And it ain’t health care.
Air Canada, which charges for each pillow and sandwich and is just a wee bit shy of requiring passengers to load their own luggage on the plane, is now offering “On My Way”, a new “travel assistance service”, which seems to be what most airlines, including West Jet, have traditionally offered — meal vouchers, rebooking tickets — at no extra service whenever a flight is delayed or cancelled. But service is a concept increasingly foreign to Air Canada. You can read more here. From which,
Michael Janigan of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Ottawa wasn’t impressed. He suggested Out Of My Way as a more fitting name.
“It’s part and parcel of a continuing effort to try and make the service extended to you when you buy a ticket less and less. The expectation would be that if you paid for a flight, you’d be rebooked on the next available flight. I’m hesitant to figure what’s next with the airlines. Maybe washroom privileges (for a fee)? We’ll have to wait and see.”
Janigan said new fees like On My Way suggest it’s time for Transport Canada to take a stand and set minimum standards to protect passengers. “We can’t rely on airlines to set appropriate rules for what passengers are and are not entitled to.”
In the meantime — fly West Jet.
And avoid Heathrow’s new Terminal 5.
Filed under: Onward & Upward, Travel
Okay so after a post warning “light and sporadic blogging” you post 3 or 4 times in one day?!!
And I heard about this “insurance” thing on the radio and thought it was off. One thing that stuck out for me was that it was presented as a real money grab. The market being ripe because “Canadians are overinsured” and thus they think will buy insurance products. WTF?
Well, some of our plans, including tie-dyeing T-shirts yesterdays, went out the window when the windows went out the window…
I heard that justification about Canadians being overinsured. Nothing like being at the back end of a trend. And I hope it comes back to bite Air Canada in the back end. Traveling by air is a misery as it is.