 Yesterday
I arrived at Montreal Airport at about 4:30pm for my 6pm return flight
to Toronto. I was surprised to note that it was already listed as
'delayed', scheduled to depart at 6:30pm. I got my boarding pass from
the machine and headed to the bar for an early dinner, and ended up
exchanging Air Canada stories with two other guys at the bar who were
waiting for the same flight. We all admitted we would rather be flying
on the 'upstart' airline Westjet. but for logistical reasons were
flying Air Canada. The terminal was jammed because all flights to the
US East Coast were seriously delayed or canceled, and the temperature
was near 90 Fahrenheit. We boarded the flight at 6:30 and twenty
minutes later were told by a very flustered and tongue-tied flight
attendant that the plane had 'serious mechanical problems with its
hydraulic systems', that they would know in about an hour whether it
was fixable, and that if anyone wanted to 'jump ship' there were still
50 seats available on the 10pm flight. A few people 'jumped ship'.
At 7:30 we were told that the problem was not fixable and that we had
to deplane and talk to the Air Canada rep about other arrangements.
After we disembarked, we were told that a replacement plane had been
arranged for us at the other end of the terminal. After a ten minute
trek we discovered that the replacement plane was the one destined for
Winnipeg, and that all the Winnipeg passengers had been given a new
departure gate and later departure time. There was open discussion as
to whether they were bumped to make room for the larger Toronto
passenger group, and whether they would make it home at all that night.
Announcements were few and far between, and it was left largely to the
passengers to tell each other where their new gate was, and to organize
ourselves. On top of that, the clerk at the gate said she had to go to
look after her Winnipeg flight, so for half an hour there was no one
from Air Canada at our 'new' gate at all. When they finally arrived,
they clearly did not know how to manage such a situation, muttered to
each other for fifteen minutes, and finally announced that because it
was a different sized plane, all boarding passes would have to be
reissued. Rather than just 'mapping' from the old seat assignments to
the new ones, they reassigned every seat on a first come, first served
basis. It took two of them 45 minutes to do this for about 150
passengers, and I was one of the first to board the new plane at 8:50.
At 9:30 they told us that the new plane had a broken auxiliary engine
so there would be no air conditioning until we pushed back. At 9:45
they told us that the auxiliary engine was also needed to jump-start
the plane, and that the truck brought in to 'boost' the plane had
failed to do so. The heat and smell at this point were suffocating. At
10:00 a second truck successfully boosted the plane, and at 10:20,
almost 4 1/2 hours late, we took off.
The first apology we heard since the beginning of this ordeal came from
the captain at 9:45. I got home just after midnight, eight hours after
I had left my Montreal client -- it would have been faster, more
comfortable, and much cheaper, to drive. And other than a free beer or
wine on board, no compensation was offered for the inconvenience.
What are the lessons from this story?
- The value of prevention:
It's much better to prevent problems from occurring than to try to cope
with them when they do. One mechanical problem every once in awhile is
unavoidable even with good preventative maintenance; two back-to-back problems is inexcusable. Small airlines
don't have the luxury of bringing in 'back-up' aircraft, and in my
experience they are better at this than the big guys.
- The importance of not over-promising:
All of the expected departure and arrival times given to us were wildly
optimistic. Many passengers were arranging pick-ups and connecting
flights by cell-phone, and had to change them at least six times.
Smaller companies 'get' this: they give you a worst-case time, not a
best-case one.
- The value of agility:
Why is there no automatic, computerized re-mapping of boarding passes
when passengers need to change planes. This is not that rare an
occurrence. If it had been a small airline, they would simply have
honored all boarding passes on any seat in the same class on the
aircraft, and not bothered assigning seats at all. In fact, some of
them only have one class and have no assigned seats. And why couldn't
they break Standard Operating Procedure and have the check-in clerks
stay where they were, instead of swapping back and forth with the gate
changes?
- The importance of courtesy:
Too little information, too infrequently, inarticulately provided, and
too few apologies. Come on, guys, this is not rocket science. Good
thing we were patient, peace-loving, non-line-jumping Canadians.
- The importance to treating everyone equally:
In a crisis situation, you can't play favourites. This is a Titanic
lesson. What appeared to be blatantly sacrificing the Winnipeg
passengers for the Toronto ones was inexcusable. And taking the
business class and frequent-flyer passengers first after everyone had
been waiting an hour in unbearable heat (which they tried to do, and
then thought better of) was just dumb.
- The value of service recovery:
When you mess up, bend over backwards to recover the lost goodwill.
Giving passengers compensation would have repaid itself many times over
in repeat business, which Air Canada will now not get from many of
these passengers.
Small is beautiful. From big computer makers to big airlines to big
media to big pharma to big agribusiness, bigger is worse -- for the
economy, for the environment, and for the customer. When will we learn?
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MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
