the last minute as I had a meeting in LA. My best shot was to fly to LA and on to NY on different airlines and return on my existing return ticket. The day of my return, I called AA to check on the flight times and lo-and-behold my reservation was gone. Voided. Annulled. I was told that because I hadn't taken my outbound leg, the entire ticket was cancelled with no refund. There was no phone call (though they had a contact number) and very little sympathy. Ignorance of arcane and illogical rules, apparently, is no excuse.

I ended up paying for the difference in cost between my reservation and a new one way fare - I got lucky - it was only $75. AA said that they were "doing me a favor" because technically they didn't have to credit me the money I already spent.

What is ironic is that carriers with great customer service - JetBlue and Southwest for example - would have kept my return leg and credited me the difference! Logical and useful for travellers whose plans change.

Big carriers take note - the times are changing and you will have to change with them or become obsolete!

Virgin Atlantic Love Affair

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 10:35:49 -0700

Long distance air travel is one of those challenges that has always been a bit daunting for me personally. While I prepared in advance for the experience, I seemed destined to have a bloody miserable experience. That was then….this is now…

To quote one of my favorite blog post on Virgin…“I love Virgin Atlantic to the point that I nearly have a man-crush on Richard Branson.” OK, maybe that’s a bit strong, but I suggest that Virgin Atlantic is the best airline in the world.

Tremendously cool, great service and the most comfortable seats with more room than other airlines plus a very good video-on-demand service.

-g

Guilty of Being Loyal?

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:45:15 -0700

Why is it that when you fly on points with Air Canada, they seem to want to make you feel guilty for doing so during the whole experience.

Despite it being plainly clear that you are a frequent flier (elite or super elite designation, usually), as soon as you have a reward ticket that means that all staff should be unfriendly, unhelpful, and overall generally indifferent to the fact that you are on this planet.

Why?

Shouldn't the reward travel experience be the best part? Shouldn't they give you free cookies, free upgrades (if available), and celebrate the fact that you earned this trip, earned it through dozens of horrible business flights through crazy itineraries, dirty airports, car rentals and long drives, etc.?

They gotta rethink it. I want to have fun on reward travel (usually holiday time). Traveled to Asia and they just made me feel worse and worse at every touchpoint... perhaps i should have apologized to the staff members for cashing in my miles?

The Star Alliance is neither Celestial nor Aligned

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 14:49:59 -0800

Take a strong dose of patience and allocate at least 30-60 minutes of phone time if you want to redeem any US airlines' frequent flier miles for an international flight which requires any or all portions to be provided by a member of the Star Alliance. Since you cannot book these reservations via United or USAirways' web sites, you must call and speak to an agent, and they will consume many minutes navigating their own and their so-called partners' reservation systems to find an appropriate routing. They will then have the audacity to charge you a phone booking fee even though you have no other way to conduct this transaction. You will still have to call the partner airline for your seat assignments and meal preferences, so you are again forced into another 20-30 minute call. There's little evidence that these airline alliances provide any benefit to passengers because they impose these inconveniences and require the customer to interact wiith each individual airline anyhow. If you fuss about the phone booking fee, they will send you a paper voucher for a future reservation which, surprise, you must conduct via the phone! No wonder airlines are the most despised businesses of all.

JetBlue Boston - NY

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 13:37:52 -0800

I travel from Boston to New York city quite a bit and thought that Jet Blue flights might be a good alternative to the train or the bus cuz they are pretty inexpensive and would be much quicker, but I have been really disappointed. The flights from Boston to NYC are always fine, but the return flights (NYC - Boston) are consistently delayed. The first time I had a delayed return flight, I was annoyed but figured it was unusual. A few days later I got a $50 coupon from Jet Blue apologizing for the delay. So I tried again. And again my return flight was delayed (for 5 hours on a Sunday night, which is very inconvenient). This time, I attempted to get on the flight before mine (which also had been delayed for hours) and the Jet Blue representative was incredibly rude to me. She would barely even look at me or speak to me when I stood at the counter of the gate. I did make it on that earlier flight, but the representative was so rude, that that is what I remember about the trip. I won't do Jet Blue from Boston to NY again.

Southwest Airlines Rivals Most Others

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 12:11:53 -0800

When JetBlue doesn't fly to my desired destination (which is often), I turn to Southwest Airlines. Their flight attendants are hands down among the best. They're actually HAPPY to see you.

The seats are comfortable, they always leave and land on time. Their fleet isn't too old like most major airlines. Their website is great!

Above all -- THEY'RE CHEAP!!!

If you haven't tried Southwest yet -- think about them for your next flight!

An airline and a cluetrain

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:45:04 -0800

I'm trying something a little different here.

This story is not something that happened to me. It's something that happened to someone I respect very much.

And because I trust and respect that person, the story affects the way I feel about this company. It has an impact on my goodwill towards them.

In this case, the company is United Airlines and the customer is David Weinberger, co-author of a book called the Cluetrain Manifesto—a book that laid the groundwork for Sutori with its vision of markets as conversations between customers and companies.

Here’s the story, as blogged by David . . .

After United Airline's online systems assured me as of 7pm that my 8:40 flight from Boston to DC was only 45 minutes late, I arrived at the airport to be told by the unhelpful person behind the counter that they'd actually cancelled the flight that afternoon. (I'd also checked with a living person over the telephone.)

But that's just your usual traffic snarl. Kafka didn't step in until I said that the subsitute flight they wanted to put me on at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon wouldn't work, but I still wanted to fly back with my ticket on Monday. Fine, said the unhelpful telephone support person, but that will have to be repriced up as a one way fare.

Ah, yes, that's how to develop customer loyalty!

So what do you think?

Does a “second hand” story like this belong on Sutori?

Should it carry as much weight as a first-hand experience?

Air Miles, Aeroplan and the Myth of Free Flights

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:21:06 -0800

We’re planning a bunch of flights in the month of April. We’re departing Canada on April 18, and making several stops before settling into Malta on or about May 1.

My wife Julie has enough Aeroplan points to fly free, round trip, to Europe. I don’t have quite enough. We booked some of our flights this morning, and there was a ridiculous rigmarole to ensure that our seats were next to each other.

She booked on Aeroplan, I simultaneously booked on Air Canada, and then we immediately called Aeroplan to get her seat moved next to mine. That’s the prescribed strategy, and it’s absurd.

But that’s not really the subject of this post. My flight on Air Canada was about CAN $750. That’s quite a good price, in my experience. Julie’s ‘free’ flight, turned out to be a little over CAN $300. That’s three hundred bucks worth of fees and, I don’t know, ‘plane oxygen usage’ surcharges. $300 is, as you know, a lot more than free. I felt more than a little screwed.

I think we can all agree. Unless you can afford the glorious first class, air travel blows.