Air Canada The Gift of Home
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 468
Likes: 40
From: Canada
Air Canada The Gift of Home
This is a great series of videos which were done by the Big Red in LHR on November 27th of this year.
Although I have never made it to the Maple Leaf London Pub which is a popular spot for expatriate Canadians living in the UK a camera crew was sent there to film a documentary about Canadians missing the holidays. The pub invited 200 unsuspecting Canadians for a night out of missing home as a pretext.
The first video gives some background on the job the airline does and the second video gets interesting when the Captain rings the bell at the pub and makes an announcement.
http://youtu.be/gfEv8X4RCIo
http://youtu.be/r5YvVB1FJrs
Although I have never made it to the Maple Leaf London Pub which is a popular spot for expatriate Canadians living in the UK a camera crew was sent there to film a documentary about Canadians missing the holidays. The pub invited 200 unsuspecting Canadians for a night out of missing home as a pretext.
The first video gives some background on the job the airline does and the second video gets interesting when the Captain rings the bell at the pub and makes an announcement.
http://youtu.be/gfEv8X4RCIo
http://youtu.be/r5YvVB1FJrs
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 1,306
Likes: 0
From: Canada
I havnt seen pasengers with tears of joy in their eyes since I operated a "Dreams Take Flight" to Disney World, that was about twenty five years ago, a great tradition started by employees, for those not from Canada thus unfamiliar with this project, the pasengers on these flights are very sick children and their parents, Air Canada provides the aircraft and all employees work for free, other airlines have copied this, good for them as well!
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 514
Likes: 41
From: Oil Capital of Central Scotland
Not the first time that AC have done something like this.
Earlier this year on Victoria Day, they were supporting a Canadian Tourist Board thing in Trafalgar Square and had a what you miss most about Canada caption or slogan competition. One of my friend's brother and his fiancé were there on a day off & I can't remember what Jocelyn wrote up, but a total of twenty seconds thought & work scored them first class returns to anywhere in Canada from LHR.
So that's Dougie & Jocelyn sorted for their wedding celebration next year. It's just the rest of the ten or so family members who have to figure out how to get to YYZ & onward up towards Minden & Halliburton for the party.
Earlier this year on Victoria Day, they were supporting a Canadian Tourist Board thing in Trafalgar Square and had a what you miss most about Canada caption or slogan competition. One of my friend's brother and his fiancé were there on a day off & I can't remember what Jocelyn wrote up, but a total of twenty seconds thought & work scored them first class returns to anywhere in Canada from LHR.
So that's Dougie & Jocelyn sorted for their wedding celebration next year. It's just the rest of the ten or so family members who have to figure out how to get to YYZ & onward up towards Minden & Halliburton for the party.
Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 56
Likes: 0
From: Wet Coast, Canuckland
One of my fondest memories of working for AC was handing out 'Winning Seat' envelopes to random passengers years ago.....free trips to anywhere AC flew !
.....would love to go back and do it again just to see the surprised faces of the winners.
.....would love to go back and do it again just to see the surprised faces of the winners.
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
From: Canada
Just copying Westjet. Here is AC real corporate culture. A few years back the baggage handlers went on legal strike. They were making 16.25 per hour. AC went to the federal government to force them back to work as they were considered an essential service and the strike would hurt the economy. At that time the CEO made 3.5 million per year. Since then, the CEO now makes over 7. AC is a corporate leach which is trying to fix its reputation against Westjet and is failing miserably!!!
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 980
Likes: 11
From: On the dark side of the moon
Do you know how much the WestJet CEO made last year? Over $3 million. Clive Beddoe has cashed out over $50 million in WestJet shares in the past year. Singling out Air Canada for executive compensation is like calling Steven Harper the only dishonest politician.
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 1,306
Likes: 0
From: Canada
212Wrench, what utter nonsense, Air Canada was doing this kind of promotion many years before West Jet was even formed, and no, they didnt copy West Jet any more than West Jet copied Air Canada with their version of "Dreams Take Flight" with donated aircraft, crews working unpaid to take very sick children to Disney World, good on both companies for doing this. If one is in the flying game there are only certain charities and promotions which make sense, freebies and charity flights are two of them , as for executive pay and bonuses you wont find any argument that they are totally out of line and reflect a sad state of morality in our "New World", but slagging other companies wont get AME/Pilot saleries to reflect their real worth Im afraid, so lighten up, its Christmas!
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 1,306
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From: Canada
Nestorkelly 508, Yes, Air Canada has done similar things since the days of the DC8, this aircraft along with the other upgrades from piston aircraft gave them the ability to do such promotions, up to this point they didnt have the capacity to do more than token gestures along these lines. My best liked promotion they do is the flying or terminally sick children to Disney World, Air Canada provides the aircraft and all employees work "pro bono"to both dispatch and operate the aircraft. I flew one of these flight years ago, driving home to my own healthy kids I found that I had to pull over to the side of the road for a few minutes to "wipe the dust" from my eyes, some of the girls working the cabin were even more affected by the experience, other Canadian airlines have like programs by the way.
