I don’t fly commercially very often; usually only once or twice a year. Almost every time I fly a major airline, the last two times being US Airways, we have had major problems. Once our baggage was lost and we didn’t get it until a day later, the second time we were told our connection was being held for us, when it wasn’t, and we missed our connection and was delayed a lot. As you can see, these are times I would really like to call up customer service and file a complaint. I read an interesting blog post over at boingboing.net which talks about Air Canada’s new charge to get “On My Way” Service.

Air Canada said passengers who opt to pay an additional $25 one-way on short-haul flights and an extra $35 one-way on long-haul routes within North America will receive “speedy” access to “specially-trained” customer service agents who will help rebook flights on Air Canada or other airlines, as well as pay for hotel stays and meals, if necessary.

Air Canada said the program, which applies to any flight cancelled within 48 hours of the scheduled departure, goes beyond the industry practice of assisting customers affected by schedule changes deemed to be the airline’s fault, such as mechanical problems with aircraft, scheduling glitches or crew members failing to show up for flights.

But while Air Canada is touting the program as an industry-first, at least one observer said it was once common for big North American carriers to go out of their way to help inconvenienced or stranded customers – free.

Amazing eh! I would eventually like to be a pilot for a commercial airline someday, but I would defiantly try and avoid airlines like this who refuse to provide decent customer service.

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