Why Did Air Canada Downgrade Harry Potter Actor?

Presumably this is Air Canada Rouge? I don’t think AC flies to MCO. Rouge has much worse customer service at outstations. And as you say, difficult to judge with only one side of the story.

air marshal?

The guy is witholding details that would explain why they bumped him. I'd bet money that an explanation was given at the time, which would make his story less sympathetic. I'd also bet that he went full DYKWIA and prompted the "rude" behaviour of the gate agent. For what it's worth, tearing a void boarding pass in two is standard practice by all carriers. Not impressed with this story. Has Twitter made the world better?

I used to be on the Flyertalk Air Canada forum quite a bit and the company reps who were active on the board would assert very clearly that the company does not overbook business class. Not sure if that's still the case, but they were very adamant about this at the time (about 5 years ago I think).

MCO-YYZ is operated by Rouge, which offers Premium Rouge, not "first class". There are a lot of key details missing from this story to make any solid conclusions. Up here in Canada hating Air Canada is a national pastime so lots of people are jumping on this story to bash the airline on social media.

Slytherin.

Had that same issue with icelandair this summer, and no sorry no rebooking and no compensation

If the passenger misidentified (that's a euphemism) the airline and the class, it calls into question everything else he asserts. Did Neville transfer to Slytherin?

I have a feeling that there's more to this story than what we see here. Not saying that AC handled anything well, but this tale seems to have a lot of missing parts.

Couldn’t he just have waved his magic wand?

Why does a dead head pilot get a business class seat over a paying customer? Put them in steerage with everyone else.

He’s not wrong about Air Canada being the worst airline in North America.

Just another example of "when my privilege doesn't get me what I want, I go on a Twitter tirade". Donkeys r us. Take that Rouge bumping bullshit somewhere else homeboy.

Probably in their collective contract.

I wish I had some clarity on how the airlines generally (realizing that they have different rules) determine downgrades. An article on this would be quite illuminating. I can’t imagine it would be totally random. Hard to know what happened with this guy, given that allegedly no explanation was made for the action. There’s got to be more to this.

AC downgraded me on a transcon at check-in once (3 hours before departure). Paid J, *G. They were very apologetic but gave me absolutely no explanation and wouldn't re-accommodate onto a different flight. No aircraft change and my seat wasn't inop (saw a pax in it). It took months of arguing to get a partial refund of ~CAD 90 since it was part of a TATL.

When you are a paying customer with a confirmed seat in whatever aberration of business class Rouge offers, DYKWIA is as simple as the seat was paid for and its his and he is either entitled to what he paid for or an apology and a refund.

To begin with, the MCO-YYZ route is operated by Air Canada Rouge (a low-cost leisure subsidiary of Air Canada) which only offers only Premium Rouge as upgraded product above economy. There is no first class on this route or on any Air Canada flight. Air Canada like other Star Alliance members does not have paper tickets. Like every airline, if one decides use an electronic ticket voucher at a lower class level, you can if there is available seat. When doing so, the passenger would have received a waitlisted in Premium Rouge paper boarding pass to get through security and access to the lounge, if available. Star Alliance lounge is not generally convenient to access at Orlando for AC flights. Such boarding pass has no seat allocation which is exchanged at the gate. Seat allocation is provided at the gate based on availability.

I’ve suffered worse, countless times, with plenty of status with Air Canada. Seat inoperable, but they fully boarded the plane, didn’t downgrade us to economy, didn’t ask for volunteers, didn’t honor our status, nothing. Only standby in economy on next available flight.

Etc etc.

Staff are trained not to be helpful. Air Canada has magical employees but they are few and far between.

We’ve even been treated differently by the flight director when upgraded using eUpgrades. Almost made to feel like we were thieves.

And worst of all, when standby cleared for earlier flight, then flight cancelled, then tried to get our original confirmed seats in J on later flight, customer service agent honestly said the check in agent improperly « offloaded » us, to which supervisor leans in and whispers « you’re not supposed to tell them that » to which I roar, « Are you reprimanding an employee for being honest and doing their job? Are you in the business of lying to your most elite/preferred customers now? »

Awful anecdotes.

Oh and thanks for the 30$ refund. Not sure how they calculated that one….

But people who think they are the worst airline have clearly too small a sample size…

Overbooking can result from a broken seat taken out of service, change of aircraft and different configuration, payload issue due to weather. An algorithm in the check in system usually works out which passenger based on time of check in, booking class and frequent flier status.

He could also be a DYKWIA. What if it was a complimentary upgrade and he had to be downgraded?

Not much time at the gate to do anything.

I’m sure the staff did say something.

They actually have a priority and could be due to mandatory rest period if they are flying at the other end

Haha underrated comment, love it!

If you check in at a kiosk at the gate they do give you a paper ticket. Lol

I'm glad he is using his public profile to bring light to these issues. I've been saying Air Canada is crap for years, but very few people listen.
It takes people in the public eye to actually put some pressure on them.

First and foremost, when I board an aircraft my greatest expectation (hope) is for a safe and uneventful flight. Check Air Canada's safety record. To refer to the airline as "North America's worst" primarily reflects upon the poster and his acolytes.
When I am called to the gate agent for a seat assignment, the boarding pass used to clear security is torn up and replaced by another with my seat assigned.
Although MCO agents are NOT Air Canada employees, the suggestion that the agent ( or any agent) took away a confirmed premium seat without any attempt at explanation is simply unbelievable.

Kind of odd that they didn't even offer other premium customers a voucher to give up their seat other than the seat issue was very last minute. But clearly there would be zero doubt that the bumped customer would be pi$$*d so to say nothing is pitiful service. I'm not entirely surprised. I flew AC twice in my life and both times they were terrible. I never flew with them again.

I just flew AC first yesterday and it was one of the best flights I’ve had in North America. Immaculate new Max with great seats and extra legroom. I guess our star didn’t have the right spell. Expellus Orlandus!!!!

I have booked AC with oversold business class seats. I could buy 2 seats in business class and when I went to seat selection there was only 1 seat available.

AC is definitely not my favorite airline in Canada but I have found Westjet's prices and recent schedule reductions too much and have sadly been pushed more toward AC for my flights lately.

Funny I’m Canadian and way prefer Air Canada to Westjet which is a low cost carrier kind of like the Easy Jet of Canada. Regardless if he paid for business he should have flown business and if there was an issue they should have offered to rebook.

Rubbish. Air Canada is head and shoulders better than other North American carriers, other than probably Porter. Look at the survey results which consistently put AC at the top.
Rouge? It’s a joke.

While I do not disagree with his opinion of Air Canada his claim is somewhat exaggerated as Air Canada does not have a first class on any of its aircrafts.

AC fanboys must complete the surveys. My experiences with AC over the last 2-3 years compared with UA, DL and AA definitely demonstrate that AC is the worst of these 4 major airlines. I trust my experience better than surveys.

I am Canadian and I had really bad travel experiences with Air Canada a few years ago, and they were very hard to deal with. I have never traveled with them since and never will again.

Well it’s Air Canada what do you expect?
They have had a bad reputation for years
Which is odd as the Canadian people are so nice generally.
Poisoned business culture
Blame it on Canada?

Who cares. Doesn't affect my points and miles strategy. This happens to many people all the time but it is not newsworthy. It only is making the news because he's famous.

We were downgraded twice by Air Canada. No reasons given. No refund of part of fare. Great money maker for Air Canada.

It’s very odd, but , If that indeed did happen then yes appalling behaviour on behalf of the service agent, there’s always , generally , two sides to a story and we may never know - alakazam !!!!

Lesson to corporates: doing underhand things does eventually affect your reputation.

Because most airlines do overbook, when this passenger was downgraded, he immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was because of overbooking.
Other comments here suggest other reasons which are likely to be the explanation in this case.
If Air Canada had a general policy of not overbooking any class, and advertised it, they would have been much less likely to suffer this attack on their reputation.

Reminds me of a famous LOTR actor I encountered years ago (perhaps 2013) on a largely empty, evening trans-Tasman flight BNE-AKL. He was seated in row 1. I was in row 3. And he was aghast (literally open-mouthed) that there were no business class seats and his row 1 seat was an economy seat like all the others (at that time Virgin Australia may not have had business class on all planes). Other than that, he was perfectly quiet. (FYI: he was a hobbit!)

Magic wand?

Why does he need to use a wand when he already have a broom.

I love it when Hollywood types, when confronted with real world hardships, make themselves out to be victims. As someone with 6+ million lifetime miles all I can say is stuff happens, it’s not fun but you roll with the punches and you don’t bite the hand that feeds you. I’m sure he’ll get his “people” to argue with AC about compensation. The reality, for all but the private jet crowd, is that the airline business has come back from the pandemic’s nuclear winter far faster than anyone anticipated, the result is a very overwhelmed system and many examples of people being inconvenienced but safe. I guess the computer algorithm wasn’t coded to prioritize movie stars…..not even sure I know who this guy is and they haven’t made a Harry Potter movie in years.

Well if they upgrade you when you dress up or on a Honeymoon.

Then you get downgrade when
1. Wearing flip flop, shorts, and tank tops.
2. Going through a divorce.

Enough clarity?

Or maybe he saw Gollum and his precious.

My favorite, Kevin Smith.

He refuses to fly Southwest "ever again" for at least 2 times.
He is still flying Southwest.
At least he kept his words a few years each time.

I have seen this happen (on various airlines) and while rare it can happen. My son and daughter-in-law were pulled from First Class (revenue tickets not an upgrade) on United but oddly only one of them (both were on same PNR). Customer service is probably because Orlando is a contract station for Air Canada. No “real” employees so nobody cares. The unfortunate price of airlines trying to cut costs in non-hub cities.

I trust my experience as well over 40 years of flying in Canada and internationally on multiple airlines. AC doesn't match some of the Asian and ME airlines but is miles better than US carriers. Fanboy of AC? No. Discerning customer? Yes.

They are the best airline in North America for years they are 4 star airline ( 5 ) being the highest. They carry over 55 million passengers ,around the world in one year,
They do not have FIRST CLASS.They have passengers who fly over a million miles a year.
I guess all because they are so bad!
Glad you have choices .use it .They have a impeccable safety record.

Agreed.

I was actually bumped from a Air Canada where they sold a seat to two different individuals. Since I bought my ticket from United with Gold Status I was told anyone who bought directly from Air Canada had priority. Than they were rude enough to tell me the next flight available would be three days later and that is what I get for flying United. I talked directly with United who got me on a flight two hours later and admitted they were reconsidering partnering with Air Canada for this exact reason. I was under the impression happened on a regular basis and even had to file a report United was using for upcoming meetings with them. Airlines are not great but Air Canada was on a different level of horrible. Will never fly them again.

Was it a French crew?

I would guess he was upgraded and for what ever reason an error was made I find it very hard to believe that he had a paid business class ticket that they downgraded unless there was a change in plane or something like that. Orlando to Toronto is not a flight they would put pilots in first class over paying customers. They do not oversell business.

It is difficult to understand why this is here at all. Who cares?

Wouldn't this story have had more impact if he/you did not dwell on his acting history. This would be just as bad for anyone, if the side of the sorry related here is true. Celebrity status has absolutely nothing to do with the issue.

First of all since Air Canada doesn’t have first class he loses credibility to start. And he’s obviously quite dramatic about tearing up the boarding pass to issue a new one. Happens thousands of times a day. There’s always two sides to the story and he sounds like a male privileged “Karen”.
Depending on the other side of the story I find it very hard to believe that no explanation was given and when his reservation was changed from BUSINESS to economy the fare difference would be automatically refunded. So lots of holes in his story.

Because he was in Hufflepuff... the meekest of the four houses! duh!

Currently suffering through a HP marathon with my kids...someone please kill me...

Is it Air Canada staff or is it outsourced in MCO? Odd AC has not commented considering the bad PR.

where has everyone been living the past 5 years. The legacy carriers are no better than locos these days. BA are the pits. Ever since smart arse MBA's get on the board service drops and pay drops. A gate agent on minimum wage doesn'tneed to explain why you're being downgraded. Nobody gives a damn these days. We wanted cheap fares so dont expect top service. The days of the legacy carriers providing full service are long gone. They're just happy if their flight takes off on time and is not cancelled. They don't care and the staff dont care who sits where or who's got a gold card. They want to do their shift and go home. So dry your eyes Mr Superstar and all you others who like to think their gold status will get them a preferential treatment, you'll get better treatment on Spirit.

Clearly you've not experienced BA in the past 5-6years!

I believe it is good when celebrities are open about poor service. Air Canada is very poor at customer relations therefore this type of media coverage may get them to improve and start caring for customers, but I doubt it as it is an ingrained corporate culture.
Seen elsewhere:- ac motto:-
We are not happy till you are not happy.!!

I fly for business and pleasure all over the world and have done for many years. Back in 1986 I had a disastrously poor customer service issue and experience with Air Canada or as I prefer Air Chance. Since then, I have never flown with them again. Even with trips to Vancouver BC, I will fly through the US to get there. AC is not even in the top 20 airlines in the world. Of the top 100, they are only 33rd. BIG WHOP! As is the Canadian way it seems, accept mediocre service and respect and just live with it.

Could be a plane change to a smaller plane ... Less business class seats but they save on fuel I guess. :/ Just happened to me. Really sucks, cuz I booked months ago and was really looking forward to flying comfortably.