An ugly end to a great Negril week-AC1699

[negrilsand]

Well, Thepegboy, we can all sympathize with you. Perhaps a little effort at communication by Air Canada would have helped a lot. But I suspect that between us, Captain Oil and I, have over 50 years of experience on the front lines of aviation. We may know just a little bit. There are very few spare aircraft, if any, available at any given time that would be available for charter. Leasing a spare aircraft from another airline is even more unlikely-impossible!. Finding an aircraft that would carry the same number of passengers and fly the route would be very very unlikely. Due to the lack of communication by AC and a lack of a little stroking of egos, you are left in a situation where there is very little that would satisfy you. An airliner these days cost usually over $100 million US. You will not find this kind of asset sitting around as a spare at various airports waiting for a random maintenance problem. The Air Canada personnel at MBJ are most likely almost entirely part time contract employees. They are not exceptionally skilled in public relations, motivated nor authorized to completely handle such situations. If Air Canada or, for that matter any airline, could have done what you wanted, your airfare would have to have been at least 3-5 times what you paid-at least. I'm pulling a number out my hat, but the cost to get a replacement aircraft-even if possible- would be well over $200,000 US! Your ticket just did not cover that. Again Air Canada, in a good will gesture, should give you a voucher good for a future flight. Captain Oil, thanks for reminding me to carry snacks!

[Prism]

Wow so sorry you had to go through all that. We always layer when we fly to Jamaica, T-shirt, sweater, then fleece lined hooded sweatshirt. The sweater can be used for cool nights and the sweatshirt is not as bulky as a winter coat but keeps us warm when waiting for pickups outside the airport.

[Captain Oil]

If you think Canada Air or any other scheduled airline is bad, try having issues on a charter flight. Their only responsibility is getting you to the destination - does not matter if it is a few hours later or a week latter - they got you there. End of story. No vouchers, no food, no hotel, no apology, no nothing. You are completely on your own.

At least with scheduled airlines you have rights.

[thepegboy]

Agreed, Cap, it could be worse. But I was told that the Air Canada customer guarantee read something like " we will get you there at some point", which allows them the flexibility to do what they do. I am hoping that a silver lining here might be better communication of this contract, building up to a legislated Air Passenger Bill of Rights. Dream big.....

[Jamakafun]

I'm sure that if you respond on their customer complaint email or telephone, and let them know how much you were inconvenienced, that they will fully compensate you, via some sort of credit. That is, if you are willing to give them another try. That was a terrible situation, and hopefully it won't happen to you again.

[dash]

If you look at real figures all the airlines have a lot of late, really late and cancelled flights. In fact AirCanada and Westjet are almost identical in inconveniencing their customers. Just Westjet does it with a smile instead of a grumble!

[booger]

Well, Thepegboy, we can all sympathize with you. Perhaps a little effort at communication by Air Canada would have helped a lot. But I suspect that between us, Captain Oil and I, have over 50 years of experience on the front lines of aviation. We may know just a little bit. There are very few spare aircraft, if any, available at any given time that would be available for charter. Leasing a spare aircraft from another airline is even more unlikely-impossible!. Finding an aircraft that would carry the same number of passengers and fly the route would be very very unlikely. Due to the lack of communication by AC and a lack of a little stroking of egos, you are left in a situation where there is very little that would satisfy you. An airliner these days cost usually over $100 million US. You will not find this kind of asset sitting around as a spare at various airports waiting for a random maintenance problem. The Air Canada personnel at MBJ are most likely almost entirely part time contract employees. They are not exceptionally skilled in public relations, motivated nor authorized to completely handle such situations. If Air Canada or, for that matter any airline, could have done what you wanted, your airfare would have to have been at least 3-5 times what you paid-at least. I'm pulling a number out my hat, but the cost to get a replacement aircraft-even if possible- would be well over $200,000 US! Your ticket just did not cover that. Again Air Canada, in a good will gesture, should give you a voucher good for a future flight. Captain Oil, thanks for reminding me to carry snacks!

Well said. It makes zero sense to have an aircraft sitting around ready to fly overseas to come to the rescue of a broken down aircraft. Not only that, it makes zero sense to have every single stinking part that can go bad sitting in a warehouse at each location. Now if you were at a hub I could understand your frustration. I myself have been delayed two days coming back to the States from MBJ, spent 4 hours on the phone with Jamaican American Airlines customer service(you cannot call US American Airlines customer service from overseas), and had to fork out additional money for hotel, food, etc. Gotta love travel insurance......

As a former aircraft mechanic I take great appreciation when a supervisor has to make the tough call to ground an aircraft. While you state that Air Canada does not care, I believe in fact the opposite is true. Had they not cared they would have potentially flown the aircraft. Those in the know seem to see things differently.

[Eco]

All airlines can suck at times. Last year coming back from JA Jetblue stuck us in Florida for hours with excuse after excuse. Ran up a nice $150-$200 bar tab....but there were two of us....I'm not that much of a drinker...lol. They said they were going to put up us for the night but later changed their mind. Down at their main office they were telling some family the same thing that they are not giving away anything. The other family would not take their shiit so Jetblue called the police on them. The other family other than being a little drunk from waiting all day were just calling Jetblue out on their change of heart. When the police showed up it looked liked everything was going to go real south real quick. So I stood up....maybe with a stagger or so and crafted a master story that supported the other family and made all of the Jetblue employees out to be the liars that they were. In the end the police left once we were all given a food/lodging comp to a really nice hotel. Jetblue tried the same shiit of calling the police on another traveler in NY when he called them out....I saved that guy from jail as well.


With all this negative stuff about Jetblue, they are the best airline I've flown on since Delta had their "Delta Song" airline.

OP-sucks that your trip ended bad. Any trip report on the good times you had in JA?

[Big_frank]

Things happen. I like to fly Air Canada; but only because the Jamaica plane is a 767 wide body that is much more comfortable than the WestJet 737.
However, they slapped some new paint on these older aircraft and called them 'rouge' and they're not the most reliable jets in the fleet any more.
Had a washroom break-down last year that delayed us departing Montego Bay for a couple of hours.
Still, I'm un-comfortable on the WestJet planes and will put up with the occasional problem to fly on the 767.
I missed going this year. Does A/C still fly the 767?

[dash]

AirCanada still flies the 767s under the "Rouge " banner. But they changed the seating to the Westjet standard. So welcome to the smallest seats around.