Archives for December 12, 2019

Customer headaches persist over new Air Canada booking system

More than three weeks after Air Canada launched a new booking system, customers continue to encounter headaches on the cusp of holiday travel season.

The airline introduced the reservation system on Nov. 18, triggering a barrage of social media complaints from passengers who had difficulty accessing their booking information or reaching customer service agents

Edmonton resident Ray Stuive tried to cancel an upcoming flight home from Las Vegas after Air Canada notified him that his trip would be rerouted through Montreal on an overnight layover, which would land him back in Edmonton about 20 hours later than planned.

“I’m trying to phone in and cancel a flight. I’m not getting any help,” said Stuive, 55.

The home builder said he’s called a half-dozen times over the past 10 days to cancel his flight but could not even get on hold, with one exception, “but it hung up on me in five minutes.”

Stuive wound up booking a January flight with WestJet.

“I’d like my money back from Air Canada. Will I ever get it? I don’t know,” he told The Canadian Press.

Calls to the customer service line Wednesday went straight to a voice recording from department director Jean-Francois Loignon, who apologized for the “delay” and asks customers not flying within 24 hours to consult their travel plans online.

“Due to current volumes, I apologize that we are not able to place you on hold at this time,” he said.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Wednesday he has spoken with Air Canada about the ongoing problems, but that resolving them is beyond his reach.

“We’ve let them know that we’re hearing from a lot of customers that they’re very frustrated and that they’re also having trouble getting through a customer relation site at Air Canada,” Garneau said.

“They’re doing their best to fix it. It is something that is in the hands of Air Canada. Transport Canada cannot do anything.”

Air Canada said in an email Wednesday that it is “working to resolve the issues as soon as possible.”

“This was a massive IT project, which occurred over two years and involved 700,000 hours of development. With an IT project of such complexity, issues are inevitable,” the airline said.

Many concern passengers who are changing their bookings, but “most customers have not been impacted and they continue to travel normally.”

The second phase of a new set of passenger rights rules is set to come into effect on Sunday, but passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs says they are “toothless” when it comes to the latest problems.

“Air Canada cannot avoid its obligations to passengers by making itself unreachable,” he said.

The upcoming batch of regulations mandates compensation of up to $1,000 for delays and other payments for cancelled flights if the situation is defined as within the airline’s control.

Poll finds most Canadians want Huawei barred from 5G networks

A new survey says Canadian public opinion is solidly against allowing Huawei as a supplier for the new generation of ultra-fast wireless networks that are being built by the country’s telecommunications companies.

An Angus Reid online poll published Wednesday says 69 per cent of respondents were against the federal government allowing the Chinese telecom equipment maker from being involved in Canada’s fifth-generation wireless networks.

The survey also found that 66 per cent of respondents had a negative view of China, up from 51 per cent in 2018.

The poll comes as the United States continues long-standing efforts to convince its allies such as Canada to bar Huawei as a threat to national security because of the Chinese government’s influence.

The U.S. warns China could require the company to gather sensitive information flowing through its equipment, an allegation that Huawei says is unproven and against the company’s business interests.

Angus Reid said 43 per cent of 1,499 respondents polled in November said Huawei definitely shouldn’t be allowed into Canada’s 5G networks and 25 per cent who said it probably shouldn’t be allowed.

Canadians spent $908M at cannabis stores since legalization

Statistics Canada says Canadians spent $908 million on non-medical cannabis in nearly the first year since legalization.

The agency says Canadians spent $24 per capita at cannabis stores from Oct. 17, 2018, when cannabis was legalized, to the end of September 2019.

Yukon led sales per person at $103, with Prince Edward Island in second place at $97.

B.C. had the lowest sales per person at $10.

As of July, Canada had 407 cannabis retail stores, with the most being located in Alberta.

About 45 per cent of Canadians live within 10 kilometres of a cannabis store as of July, but that figure shoots up to encompass 70 per cent of the population in Alberta.

Dollar hits 5-week high after Fed sees no rate changes in 2020

The Canadian dollar touched a five-week high Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve’s signal of no interest rate cuts next year hurt the greenback and supported American stock markets.

The loonie traded for 75.75 cents US after hitting an intraday high of 75.97 cents, the highest level since Nov. 1. That was up from an average of 75.57 cents US on Tuesday.

The Canadian currency benefited from the U.S. greenback sinking after the U.S. central bank kept its interest rate unchanged as expected but indicated that rates are unlikely to move over the next 12 months.

“The statement is a little bit dovish and I think that’s the reason why you’re seeing the fairly significant selloff in the U.S. dollar and by extension the strong rally that we’re seeing in gold, copper and energy coming off the bottom here,” said Mike Archibald, associate portfolio Manager with AGF Investments Inc.

A weakened U.S. dollar is beneficial for Canada and commodities.

Archibald said he’s optimistic about the energy sector’s performance next year.

“The commodity looks very good to me and has held above some key technical levels and looks like it could break out here,” he said in an interview.

“I think there’s a good chance in the next month or two that energy is going to be in a really good place and should claw back some of the losses that we’ve seen here in 2019.”

Energy was lower on the day with shares of Crescent Point Energy Corp. falling 1.4 per cent as larger than expected U.S. inventories last week hurt prices.

The January crude contract was down 48 cents at US$58.76 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was down 2.1 cents at US$2.24 per mmBTU.

It was one of seven of the 11 major sectors on the TSX to fall.

Real estate had its worst performance of the year, dropping 2.4 per cent. Defensive sectors like real estate usually rise when bond yields decrease but the opposite took place on Wednesday, said Archibald.

“To my way of thinking the market is starting to price in this idea that 2020 is going to be a little bit better in terms of growth than was 2019 and if that’s the case then you should start to see those defensive sectors of the market that have done very well start to underperform a little bit. It’s part of what’s happened today.”

Materials gained 1.4 per cent with Yamana Gold Inc. and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. up 3.8 and 3.4 per cent respectively on higher metals prices, including palladium hitting a record high and copper reaching its best level since May 7.