Frustrations with Air Canada

This is probably one of the best examples of a first world problem. Yes, there are far bigger problems in the world, but at this moment I'm not worried about them. I am worried that I won't be getting United status miles on this flight between Toronto and Munich. 

This flight was booked with my Aeroplan number on Air Canada. Great, fine, but the issue is that I'm trying to make United Premier Gold next year so I want to gobble up all the miles I can on United. What makes this a complicated issue is that we planned on submitting for a Business class upgrade so I couldn't just simply switch my PNR to my United number. Yes, I'm also currently Air Canada Altitude 50K with a whack of upgrade credits that I wanted to use to upgrade Brad and me on this trip. 

So we arrive at the gate and we were indeed upgraded. New tickets in hand we didn't want to bother the gate agent, they have enough to deal with, so we went up to the Maple Leaf lounge where five non busy agents were waiting to help me. We spoke to an agent and he wasn't very helpful, he took a quick look and said: "Nope, we can't do it, the system won't allow us if you are upgraded". See ya later. 

So we returned down to the gate where they had started boarding. Two agents were available and I asked them politely if I could change my FF Number on my newly upgraded ticket. She said sure... Let me try. 

She started the process and I even took my United number. Yes! I thought. Success!

Then the phone rang. I heard the other agent answer: "Yes, we are helping him right now."

Then he got off the phone and said to the agent that was helping me: "We can't do it, you have already upgraded."

That douche from the lounge called and wiener blocked me! I couldn't believe it. I wasn't going to argue, but it was pretty douchey that he didn't have anything better to do than follow up with them and stop the process. 

So alas, I'm flying to Munich in an Air Canada Business Class pod and making no United miles, I will survive but the situation is still annoying. 

My point to Air Canada is this, I got the upgrade that I earned fair and square with the status I made in 2012. I flew a lot with Air Canada to earn this privilege. Why should Air Canada care if I'm crediting my miles to a partner airline? I don't think it should be an issue. But really, don't worry about me... I will survive. 

P.S. the nuts were warm on this flight. The annoyance of this situation is fading... and here is the rest of the food.