Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Air Canada reaches new lows

Awhile back I posted about Air Canada's less than stellar service, but a story carried by CBC today just blew all that ranting away.

It appears our national airline had to make a decision between leaving a few pieces of luggage behind, and irritating a few passengers, or leaving a casket behind and devastating an entire family. Air Canada's choice? According to the CBC: " Body bumped from flight to make way for luggage: family"

I will just let that sink in a bit.

Kinda leaves you speechless doesn't it?

Dennis Hamilton died suddenly last week while working in Alberta, and while the news of his death hit the family hard, the phone call telling them his body was bumped in Montreal must have been harder. This profound display of insensitivity was not just an insult to the family, it delayed both the viewing at the funeral home and the funeral service itself.

Of course, Air Canada has no comment. Why would they? They have never taken responsibility for anything before, why start now? And when I think about their announcement last week of their plans to add a fee for customer service, I begin to really understand the term "going postal".

My condolences to the Springdale family, you did nothing to deserve this, and I am so sorry this experience added to your grief.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you read some of the comments on the bottom. One person actually said something like, 'I need my luggage, the deceased can wait" !!!! Holy mother of.... People are just nuts!

I feel so bad for that family.

Stephanie

Anonymous said...

I hadn't actually read the news article yet, but it sounds a little f'ed up, to say the least.

The logic behind the decision to bump the casket based on the fact that the deceased person won't know the difference is akin to saying that this piece of luggage bound for St. John's would enjoy an impromptu trip to Yellowknife.

It's not the cargo that is affected, it's the recipients of that cargo.

You're right Steph... people ARE nuts... and stupid.

nadinebc said...

Steff;

I am not surprised by anything anymore.

Steve;
When I think of how many times the Feds bailed AC out, I just want to throttle someone.

Anonymous said...

I've told the story to some of my family and collegues, and they are shocked, in the regard that people in general can be that cruel, but not at the idea that it was Air Canada who made the decision. Also, the fact that the airline didn't even contact the family!

Unreal. Great point Steve on how it's not the cargo that is effected, but the recipents.

Anonymous said...

Sorry last comment by me, Stephanie.

Unknown said...

AC SUCKS! I actually refuse to fly with them anymore. I will drive the Montreal Toronto corridor, or take a train before I will ever fly with those dirty, lousy, money grubbing, bastards again. Luckily, if worse comes to worse and I am in a big hurry, I can fly Porter or WestJet. Porter actually has real in flight service of the type one used to get when the government still owned a carrier and WestJet actually does provide customer service on its budget flights. What really pisses me off Air Canada stems from the fact that they have lost my luggage every Christmas, until this last one when I refused to fly with them anymore. I also hate the fact that these rat bastards drove Canadian into the ground, which we all owned as a Crown Corporation, and then, once the serious competition was gone, they turned into a hideous abomination always putting on a poor mouth and stretching a hand out to tax payers. What is worse still, it that the politicians who buried Canadian, also, bailed out Air Canada. F%C*E# It burns my ass that they are allowed to get away with this crap. The feds should be forced,at gun point if necessary, to nationalize that rat infested company and then send in the exterminator to burn the board of directors and top management out of there! ARGH! You got me started on Air Canada!