Air Canda: 1, US Airways: 0

(Event occurred in Feb 2007)

I spent this past weekend up in Canada visiting a very dear friend of mine. Right before I walked out the door (really!) I had an automatic call from US Airways telling me my flight was delayed by 99 minutes because the inbound aircraft was delayed. I can only assume it was coming from somewhere out East where snow and cold weather was blanketing the country.

I called US Airways and was able to get a seat on Air Canada. Yeah! The flight was leaving only 25 minutes later than my originally scheduled flight. After getting to the airport I quickly learned that I couldn't check in for my flight because US Airways didn't release my e-ticket to them (or something like that). I had to go to the US Airways counter to get them to do that. But of course, after waiting in a long line I learned their computers were down. I tried to get them on the phone via the 1-800 number. 15 minutes later I had them on the phone and tried to tell them the problem. They said there wasn't a problem and the Air Canada person should be able to pull up my reservation.

Only she couldn't. I went to give her the phone, but what do you know, we got disconnected. However, she was now able to see my reservation, she just couldn't access it. Also, she said that my middle initial was attached to the end of my first name and since that didn't match my passport she couldn't give me the ticket. She told me to go back to the US Airways counter.

So I did. I was very frustrated by this point (over 30 mins of being at the airport and getting nowhere). Finally, a US Airways person was able to help me (earlier when I asked, a lady told me only one person could help me and he had a long line waiting for him). This new lady was able to print my tickets with my name the proper way and released my e-ticket to Air Canada.

Back to Air Canada. Now there is a longer line there, but my new friend at the counter pulled me up to the front. I kid you not, another 20 minutes (at least) passed before I had my boarding passes in hand. Even though the tickets printed with the name the right way, in the e-ticket it was still wrong. She couldn't print my Air Canada boarding passes that way and it took her FOREVER to outsmart the system. But I commend her because she DID outsmart the system and found a way to make it work. She didn't give the every so common excuse - I can't help you the system won't allow me. I can't tell you how many times I hear that today at stores or from people over the phone.