Air Canada still sucks …

On June 18, 2008 By Rick McIn product complaints, travel3 Comments

UPDATE:

Here’s the latest from the world’s least effective airline:

Response (Bev Johnston) – 06/16/2008 11:14 AM
Dear Mr. McCharles:

As your travel was with Air Canada Jazz, your email was sent to us for reply and it is not our policy to respond to blogs. If you have a specific question, please pose it in the format provided here and we will be pleased to respond.

Of course I sent the question in the required format, only reporting the complaint on my blog. Now it has been 3.5 months and I’ve still had only STALLING replies. No answers.

=== original post:

Air Canada promised to respond to my lost luggage complaint of March 1st within 6wks.

It’s been over 2 months now and — surprise, surprise — not a word from Air Canada.

… Do you think it’s corporate policy to lie to customers? Deliberately drag out any complaint with the knowledge that those without blogs will sooner-or-later give up?

Or is the simplest answer more correct: Air Canada Sucks.

I will resubmit my complaint #080301-000042. And stay on this until I get an answer.

Please fly WestJet, instead.

WestJet

UPDATE: Response from Air Canada

Thank you for contacting us.
This is an “auto-response” which confirms we have received your message.
Our current processing time is 21 business days for general customer concerns and 8 weeks for baggage related issues. There is no need to re-submit your information, we will do our best to get back to you as soon as we can.

To complete transaction please ensure you click below on “Finish Submitting Question”.

However, there is no link in the email. The strategy, I assume, is to keep putting up roadblocks between complaining customers and Head Office.

Air Canada SUCKS.

Glasers to holiday in Kauai, Hawaii

On June 18, 2008 By Rick McIn hiking, travelLeave a comment

They have 4 nights booked in July at the Tropical Family Villa.

And a week booked at Hale Mana, a three acre multi-million dollar private estate on a bluff overlooking a waterfall.

This plantation style home is perched high on a bluff with pristine, 360-degree views of the ocean, valley, mountains and river below. …

details – Hale Mana

Rob’s looking forward to hiking the famous Kalalau Trail on the Na Pali Coast. The same one I did earlier this year.

Wish I was going with them.

pandas at the Olympics

On June 12, 2008 By Rick McIn travelLeave a comment

Visitors watch giant pandas through the protective glass of a renovated panda hall inside a zoo in Beijing, Thursday, June 5, 2008. Eight pandas which were selected for this summer’s Beijing Olympics made their first public appearance on Thursday. The pandas arrived safely in Beijing after a long journey from their damaged reserve near the epicenter of last month’s earthquake.

(AP Photo/Andy Wong) – ESPN

Kayak vs Mobissimo – best travel deals

On May 31, 2008 By Rick McIn product endorsements, travelLeave a comment

Since I hiked with one of the Mobissimo guys 2-years ago, I’ve been recommending the site for those shoppping for best airfare.

Connecticut startup Kayak has raised $223 million in venture capital and employs 58 people to build and grow its travel search site. Its chief competitor, San Francisco based Mobissimo, has raised $1 million and has just 15 employees. Mobissimo also became profitable last year, and the company doesn’t have to raise more money unless it’s to fuel faster growth or acquisitions.

It’s also clear even from a cursory comparison of the two sites that Mobissimo is trying harder than Kayak to help you find exactly the flight and hotel you are looking for. Kayak is largely similar to other travel search sites – enter where you want to go and get back results from a number of providers, sort by price, etc.

TechCrunch

I’ve been traveling non-stop for the past 4-months. Shopping for flights I compare Mobissimo with Yahoo Fare Chase. And buy from either or, often, directly from the airline.

Astrodome … HUGE

On May 24, 2008 By Rick McIn travelLeave a comment

The USA Men’s Gymnastics Championships is hosted this year at the Reliant complex in Houston, Texas.

Everything is BIG in Texas. The Reliant Astrodome holds 67,925 people though it is mostly disused these days.

Recall this is where evacuees from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were transported.

On Labor Day, 2005, eighty-two-year-old Barbara Bush said of Hurricane Katrina evacuees staying in the Astrodome, “What I’m hearing, which is a little scary, is that all of these people want to stay in Texas! Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And most of the people in this arena are underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.”

Astrodome – Wikipedia

Actually, the other buildings in the Reliant complex are very busy right now. The economy is booming in Texas.

It’s a good site for the gymnastics meet.