While I realize that the digital age is upon us and it's easy to book flights online, I'm a bit old school and prefer to make my reservations over the phone. I have a smartphone and a laptop, but I like talking to someone on the phone and asking questions about the flights and how booked they are because it gives me a good indication of how likely I am to get booted. Believe it or not, I have my own system on how to book a flight that is less likely to get delayed or canceled, and so far, it has worked out for me pretty well.
With that in mind, when I needed to book my ticket from NYC to Toronto for the holidays, I decided to call Air Canada directly. I know that many people are calling the airports this time of year, especially given the holiday travel and the increase in flight delays and cancellations. Therefore, I was prepared to be patient to get help with my reservation, but it wasn't too long of a process.
When I first called, an automated assistant greeted me and said, "Thank you for calling Air Canada. For English, press 1. For Francais, press 2. For Spanish, press 3. If you are calling about travel to or from Tel Aviv, please say Tel Aviv now. How can I help you today? For example, you can say something like flight information, seat booking, or new reservation."
I simply replied, "New reservation," then it asked me, "Are you calling about new bookings?" I also responded yes to this, and it asked, "Do you want to apply a credit from a previously canceled booking?" I answered no since I didn't have a credit, and then it reminded me that to book a flight, I could go online to their website instead of waiting in line.
Of course, I didn't want to do this, so I hung on the line, and it warned me, "We are currently experiencing more calls than anticipated. Your wait time may be longer than expected. If you are not traveling within 48 hours, we suggest you call us back at a later date to ensure everyone has quick access to our customer service." I'm sure the entire month of December is like this, so I decided to hang on the line.
The assistant then gathered some basic information from me, including the city I was flying to, the city I was arriving from, the time of day I wanted to fly and the class I wanted to fly to. It then placed me on hold. It took me about three minutes and a half to get to the hold line and another 15 to talk to an agent, which wasn't the worst. At least the hold music was upbeat and not annoying.