Employee Standby Travel Line

[CANAM]

I have been trying to call the Employee Standby Travel Line for several weeks to no avail. It goes directly to a busy signal. Oddly enough, it does answer outside of the regular operating hours, reminding the caller that the center is closed. Does anybody know if 1-800-413-1113 is still being used or as has it been shut down?

[The Raven]

Are you an Air Canada employee? If so, did you check the phone numbers on the HELP tab on the Employee Travel Website?

[Gawtti]

It took me all day to try and get thru yesterday as well ... Just kept giving me a busy signal, then finally got thru close to when it was closing ... Hmmm

['79K20driver]

I've been on hold for close to 2 hours now. I did get the busy signal earlier too. Yesterday as well. The music is getting tiresome!

[CANAM]

Nope, I'm not an employee. Just trying to list for a jumpseat. It is frusterating not being able list for the jumpseat!

[The Raven]

Have you tried calling the normal reservations phone line? I don't know if you will have any success, but it's worth a try.

[CYCG]

Ive tryed the regular line for JS, but with no luck.

The busy signal is quite common! Once through in the past it was always 20 min to as long as 1.5 hours on hold. Lately, busy signal aside ive found it quite quick, usually right away or 5 min. Non the less, being on hold you certainly become familiar with AC's current promos, over, and overrrr again

[seafeye]

Been trying for two days to list for a flight. Keep getting a busy signal.
So i tried the normal Air Canada number and after 1.5 hours of being put on hold the person told me that i need to call the employee line. I told them my story and didn't get anywhere.
I purchased a ZED fare for my wife and on the ticket it says i need to list her for the flight. But i can't.
I would like to list myself for a cabin jumpseat on the same flight.
Can a ticket person at the airport do this for me, or do i try the regular 1800 number again and try my luck with someone else?


Follow up:

Finally got through on the busy line. Spoke to a nice guy who was helpful and listed me on the round trip flight. I am now listed for the cabin jumpseat. But i had to pay $65.35.
I fly A/C pilots on occasion out of florida, i never have heard them having to pay to jumpseat. Is this a new thing for us?

[DBC]

Everyone pays to jumpseat on AC, AC pilots included I believe. Cheaper for us to use WJ.

[North Shore]

Well, actual paying customers have to put up with that level of 'service'; what makes you think that the company would do any better for its employees?

[bmc]

AC should do what British Airways does. They have a website where employees and employees of other airlines they have ZED fare agreements with, can go in and buy tickets up to twenty minutes before departure. When you register, your details of your dependants, yourself, credit card number, passport details, etc are all there. You pick the sectors, get automatically listed, and get a confirmation number. No need to spend 30 minutes tying up call centers in India. Very very convenient. So much so, that I never use any other airline as its too much hassle.

Also, when you fly BA out of Heathrow, there is a holding room for people flying standby. You can go there, buy tickets online as the room isn't staffed. There are a number of computers for you to use. On the the walls, there are screens advising pax when to head to the gate and if you will be getting on. Very efficient operation.

[Donald]

MyIDTravel does exactly that, unfortunately AC is not a member.

[The Raven]

AC should do what British Airways does. They have a website where employees and employees of other airlines they have ZED fare agreements with, can go in and buy tickets up to twenty minutes before departure. When you register, your details of your dependants, yourself, credit card number, passport details, etc are all there. You pick the sectors, get automatically listed, and get a confirmation number. No need to spend 30 minutes tying up call centers in India. Very very convenient. So much so, that I never use any other airline as its too much hassle.

Also, when you fly BA out of Heathrow, there is a holding room for people flying standby. You can go there, buy tickets online as the room isn't staffed. There are a number of computers for you to use. On the the walls, there are screens advising pax when to head to the gate and if you will be getting on. Very efficient operation.

The downside with the British Airways system is that when you get to the gate and don't get on, you have to return to the baggage area, collect your luggage and start the whole process over again. Thanks very much, but BA is my last choice of carrier for staff travel.

[bmc]

The downside with the British Airways system is that when you get to the gate and don't get on, you have to return to the baggage area, collect your luggage and start the whole process over again. Thanks very much, but BA is my last choice of carrier for staff travel.

That's interesting. I don't often check bags. Who does it it differently?

[The Raven]

The downside with the British Airways system is that when you get to the gate and don't get on, you have to return to the baggage area, collect your luggage and start the whole process over again. Thanks very much, but BA is my last choice of carrier for staff travel.

That's interesting. I don't often check bags. Who does it it differently?

Let's say you are trying to catch a flight from London to Glasgow with British Airways. British Airways has a flight pretty much every hour, similar to Air Canada's Rapidair product. With British Airways if you get to the gate but don't get on because the flight is full, you have to return to the holding room and start all over again. You have to do this even if you don't have any checked bags. With Air Canada's service, if you don't get on the flight, you are automatically listed on the next flight to the same destination. All you have to do is go to the next flight's gate and standby. No need to go back outside of security and redo the whole process.

[bmc]

.
Let's say you are trying to catch a flight from London to Glasgow with British Airways. British Airways has a flight pretty much every hour, similar to Air Canada's Rapidair product. With British Airways if you get to the gate but don't get on because the flight is full, you have to return to the holding room and start all over again. You have to do this even if you don't have any checked bags. With Air Canada's service, if you don't get on the flight, you are automatically listed on the next flight to the same destination. All you have to do is go to the next flight's gate and standby. No need to go back outside of security and redo the whole process.

Right you are. It is a major pain in the butt.

[seafeye]

My experience was kinda long so here is the short version.
Got to YYZ from the states. Went through customs/immigration and got my bag. 11:30am est.
Got up to the ticket counter for A/C, the kiosk wouldn't work with my confirmation code.
Waited in line for 30 min and got to a live person. Checked 2 bags for YVR.
She was fantastic, wonderful employee, very helpful. Said it didn't look good for the 1pm flight but the 2pm had 18 open seats.
She printed off our boarding passes and we did the security thing.
Hung out by the gate and didn't get on the 1pm. The gate agent said that we would be transferred to the next one.
So my wife and I had lunch.
Didn't get on the 2pm.
Nor the 3pm
nor the 4…5…6…7…
Finally found a gate agent that would tell us our priority…. 55 on standby.
One gate agent was downright rude to a standby passenger because he was asking too many questions. Lots of passengers were shocked at the way she was talking to people. Felt like i was in PHL.
Decided to try the YYJ flight and then go over to YVR from there. Got on the 7pm flight.
Arrived in YYJ on time but our bags didn't make it. They ended up in YVR. So they came on a YVR-YYJ flight at 10:30pm PST.
Called every hotel in YYJ and couldn't find a room. Had to sleep a night in the airport and take a flight to YVR in the morning.
My zed fare tickets expired in YYJ and had to buy another two for the short flight.
Called the 1-800 number and did the #4 option for them to call me back. My phone rang 20 min later then disconnected. I called again on my phone and put the call on speaker phone. Then called with my wife's about 5 min later because i got nervous about being disconnected again. (Your call will be answered in the order of which it was received). Well my wife's phone worked first. Even after i listed for the flight and hung up with the agent my phone still had the infomercial playing. Got on the 2nd flight of the morning.

Two people really stood out, the first ticket agent in YYZ and the lost luggage guy in YYJ. Both were friendly and relaxed attitudes.
The old lady gate agent in Toronto…..well i don't want to say what I'm thinking.
So including the taxes i had to pay for my airline taxes to Canada here is the break down of costs. We missed out first night in Whistler and still had to pay our rental car $250 hotel $60 car. And one loooong day of travel.

My wife:
USA - YYZ $35
YYZ - YVR $171
YYJ - YVR $42
$248 total.

Me:
USA - YYZ $35
YYZ - YVR $65
YYJ- YVR $42
$142 total.

I guess the moral of the story is that it just makes more sense to buy a full fare ticket. All in all we might have spent $200 more if we did a Hotel/Car/Flight but everything would have been confirmed. Even for $500 more it wouldn't be worth the stress.
(I still have to find a way home)

[flatface]

Deleted

[pelmet]

Was on hold for an hour the other day. No big deal....I use Skype on my computer so I just surf and wait. Not good for short notice stuff though.

I suggest that perhaps the union could pressure Air Canada to set up the purchase of tickets similar to BA. Tell the company you want to save them money by having an automated system. Just bypass the problem people and go straight to the top. Maybe even just an individual employee email to the top guy.

After using literally hundreds of Zeds and reciprocal jumpseats over the years, while I know there has been the occasional small problem, nothing major stands out in my mind as a major negative on AC travel. Even flew on the Jetz plane once. And got bumped recently because the Jetz plane was used.

Listed myself on a flight yesterday. The guy sounded really tired and said he was going to bed soon. I told him not to fall asleep on the way home. He said he was 10 feet from his bed as he works out of home somewhere in the US. So they are not all in India or Canada.

[bmc]

Pelmet

I can't recall the name of the pass bureau person who attends the annual ZED fare MIBA meeting in Geneva each September. Talk to them about the BA system in place and see if it could not be created for staff. Ideally, such a system could be used for issuing interline able tickets as well. The BA system requires your company to approve of you being given access to the BA site. Once on, you're on.

The ZED Fare MIBA meeting s an excellent venue to raise the topic of an interline ability functionality as it could remove human intervention and delays. It could also encourage people flying on ZED fares.

If you get through, drop me a pm and let me know if they have any interest. The person who organizes this meeting is a good friend and colleague and I could get his thoughts on it as well.

Brian