HAL Air and the Emergency Traveller Line

[msmayor]

My husband and I are enjoying breakfast in our hotel as we wait to head to Canada Place to board Eurodam today. It's a very different morning than yesterday.

 

As we sat in the terminal at PHL waiting for our flight to TOR to connect to YVR the first text from Air Canada was a delay. Not too long, and no real worry since we had a four hour layover. Not the best flight schedule but for the first time, we opted to use HAL Air because of the generous credit we got as a booking perk. 

 

The real challenge came 15 minutes later when the flight was cancelled. Gate agents told everyone to just wait and Air Canada would text or email our new flights.  Out came the cell phone....

 

First call to Air Canada was not encouraging. Almost everything to Vancouver was sold out. I said nevermind, I will call HAL.

 

Called the Emergency Traveller line and Mary was awesome. She calmly sifted through flights, alternate airports, etc and kept notes. She offered up a United itinerary but that was departing in an hour; wasn't sure we could get bags and ourselves to that departure on time.  She suggested I wait to see what Air Canada came back with and then call back if I still needed to change. She promised we would get to Vancouver that day.

 

The revised Air Canada flights came through...next day, arriving just two hours before deadline to be on board. We gathered our stuff to go find out how to retrieve our checked bags and then to call HAL.

 

As it turned out, in talking to the agents about getting the bags back and the awful replacement flight, the topic of the United flights came up. I said I didn't think we could get the bags transferred and make boarding...at this point it was just 10 minutes to boarding and 40 minutes from departure. The agent said "of course you can...that flight is right at the next gate and I'll get your bags shuttled right over."

 

 We didn't get to sit together, but lucked out with a much shorter layover in Chicago (70 min) and getting to Vancouver almost three hours sooner. The icing on the cake was seeing all our bags on the carousel.

 

So grateful we had HAL services assurance and the help of some great folks at Air Canada to make things work for us!

 

 

Edited October 15, 2019 by msmayor

[Gigi1977]

29 minutes ago, msmayor said:

My husband and I are enjoying breakfast in our hotel as we wait to head to Canada Place to board Eurodam today. It's a very different morning than yesterday.

 

As we sat in the terminal at PHL waiting for our flight to TOR to connect to YVR the first text from Air Canada was a delay. Not too long, and no real worry since we had a four hour layover. Not the best flight schedule but for the first time, we opted to use HAL Air because of the generous credit we got as a booking perk. 

 

The real challenge came 15 minutes later when the flight was cancelled. Gate agents told everyone to just wait and Air Canada would text or email our new flights.  Out came the cell phone....

 

First call to Air Canada was not encouraging. Almost everything to Vancouver was sold out. I said nevermind, I will call HAL.

 

Called the Emergency Traveller line and Mary was awesome. She calmly sifted through flights, alternate airports, etc and kept notes. She offered up a United itinerary but that was departing in an hour; wasn't sure we could get bags and ourselves to that departure on time.  She suggested I wait to see what Air Canada came back with and then call back if I still needed to change. She promised we would get to Vancouver that day.

 

The revised Air Canada flights came through...next day, arriving just two hours before deadline to be on board. We gathered our stuff to go find out how to retrieve our checked bags and then to call HAL.

 

As it turned out, in talking to the agents about getting the bags back and the awful replacement flight, the topic of the United flights came up. I said I didn't think we could get the bags transferred and make boarding...at this point it was just 10 minutes to boarding and 40 minutes from departure. The agent said "of course you can...that flight is right at the next gate and I'll get your bags shuttled right over."

 

 We didn't get to sit together, but lucked out with a much shorter layover in Chicago (70 min) and getting to Vancouver almost three hours sooner. The icing on the cake was seeing all our bags on the carousel.

 

So grateful we had HAL services assurance and the help of some great folks at Air Canada to make things work for us!

 

 

Great to hear this.  We have our first non direct flight next spring booked through HAL. 

[travelholics]

Really good to hear this worked out in the end and you were helped by Flight Ease. We are using them for the first time next week, where did you get the Emergency number from? Safe travels and thanks for informing us.

[canadianbear]

So glad it all worked out for you but how stressful!  

 

Now onto the ship for some relaxation-hoping it won’t be too rough of seas heading south.  

[Ichiban Nekko]

Thank you for sharing such a wonderful story! Wishing you the best cruise yet!!

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

So glad that everything worked out for you.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[TiogaCruiser]

4 hours ago, travelholics said:

Really good to hear this worked out in the end and you were helped by Flight Ease. We are using them for the first time next week, where did you get the Emergency number from? Safe travels and thanks for informing us.

It’s on your documents when you book with Flightease.

[sevenseasnomad]

I know you're pleased that everything worked out so beautifully.  Have a marvelous cruise.

[rkacruiser]

As far as I am concerned, this OP's post says the best reason for booking air through HAL when it is reasonable to do so.

[ger_77]

I'm so glad it worked out for you - just another reason to fly in a day early, AND to use HAL's Flight Ease if possible.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂