The Boys Are Back in Town
Vi er tilbake i Edmonton! Vi har vært her i to uker snart, men det skjer veldig lite så bloggen forblir urørt. Hovedgrunnen til at det ikke skjer så veldig mye er at mange av våre beste venner fra forrige semester flyttet hjem nå til jul - vi tenker på gutta fra Østerrike, Nederland og New Zealand.
Ellers er det nye semesteret i gang. Vi sier oss fornøyd med forrige semester da vi begge avsluttet med et snitt på rundt A. I det nye semesteret har vi kun to fag sammen, og så har vi valgt litt individuelt utenom det. Spennende blir det i alle fall. Jeg har for eksempel valgt et ikke-teknisk emne hvor det meste av karakteren bestemmes av et lengere essay som skal skrives. Faget er historie, så denne formen for essay er noe uvant for en Gløsing som meg selv. Over 10 sider og ingen formler, tall eller kode? Tullball.
Flyturen hjem var mindre hyggelig. Jeg skrev en sutremail til Air Canada i ettertid, og jeg limer det inn her i stedet for å gjenta meg selv.
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I’m a frequent flyer and currently studying in Edmonton, Canada. This Christmas I flew with Air Canada to visit friends and family in my home country, Norway.
I’ll be blunt. Over the years I have traveled to many destinations with many different airliners, but I have never had an airliner screw me the way Air Canada did on my way back to Edmonton a few days ago. I traveled with a friend.
We were supposed to go from London by Montreal to Edmonton. What worried us when we booked the tickets is that we only had one hour between planned arrival and departure in Montreal, but we were assured it would be fine. Our flight from London was about 25 minutes late, and the pilot told us we would be an extra 20 minutes late because of wind.
So we arrive about 45 minutes late in Montreal and are an additional 15 minutes late because we had the worst seats in the plane – back row on the far right, about 30 cm away from the washroom. It was clear we would not make our connecting flight to Edmonton.
We are the last people to get off the plane. We have to pick up our luggage, which took 20-30 minutes, and pass customs. When we are supposed to drop off our luggage after customs, we are told by an Air Canada representative that we missed our flight and will need to reschedule. We understood this but are shocked as he tells us that the next available flight to Edmonton is in TWO days. Adding to our misery, he goes on and claims that since we missed our connecting flight due to wind, Air Canada will not pay for hotel or food during those two days and nights we have to wait. We are now not only incredibly late, but will have to either pay a lot of money for hotels, or spend about 40 hours in an airport.
This was ridiculous. First of all, it does not matter to us what caused the delay as long as it was not our fault. We expect a serious airliner to be aware of this incredible weather phenomenon known as “wind”. Second of all, even if there was no wind, there was not way we would have made that flight anyway. Getting out of the airplane took 15 minutes. Getting our luggage took almost 30 minutes. Then we had to drop it off, pass security, and find our gate. This easily adds up to over an hour! And our connecting flight closes its gate 10 minutes before departure, so we only had 50 minutes anyway. And this after assuring us that 1 hour would be enough to switch planes in Montreal. Also, keep in mind that the flight was about 25 minutes delayed in London without wind – is this supposed to be our fault?
After missing our flight in Montreal we stood in the line of Air Canada “Customer Care” for almost 2 hours, even though the line was only 10 people long. The service was terrible - the clerks just left their chairs between customers and walked around the check-in area to help random people complete their self check-in. After arguing for a long time, what they did for us was to get us to Winnipeg the next day and then Edmonton the morning after – just as bad!
To avoid passing out of exhaustion, after 20 hours of travel, we checked into the airport hotel with our own money. We got up early the next morning and went to the airport early in desperation to see if someone had cancelled something. Our initiative paid off and we got home that day through Toronto, arriving in Edmonton around 6 pm, about 20 hours behind schedule.
Needless to say, we are very disappointed with Air Canada and upset at the treatment you gave us. This was all completely your fault and we had to pay for it in both time and money. We expect a full restitution of all our expenses caused by your mistakes. Any hesitation to do so will confirm your careless attitude towards loyal costumers and inability to keep them.
Ellers er det nye semesteret i gang. Vi sier oss fornøyd med forrige semester da vi begge avsluttet med et snitt på rundt A. I det nye semesteret har vi kun to fag sammen, og så har vi valgt litt individuelt utenom det. Spennende blir det i alle fall. Jeg har for eksempel valgt et ikke-teknisk emne hvor det meste av karakteren bestemmes av et lengere essay som skal skrives. Faget er historie, så denne formen for essay er noe uvant for en Gløsing som meg selv. Over 10 sider og ingen formler, tall eller kode? Tullball.
Flyturen hjem var mindre hyggelig. Jeg skrev en sutremail til Air Canada i ettertid, og jeg limer det inn her i stedet for å gjenta meg selv.
-----
I’m a frequent flyer and currently studying in Edmonton, Canada. This Christmas I flew with Air Canada to visit friends and family in my home country, Norway.
I’ll be blunt. Over the years I have traveled to many destinations with many different airliners, but I have never had an airliner screw me the way Air Canada did on my way back to Edmonton a few days ago. I traveled with a friend.
We were supposed to go from London by Montreal to Edmonton. What worried us when we booked the tickets is that we only had one hour between planned arrival and departure in Montreal, but we were assured it would be fine. Our flight from London was about 25 minutes late, and the pilot told us we would be an extra 20 minutes late because of wind.
So we arrive about 45 minutes late in Montreal and are an additional 15 minutes late because we had the worst seats in the plane – back row on the far right, about 30 cm away from the washroom. It was clear we would not make our connecting flight to Edmonton.
We are the last people to get off the plane. We have to pick up our luggage, which took 20-30 minutes, and pass customs. When we are supposed to drop off our luggage after customs, we are told by an Air Canada representative that we missed our flight and will need to reschedule. We understood this but are shocked as he tells us that the next available flight to Edmonton is in TWO days. Adding to our misery, he goes on and claims that since we missed our connecting flight due to wind, Air Canada will not pay for hotel or food during those two days and nights we have to wait. We are now not only incredibly late, but will have to either pay a lot of money for hotels, or spend about 40 hours in an airport.
This was ridiculous. First of all, it does not matter to us what caused the delay as long as it was not our fault. We expect a serious airliner to be aware of this incredible weather phenomenon known as “wind”. Second of all, even if there was no wind, there was not way we would have made that flight anyway. Getting out of the airplane took 15 minutes. Getting our luggage took almost 30 minutes. Then we had to drop it off, pass security, and find our gate. This easily adds up to over an hour! And our connecting flight closes its gate 10 minutes before departure, so we only had 50 minutes anyway. And this after assuring us that 1 hour would be enough to switch planes in Montreal. Also, keep in mind that the flight was about 25 minutes delayed in London without wind – is this supposed to be our fault?
After missing our flight in Montreal we stood in the line of Air Canada “Customer Care” for almost 2 hours, even though the line was only 10 people long. The service was terrible - the clerks just left their chairs between customers and walked around the check-in area to help random people complete their self check-in. After arguing for a long time, what they did for us was to get us to Winnipeg the next day and then Edmonton the morning after – just as bad!
To avoid passing out of exhaustion, after 20 hours of travel, we checked into the airport hotel with our own money. We got up early the next morning and went to the airport early in desperation to see if someone had cancelled something. Our initiative paid off and we got home that day through Toronto, arriving in Edmonton around 6 pm, about 20 hours behind schedule.
Needless to say, we are very disappointed with Air Canada and upset at the treatment you gave us. This was all completely your fault and we had to pay for it in both time and money. We expect a full restitution of all our expenses caused by your mistakes. Any hesitation to do so will confirm your careless attitude towards loyal costumers and inability to keep them.
posted by Ola at
20:13
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2 comments
