Thursday October 20th 2005, 8:57 am by Steve Portigal
From Travel Agent Central
Air Canada will no longer offer customers free pillows. Instead, for a $2 charge, the carrier will offer customers a so-called ‘comfort zone’ kit that includes an inflatable plastic pillow and polyester blanket, according to media sources in Canada. Apparently, the kit is a pouch with pillow case, blanket and an instruction card on blowing up the pouch into a pillow.
I can’t help thinking of a prescient series of parody radio ads from the 70s somewhere in Southern Ontario (Hamilton? Toronto?) for Air Harold, where everything, including seatbelts, were extra.
This is such a messed up industry.
Tags: air canada, air travel, airlines, blanket, economy, freebies, pillow, service
Flew Air Canada recently, Laguardia to Heathrow via Montreal. The airplane is just one of the problems – they are a bit old sure, and scant on service; the real problem is the system – Heathrow Terminal under construction, flying back to the States I had to check in again, giving new meaning to the phrase lay-over. One expects to check in once and fly all the way through, even with a lay over, but I had to go through customs again in Canada, then, still on what I thought was Canada, I suddenly was in the U.S. Because airports are under construction, I had to retrieve my bag, shlepp it upstairs, check in, and go through customs once more, in the US in Canada zone. Not sure if this is unique to Air Canada, but joining the surprise of the system with the poor service made a nominally short flight across the Atlantic a much longer and more exhausting affair – it’s like going back to bartering … it all had a certain bus terminal je ne sais quois quality about it! Though I have always said that flying to London is like taking the subway or a bus, it is so close!
Comment by Frank 10.28.05 @ 7:02 pm[...] remember when Air Canada started charging two bucks for a pillow back in 2005. It was in fact an inflatable pillow, and [...]
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