My Name Is Eric

In Canada there are two main airlines. The first, Air Canada, is Canada's largest domestic and international airline. The second, is WestJet, which flies primarily domestically but has recently expanded into some international routes. There are several smaller players, but the industry largely boils down to these two.

West Jet is a young company and is known for its excellent customer service. Examples of them going beyond what would be expected of an airline are numerous. During this past Christmas season, the West Coast of Canada was hit by heavy snowfalls which resulted in many flights being cancelled. It was well known that WestJet was arranging alternative transportation for customers affected by the cancellations.

Air Canada, on the other hand, is not known for good customer service. Check out the comments section of this CBC article for more details on Air Canada's performance during the snow storm. I don't want to post the accusations here directly, but I think the comments on the CBC page reflect how Air Canada handled the weather in comparison to WestJet. Curiously, while Air Canada flights were being cancelled, WestJet flights were flying on schedule.

I recently had my second major bad experience with Air Canada, and I thought I would post the letter I sent to them here. I received a notice that they would process my email within 21 days, so in a month I can tell you if they respond to me




The Letter

Hello,

I would never end a relationship without telling the other party why, so I am writing to tell you why I will no longer fly with Air Canada.

In my dealings with your company I’ve experienced an overall sense of antagonistic behavior on your part. It really seems to me that your representatives are not there to help, but rather to ‘win’ battles with customers. I honestly don’t understand how you can operate with this mentality when you have emerging competitors that provide outstanding service and do everything possible to help customers. While this approach has definitely influenced my decision, two specific events are the main cause of my frustrations.

In December 2006 I returned home to Canada from Hong Kong after spending an exchange semester there. My flight left Hong Kong on Dec ember 24th and was supposed to arrive in Victoria on the same day. Upon arrival in Vancouver where I was to catch a connection to Victoria I discovered that Air Canada would not be getting me home. First, I had to claim my luggage, and found that one of the bags had been broken open and many of my belongings were loose on the conveyer belt. After collecting my things and clearing customs, I went to the domestic terminal where I waited for a while until your agent announced my flight was cancelled and that Air Canada could do nothing to get me to Victoria that day. So, luggage destroyed and abandoned by my airline, I was basically told to find my own way home. When I spoke to customer service about the cancelled flight and the damaged luggage I was turned away and told that if I wanted customer service I would have to call after the holidays.

Compounding my frustration was the fact that there was no valid reason for the flight’s cancellation. The flight before mine left, and the one after (or possibly the second one after) departed for Victoria with no problems. Your agent cited the weather as the cause of the cancellation, but my father is a commercial pilot and checked weather conditions at the time and found the weather would have been better during my flight than before or after it. So, my family felt very cheated, insulted and deceived by Air Canada.

The second event that has led me to boycott your airline happened only a few weeks ago. I flew home to Victoria from Oslo on December 20. Upon arriving in Toronto I waited for my luggage until all luggage from the plane had been dispensed, and found that mine had not arrived. After filing a customs claim and barely making it to my flight (I only made the flight because it was delayed), I carried on to Vancouver. To your credit, the flight from Vancouver to Victoria was uneventful. When I arrived in Victoria I filed a lost baggage claim. This was on Saturday, December 20. I was left in Victoria with no clothing, gifts or toiletries. I spoke with a representative on December 22 to inquire about my baggage and she informed me I would receive it soon. When I asked about compensation for being left without my things for 4 days (I would received the bags on December 23) she indicated I could receive CDN $50 for my troubles. I indicated this did not cover the costs you put on me, and she told me if I wanted to claim more I would need to mail receipts to your claims department. I elected to not decide at that point as I was still not sure when I would receive my luggage.

When I returned to Oslo on January 2, 2009, I called your lost luggage again to accept the CDN $50 that had been offered. Your agents repeatedly told me that now I would have to mail receipts even to get the CDN $50, and refused to honor what the agent I spoke to on December 22 told me. I spent over half an hour on the phone and had the ‘policy’ recited to me numerously. The reason I opted to only claim the CDN $50 was to avoid any further complications to myself on top of the big complications you put on me with losing my luggage. The fact that you would not even give me a token sum was incredibly insulting.
So, this is really an issue of poor, confrontational customer service. I really hope you feel that saving the CDN $50 you saved from compensating me was worth the numerous lost flights you will miss out on. I realize that this will likely fall on deaf ears, but I still felt you should know.

Best regards,

Eric Hoppe

I thought I'd take a few moments and share some videos I've been watching and listening to lately. All of them are from the Great White North! All are really catchy to me, so if you know of any bands with similar styles please do post links to their music!

Pluto - When She Was Happy



A bunch of good Vancouver boys. They released two studio albums in their time. At the height of their popularity, 1997, they were nominated for a Juno Award.

I used Wikipedia for a quick reference on the band and discovered that you can download their complete library on their MySpace page.

Tegan and Sara - Living Room



I love these girls. They're identical twin sisters from Calgary, and they have a very unique and distinctive style. They are actually getting quite popular internationally, but they've been active in Canada since 1995.

Brian Melo - All I Ever Wanted



I mostly included this song because it's set to a tribute video for Trevor Linden So, it's a good way for me to promote two things I like at once. Regardless, Brian melo won Canadian Idol (our version of American Idol) in 2007. I honestly don't know many of his other songs, but this one is catchy.