I generally contact central unless the issue is along the lines of "I need you to meet me" (which is VERY rare).

They can do anything related to your flights, and they're always in their little office working.

All it takes is one international flight to be delayed, and every station other than YYZ and maybe YUL is going to have all their concierges busy.

 

THIS!

And I'd add YVR as a major busy station with these issues. My own examples:

ALL 19 of my AC flights since Jan 1 have been delayed. Of these, 9 were TPACs.

Some of the 19 were delayed 1 hour, most were approx 1.5 hours and a couple were over 2 hours (including TPACs).

On arrival at the Asian destinations for eg., it was well-organized chaos as many onboard these flights missed their onward connections to elsewhere in Asia.

The concierges were there to meet the aircraft and help those with new flight arrangements and they were supplemented by local ground staff, all holding signs with a long list of names.

The same was true of a recent lengthy delay on 156. Onboard, the FA/SD read a list of destinations where pax will have already missed their TATL flights and she also read a long list of all the domestic flights where AC had already re-booked pax onto later flights. You can guarantee YYZ concierges were busy dealing with all those who had the onward connections.

I don't work at AC, therefore I have no idea why these delays have cascaded. Weather was not much of a factor on any of my flight dates and on days where we went to de-icing, we were already delayed at pushback, so the delay was longer.

However, given my multiple experiences since Jan 1, I find that on these days, it may take a while for a reply from the concierges. They will find me and anyone else who needs to be reached.

 

If 19 out of 19 flights in ~2 months are significantly delayed (1 hour or more) then that's not IROPS, and concierges are not dealing with exceptional situations.

 

There is no reason why AC cannot provide the Concierge telephone no. in the ticket sent to the traveller in the same way as its On My Way product.

Alternatively, a generic e-mail address or both.

AC can also learn from other airlines e.g., UA to purchase a CRS software where callers are required to provide the PNR to direct the call to the appropriate "desks" compatible with the callers' itinerary/FF status/class of service. It's all automated. If the caller is not eligible for Concierge service based on the PNR, just broadcast a message and hang up.

As an AC higher tier Altitude member, when I had to call UA reservation to change to booking, I was always asked to provide the PNR for correct call routing.

 

The reason is that AC sees no forcing cost/benefit analysis that would compel them to fix their IT infrastructure to do any of these things.

The multitude of threads on AC's IT-related issues with customer service are ample evidence.

 

What may be truly unpublished each airport's concierge email address. If you interact with them enough, you would get that information. If you really interact with them well, you would even get the email address of a given concierge.

One thing I like about the new central concierge number - it is 24/7. The old airport specific concierge numbers were operational only when those airport concierge offices were open. But I do miss phoning the concierge directly at each airport.


One thing I have not yet figured out - an old unpublished SE benefit was to call the SE line collect - if no toll free access available from that country. I do not know if the central concierge line allows collect calls in such circumstances?

 

So I emailed the local concierge address that I had from previous interactions. Was called back by phone within the hour. She was so pleasant and trying to be helpful that the fact that she couldn't help in the end did not matter.

 

+1