Actually, flying to Cambodia via Vancouver and Hong Kong.
So far my volunteer gig for the International Olympic Committee has been VERY disorganized.
Wish me luck.
Category: travel
training at the Adlard compound
Ever wonder what I am doing in North Idaho?
Preparing for the eventual day we need protect ourselves from the government.
Happy 4th of July!
finally – an answer from Air Canada
After weeks and months of stalling, I got a reply. And it’s not a form letter. And it’s quite reasonable.
Thanks Bev. I appreciate this:
Unfortunately we cannot reconstruct the circumstances to determine the exact reasons why your bag was delayed. We have reviewed the file for your travel and it appears that your bag was delayed on arrival in Vancouver and therefore was not cleared through Customs. Delayed bags are sent to Customs for clearance when they do arrive and then subsequently given to the airline for return to the passenger.
Once the bag was given to us to forward, you moved to different temporary addresses and our staff did their best to reunite you with your bag. At one point the record shows that they contacted three Sheraton Hotels in Chicago to try to locate you but were unsuccessful. The bag was then sent to Calgary to await your return there.
For your future information, Mr. McCharles, our Central Baggage Office (CBO) staff are responsible for relaying information to our passengers. They do not search for and forward bags once they are located. This is the function of our airport employees who update the electronic file whenever they have information so that the CBO staff may pass it along. We appreciate your comments about the staff there as they are indeed very pleasant and hard-working people.
By way of explanation, most airlines us the same “world tracer” system to locate delayed bags. We share information in an attempt to find bags that may have been incorrectly forwarded to the wrong airport. The airline industry as a whole does not have systems that resemble those used by courier companies and the current technology does not allow bags to be tracked in the same way that a parcel may be tracked. Every airport is run by different airport authorities and therefore systems vary from airport to airport and do not communicate with each other, nor do they share a common database. Most airlines, therefore, have similar processes for locating and forwarding delayed luggage.
We must advise that there is no indication on the file that there was anything reported missing or damaged after the bag was returned to you.
We are very sorry, Mr. McCharles, for the inconvenience that you experienced as a result of this delay as it is our goal to have our passengers and their bags travel together. We regret that this did not occur on this occasion and trust that you will understand that we did our best to get the bag to you once it was located.
Sincerely,
Bev Johnston
Customer Service Manager
I wonder if Bev is one the 2000 employees given the pink slip by Air Canada Tuesday.
Don’t expect service to improve at Air Canada. Fly WestJet. Instead of cutting flights, WJ projects a 16.6 per cent increase in capacity in 2008 followed by an 8.5 per cent increase in capacity in 2009.
off to Cambodia July 7-17th
Just picked up my ticket.
I am being sent as a volunteer to lead a gymnastics coaching course in Phnom Penh July 7th – 17th.
This after being named an “expert” by the International Gymnastics Federation who coordinates my trip. The program is called Olympic Solidarity — with funding coming originally from IOC television revenue.
I’ve done similar volunteer assignments in Trinidad, Sri Lanka and Australia for other organizations.
Cambodia – Wikipedia
I loved Cambodia the only other time I was there. (1998)
I could stay longer (as usual). But Asia is HOT in July. Will return home via Vancouver.
Air Canada still sucks …
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
dinner with the Adlards
Dave and Lisa hosted me in Orlando.
This in their $100 / night luxury townhouse with private pool. There are some great bargains in Florida.
Thanks for the grub, Dave.
