A Christmas Miracle

So the title may be a bit dramatic, but I did have my own Christmas miracle. I was one of those unlucky people trying to travel over the holiday. All flights to Vancouver were canceled the three days prior to the 25th, which was the day that we were flying back to Vancouver. We chose to fly with Air Canada since it had direct flights and West Jet only flew through Toronto. However Air Canada seemed to have trouble getting their planes and crews to the cities they were supposed to be in. There were numerous reports of people being stranded for days waiting for their flights because of the weather we were preparing for the worst. When we heard that the 25th was going to be clear and that some flights had actually left Vancouver on the 24th, we had some hope. However at about midnight on the 24th I was checking my flight status one more time before I went to bed and noticed that my flight was canceled. Trying not to panic I called Air Canada as advised on the website and was on hold for three hours. We decided to go to the airport as scheduled and see what they could do.

Our original flight left at 7:30 am and got us into Vancouver at 10:30 am, that way we could get to my parent's in time to spend Christmas morning with them and have Christmas dinner with my family. (We had spent Dec 20th - 24th with le boyfriend's family.) We got to the airport at 6:45am and were told to wait in an hour long line to see if we were rebooked on another flight through Toronto (which was the reason that we didn't go with West Jet as you may remember!) Le boyfriend stood in line and I got back on the phone trying to get a hold of Air Canada. After a half an hour I figured that I'd try the kiosks and see if we had been rebooked automotically and we had. Our new flight left at 4:30pm and didn't get us to Vancouver until 11pm! I was crushed. I had waited for two months to go home and see my family and now the short time I had in Vancouver was going to be shortened and I was going to miss dinner with my Aunt, Uncle, cousins and grandmother. We went up to the desk to get our baggs tagged and I asked the agent if it were possible to standby for an earlier flight. I was not rude or demamding, nor did I behave as though I was entitled to anything and for some reason or another the agent took pity on us. He took our tickets and fiddled on his computer for a while and then started tagging our bags with priority tags, which I know from many years of traveling means that they are for buisiness class passangers, but I thought that maybe they had just run out of standby tags (they tag bags as standby to make sure that they only load them after the standby passager has been given a seat.) Then he told us that he had confirmed us on the next flight to Toronto and had gotten us a buisiness class seat to Vancouver on a flight that got us in at 1pm! I am actually tearing up as I type this because I am still awed by the compassion that that agent showed us. He didn't have to do ANYTHING for us and yet he did everything in his power to get us out and save our Christmas. It sounds silly and I know that agents should always do this much for every passanger, but they don't and people treat them really badly, so it's kind of a vicious cycle.

Not only did we get to Vancouver at 1pm, but we got all our bags first off the flight and we made it to my parent's house in a brand new rental car! It would have been perfect if le boyfriend had not gotten sick right before dinner! (His brother had decided to come to their parent's cottage even though him, his wife and his son had the stomac flu! They made everyone else sick for Christmas! What a great Christmas present lol!)

But that was my own little Christmas miracle. It just goes to show that my policy of treating everyone, especially service personnel, with respect does pay off. I can't tell you how many times I was screamed at and treated as though I was the scum of the earth when I worked in service. These people are trying to do a job like everyone else and they get treated so badly it's no wonder that sometimes they seem ornary.

I wrote Air Canada and told them of the great service we had recieved. I figure that they probably got so much hate mail over the holidays that they may be happy to recieve a compliment. I also hope that the agent who saved our holiday gets the credit he's due.

Comments

Mary Ellen said…
I love it when someone gets treated like a human being, especially from a person in the customer service business. I think you are right about it being a vicious cycle. I try to be polite and calm - even when I'm furious - because that seems to work better! You were respectful, and therefore he wanted to go the extra mile for you. So glad you made it home in time.
Anonymous said…
I'm so glad that your Christmas plans ended up working out. I'm STILL hearing about people who don't have their luggage.
Cupcake Blonde said…
That is a miracle! What a wonderful story and it gives faith that customer service is not dead after all! I am glad you wrote and told them the good news, they probably do not hear too many good reports nowadays.

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