geekandthekids

Long time reader, first time poster because I am so angry.

I was in Phoenix for a trade show coming home and I leave for another show on Sunday.

Was on the AC1834 17:10 flight from PHX to YYZ yesterday. Flight was delayed until 7PM. Annoying but expected as I knew other flights had been cancelled.

I clear customs around 5. Get to the gate area around 6. At 6:30 they announce that they need to clear weight and ask for 30 volunteers to stay the night. They are offering $600 voucher and hotel. As I didn't want to land at 3AM (there was no way they were taking off at 7), I volunteer. I'm maybe 5th in line.

At 19:15 or so, they announce that they still need 3 more people.
At 19:30 they announce they would start boarding. I thought this was weird as what about us volunteers.

I go to the desk and the person I volunteered with isn't there. I count about 13 people who have volunteered. She comes back after boarding has already started (they were just wrapping up Zone 3) and I was like, what's going on with my voluntary bump? She replies "oh you're good, we figured it out".

I was again annoyed, as now there was no way the flight was leaving until 20:30 (we took off at 20:32) but if they didn't need me, not the end of the world. At least I'll be home.

We land at 3:30 and clear customs fast. We are literally the only flight at Pearson. I couldn't do carry on as I had signage and stuff I use at booths for the show that's too big to carry on. Also I had no desire to carry on my blazer in 48 degree heat.

I probably get off the plane around 3:45 and am in the luggage area by 4:00. Luggage starts coming out around 4:05 (which I was happy with as they are usually slow but again, we were the only flight).

This is my first time not being Star gold in maybe 7 or 8 years so no biggie that the priority baggage comes out first. Then the other luggage comes and keeps building and building. Nobody seems to be picking it up which I thought was weird.

At 4:20 or so, the luggage belt stops and nothing is coming out. Everyone waiting for luggage is confused. The belt had stopped and started several times so I didn't think anything of it. After 10 minutes of no movement the people around me are confused as am I. That's when I started wandering around and saw a lineup at the lost luggage area. One of the people came back and said all our luggage was still in Phoenix.

I couldn't believe. Nobody from the airline said anything. They just waited for people to complain and then started processing lost luggage as if this is a regular thing.

When I asked whose luggage that was on the belt, they said it was people whose luggage they removed yesterday. So this wasn't even an accident, but a planned event.

My complaint got me a "sorry" and a link to track my luggage which doesn't say anything other than try again later.

I would have been satisfied staying back one night and instead I want to never fly Air Canada again.

It's not that they had to do this that pissed me off, it's that they seemed to have a different solution only to pull it back AND not tell anyone that this is their solution. If they had told me we could fly without our luggage I would considered staying overnight without any compensation but not I have no luggage, no compensation and my booth at the next trade show may potentially be incomplete.

Am I right to be pissed? Is it wrong to expect that they could have at least told us after the belt stopped what was going on?

vernonc

I dont think its right to off load (or not load) bags and not tell everyone. There are a few things improving at AC but some of the 'off the plane' stuff still is inconsistent

Jumper Jack

Number 1 in North America

ridefar

Yes and no respectively.

The Lev

Given the extremely hot temperatures in the US Southwest right now, it hardly comes as a shock to me that flights from Phoenix are weight constrained. IMHO it is better to get as many people home as possible and have the bags follow later. What is NOT OK is to not tell anybody about it - pilot should have told people that due to weight restrictions they elected to take the people and leave most/all bags behind with instructions on how to get bags delivered.

There are SO many ways that AC's handling of baggage could be improved it is truly mind boggling that management doesn't even seem to care to try.

flyquiet

Wow, and the people on the next day's flights will get your luggage instead of their own. When will they catch up?
If only they had told you this, you could have left the airport and had the bag delivered to your house without the wasted hour around the carousel.
My sympathies!

SensGuy

I was on the same flight and can confirm most of what geekandthekids wrote.

Fortunately, I did not have any checked bags and, being up front, was up and out long before the rest of the passengers realized that their luggage was still in Phoenix.

As The Lev says, it was extremely hot (47 C) yesterday so I don't have any issue with their weight restrictions - but there was absolutely zero from either the gate agents or flight crew warning passengers that they were leaving luggage behind.

Huge FAIL by AC.

KenHamer

No, there aren't.
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Transpacificflyer

Perhaps, the AC client facing personnel were unaware of the offloading.

I do not offer that as a sarcastic comment, but as an honest assessment of what happened. It seems that there are communication deficiencies and a failure to work together at many of the stations.
The flight deck would have been aware of the situation, but may not have told the SD that there would be baggage issues. There was most likely an assumption that ground crew in Phoenix would advise AC operations etc.

Failure to communicate in a clear and transparent manner: A characteristic of Air Canada that has not been remedied in 25+ years.

robsaw

Had something similar happen in Australia from Olympic Dam airport to Adelaide on Alliance Airlines where the temp was 45C and climbing as we boarded. Thankfully they had great AC pumping into the aircraft. Were told as we waited to finish boarding that luggage (already loaded) would all be offloaded - or go through a whole routine of offloading several "lucky" passengers (the latter was not an actual "suggestion" and no one requested they go down that road). The checked luggage came on a later flight after sunset, probably carrying only bags. Clear explanation, no complaints, delivered to my hotel late that night but in time for my return home flights the next day.

Good communications is "good" for everyone.

MSPeconomist

If AC leaves a bag behind, the cost is just the delivery service fee (assuming that AC outsources this function) plus a bit of staff time to take lost bag reports and listen to complaints. OTOH, if they offload a passenger, then VDB/IDB must be paid and in some circumstances AC would pay for hotel and meals. If we estimate that a customer and its carry on items would perhaps weigh 200 pounds, while the average checked bag weighs 40 pounds, AC can offload five bags in place of leaving one passenger behind. Under reasonable assumptions about costs, it can be cheaper to fly the passengers and give them their bags later. OTOH, the difference in costs probably isn't enormous, so AC doesn't save a lot by doing it this way. It might also be faster to leave the bags behind than to identify volunteers, etc., so if the GA is concerned about delays, it can be more efficient to leave the bags behind.

tracon

If only there was a cooler airport between PHX-YYZ that the flight could have done a tech stop at to avoid bumping people or baggage.

On a slightly related note....
PHX is to hot for the CRJ.

PB53x11

Unbelievable that AC doesn't communicate about this. At 4:00 am I'm sure the last thing you want to do is waste time hanging out at a luggage carousel only to be told later that you won't be getting your luggage. I experienced something similar a few years ago (pre-status, or lower status than I have now), a flight from YLW to YVR, there were several of us hanging around after everyone else had picked up, finally I asked at the luggage desk to be told, "oh, for weight reasons your luggage stayed behind in Kelowna". What, you couldn't have told us earlier? Really? A simple announcement couldn't be made? I was rather annoyed, to say the least.

I still tell lots of people that story. And it seems their policy of why bother telling people is still in place.

smallmj

Reminds me of my description of a certain NS politician. "He generally does the right thing badly."

MSPeconomist

I've always suspected that when the airline knows that your luggage is lost, they deliberately avoid telling you because they fear the chance of air rage. They believe that the later you find out, the better for them and of course it's always good to pass customer service problems to the next employee.