[KGY8008]

Upon trying to enter the AC Lounge at YYZ I was informed that there is a new rule allowing frequent travelers (we are a party of 4 with 3 Star Alliance Gold Members flying on paid Business Class Tickets) to access the lounge only 3 hours prior to scheduled departure time. This was the first time I heard about this rule and it seemed like a ridiculous rule as for years airlines pushed travelers to arrive early for international flights.

So AC is now taking a new approach all under the cover of better passengers experience (capacity management of the lounges). But let me explain how bad the customer experience was in this instance:

- arriving early for an international flight (YYZ-BOS) now resulted in being stoned walled by an agent who had no interest to service clients. Her goal was to get ride of us as quickly as possible with the comment “I do not make up the rules, and this is a new rule.. So we had to spend 45min in the Gate area.; not sure if you could call waiting in the gate area a customer experience improvement for frequent business travelers.

- after our wait in the gate area we went back 3 hours prior to scheduled departure time only to find out that our flight was delayed for 35min and that she is not allowed to grant us access until 3 hours prior to departure time. This is were AC lost me: on multiple fronts:

1) As a customer a delay is not a good experience and no top AC now asked frequent travelers in business class to sit out their delay in the gate area? This has nothing to do with customer experience.
2) I asked to file a complaint with the agent in the lounge and told her do not refer me to a website as I am the client and you are supposed to take me plaint and file it within your organization. Her reply was “We can not do this”. I then asked for a supervisor with her reply being “they no longer exist, there is nobody I can refer you to”. I then asked for a service center at the airport to file my complaint and again “Does not exist” was her reply. AGAIN not very customer focused in my opinion.
3) As we were asked to leave the lounge again to wait an other 35min, I took the time to find a AC customer service desk with a very friendly agent who could not believe what we just experienced. After a short phone call with her manager (they do exist…) she confirmed that AC has a new 3 hour prior to scheduled departure access rule, but it is based on scheduled departure time, hence the delay should not cause a refusal of lounge access. She told me that her manager will call the lounge agent and that we could return to the lounge. After arriving the lounge agent educated me that she was right about the 3 hours prior to departure time rule , that she will add my behavior into my file (sounded like a threat to me and to my surprise she was able to capture a complaint now…) and she would now make an exception to granting us access to the lounge. AGAIN clearly showing a lack of understanding what client service stands for and simply a bad customer experience.

Overall I will do some further research on this AC lounge access rule as this will be a key driver for me to select AC for my future travel plans; as a business traveler I look for reliable, predictable service allowing me to work during my wait time at airports. If AC refuses this service it should be properly communicated (also via Star Alliance). I hope management will think about the definition of client service and experience a bit more seriously and not manage a staff capacity issue on the back of frequent business travelers.

Karl