Fiona Mascarenhas was excited to use Air Canada’s free airport-to-airport shuttle bus, until the airline foiled her plans. “They rope you in and then it’s complete lunch-bag let down,” she said. “I bought the Air Canada ticket to use the service and I can’t.
” The Landline shuttle connects Waterloo regional airport to Pearson International Airport in Toronto. The airline promotes it for passengers who do not want to drive a car or hire a driver to get to Pearson. “Travelling to Toronto to the airport, it’s horrible,” Mascarenhas said.
The Kitchener resident has been unable to secure a free seat on the bus for her September flight to Europe. The reason: she booked her flight using Expedia, an online service . Air Canada has not told passengers they can’t use Expedia.
However, it launched shuttle buses in May before finalizing a deal with the booking agency. “We are working to finalize an agreement with Expedia,” Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said by email. Other outside agencies are able to book shuttle seats for passengers.
That’s how 20 per cent of Landline bookings were made in July. Mascarenhas has spent hours on the telephone trying to book her free bus seat. Air Canada told her to call Expedia.
Expedia told her to call Air Canada. She’s been on hold. She’s been disconnected.
All she has to show for her effort is exhaustion. “Nobody is taking accountability,” she said. It’s not the only customer service glitch that has frustrated shuttle passengers.
When buses launched three months ago, passengers could not book seats by redeeming Aeroplan reward points. The airline says it fixed that problem by mid-June. Some passengers say the airline has sought to charge them a fee for adding a shuttle seat to a trip they previously booked out of Pearson.
This is not supposed to happen. “It has been our policy since the start not to charge for the Landline service,” Fitzpatrick said. The airline charges a fee if a flight is changed, he said.
There should be no fee or penalty to add a shuttle seat to an existing flight that was previously booked. This points to another confusion. The Air Canada website does not describe Landline as free but says “pricing for our bus segments is competitive and dynamic, varying depending on destination and passenger demand.
” Fitzpatrick said “we are in the process of amending our website to state more clearly that there is no additional charge for the Landline product. This should be done in the next few weeks.” The Landline shuttle is available only for Air Canada passengers who must check into their flight before getting on the 36-seat luxury coach.
Six buses depart each day from the regional airport and six buses return passengers daily from Pearson. The airline provides the same shuttle service out of the Hamilton airport. Fitzpatrick declined to specify performance on routes, but said shuttles have carried more than 11,000 passengers.
This is a small fraction of available seats since the service launched. Shuttle traffic is growing each month, the airline said. “We expected from the outset, based on the experiences of other airlines offering a similar service, that traffic would take time to build,” Fitzpatrick said.
“Overall we are satisfied with the reception the Landline service has received.” He said buses run on time more than 98 per cent of the time and none have been cancelled. Air Canada says it contracted with an experienced U.
S. firm to provide the shuttle service because “creating connections between a bus service and an airline is quite complicated.” Complications include the need to share bookings, communicate across technology systems, and meet security and regulatory obligations.
“Given this was our first venture of this type, we sought a partner who had the expertise and experience to make it a success,” Fitzpatrick said. Landline has partnerships with three U.S.
airlines. In its Ontario subsidiary it is using Canadian-built buses and Canadian employees, Fitzpatrick said..
