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Since October 1995, Vesta Stevenson and Terry Baker have been issuing an email newsletter for those ex Air Canada types who have provided us with their email addresses. The Newsletter was created by Vesta, who gave the name 'NetLetter' and added 'Between Ourselves' - a TCA periodical with which you are probably familiar with from the 50's and 60's. It was then changed to "Between Yourselves" to avoid confusion when "Horizons" resurrected the name. Then finally simplified to just "The NetLetter".

We believe that our NetLetter, which originates from Vancouver Island, was the FIRST to use this medium to disperse information for retirees of Air Canada.

The NetLetter contains airline related information such as anecdotes or stories supplied by some of the recipients, Internet tips, travel news, cheap... excuse me, "inexpensive" accommodations, tours, interline travel, and, in some small way, we help keep our Air Canada family together and in touch.

Our 'NetLetter' is NOT sponsored by any Pionair group, nor are we seeking any financial support, only the Internet email addresses of those who would like to receive our 'NetLetter'. Please forward this to other retirees who can then subscribe right from the forwarded link at the bottom of this email.

For those of you that noticed, I mis-labeled the Subject of our last NetLetter. It should have read " The NetLetter #904" (rather than 903). So we are back in sync now with #905.

For our new readers

We now estimate that the NetLetter is read by over 2701 retirees when counting our email distribution and those that print the NetLetter and give them out to their friends.

To get in touch with either the Editor/Pilot or Co- Pilot our email address is still This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To make changes to your e-mail address or to unsubscribe, please see the links at the bottom of the page for "Update Profile/Email address" and SafeUnsubscribe. This is now automated so that you can remove yourself from the list or change your email address (or name) without our assistance. We will still do this manually if you have any difficulties.

Many of our members are having difficulty finding these links. You will need to scroll to the bottom of the page, the link in similar to the following image. (The image below doesn't work but your links at the bottom will).

Thank you

Alan Rust - ACFamily Administrator

Standby Embargo due Cargo Loads - It was recently brought to our attention that high cargo loads may result in a standby passenger embargo being applied to specific flights. If you cannot successfully complete a booking using the ETS facility and the reason is not readily apparent, this is a possible cause, and you should register for an alternative flight.

General Air Freight - A Discount of 80 per cent applies to the first 100 Kg., on all Domestic and Trans-border Shipments. A Discount of 50 per cent applies to International shipments.

Express Shipments - A Discount of 50 per cent applies to Express Shipments. Some size restrictions may apply, but generally less than 32 Kg. per shipment applies.

FedEx Discount - Air Canada and Air Canada Jazz retirees are entitled to the FedEx discount to ship personal goods. This does not apply to FedEx Ground Service. Retirees must deliver the parcel to the nearest FedEx World Service Center location - the discount is not available through FedEx agents. You or your spouse must present a valid Air Canada picture ID, or a photocopy. As a courtesy, please drop your shipments off between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM, Monday to Friday, to avoid peak hours. FedEx World Service Centers are located at 3151 Aylmer Road, just off Miller Road, at Vancouver Airport, at 4270 Dawson Street in Burnaby and at 820 Burrard Street in Vancouver. For more information on FedEx services, visit their website at www.fedex.ca or call them at 1-800-GO-FEDEX. Your courtesy and patience is appreciated when dealing with the FedEx staff. A "thank you" goes a long way to preserving this valuable privilege.

Vancouver retirees working at Santa's workshop. Each year a group of retirees in Vancouver fix donated toys and small bikes, which are then given to various charities to support less fortunate families. If you live in the Vancouver area and would like to donate used or repairable toys or small bike, you can place them in one of two large drop-off bins outside the east and west entrances at the Vancouver Ops Centre.

Cabin Fever Calendar - 2006

Heather Zorzini sends us this - A group of Air Canada flight attendants have launched a saucy sequel to last year's wildly successful Cabin Fever - Fun, fabulous and 50-ish calendar, which raised over $90,000 for the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. The 2006 edition, A Foreign Affair, features a vibrant mix of exotic flight attendants posing alongside vintage aircraft from the Oscar® winning movie The Aviator. Come fly with us as we travel the world, touching down monthly to sample unique and offbeat festivals. Our final destination - a cure for cancer - may seem a bit optimistic, but with your help, the sky is the limit.

Calendars can be purchased online for $20.00 each at www.kaywoollam.com or through the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation's website www.pmhf-uhn.ca/html/events/whatson.asp

For more info contact Heather at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

UPDATE: WINNIPEG C&SS REUNION SEPT. 9. 2005
Due to some no-shows at the reunion on above date, we had a surplus of $102.68 Theresa and I thought it would be a nice gesture to donate the money to our Dreams Take Flight. A cheque for this amount has been sent to the committee. Linda Corbeil. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Paul Cormier from Sept-Isles has sent some photos which have been placed on the Pionairs web site under photos, people & places. 2 are under TCA and the third under Air Canada. (actually, these are on the ACFamily Network which hosts the Pionairs photos, see them all at: www.acfamily.net/photopost

Photo one is myself, Claude Thibodeau, Jean Leroux. and a Captain. The jumbo aircraft is a U. S. military that would often land in Sept-Iles for fuel and services, and I, telling you when it was 40 below zero, it was tough. We often had engine changes that took at least two days, and we had to build a shelter around the engine, because of the weather. At that time, agents were dressed as crew members except for the strips.
The second photo is of the terminal building behind myself, Jean Leroux, Station Agent 11 who at that time did everything, such as load of load aircrafts, passenger check-in, weight and balance, re-fuel, telecommunications, reservations, you name it. The third person is a spare mechanic (name?).
The photo on the Air canada page is of the reunion in 1996 with 25 people.
All the names are listed under the photo. "Paul Cormier" This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

(We are sure Paul would like to hear from past co- workers - eds)

British airport operator BAA said it planned to spend up to GBP£1.5 billion (USD$2.61 billion) on a new passenger terminal at London's Heathrow Airport in time for the 2012 Olympics.

Boeing's 777-200LR Worldliner achieved a new distance record of 11,664 nm. (21,601 km.) when it touched down in London at 13:06 UTC on Thursday November 10, 2005 , 22 hr. 42 min. after it departed Hong Kong Wednesday night at 10:30 p.m. local time.

Some past November highlights -
- 1st 1946 Victoria - Seattle service inaugurated.
- 1st 1952 Montreal-Goose Bay service inaugurated
- 5th 1952 Service to Dusseldorf started.
- 3rd 1953 Toronto-London England direct flights started.
- 7th 1954 Super Constellation introduced to Bermuda service.
- 6th 1966 Services to Copenhagen and Moscow inaugurated

Here is the next stage of our European trip started in NetLetter nr 903 - Sunday Sept 11th Our group left the hotel in a coach, after a full breakfast, to pick up 6 other travelers from the Trafalgar office, making our group 43 in all, then proceeded through Surrey and Kent to Dover where we were in time for the 9.15 ferry to Calais. The coach to Dover will wait there for a returning tour group.

On board the ferry, we had a more substantial cooked breakfast which was good. There was a choice of items and for 5, the charge was gbp5.95, the meal was especially good as the cashier charged me for one meal, instead of two on my tray, at gbp5.95! I assume the double counting was just too daunting! We also bought a bottle of wine duty free at gbp3.03 for later imbibing at tipple time in our hotel with Gail and Rick.

The arrival in Calais, was rather a confused affair as there were about a dozen coaches, with little of no indication of which was ours. We finally located it, and got aboard and introduced, again, to our tour director Graeme Harwood, from England and our new driver Freddie Bourgonjon from Gent in Belgium.

Our route took us through France and Belgium past Brugges, Antwerp, Breda. The countryside was flat and relatively uninteresting, except we saw some windmills and, at one time, drove through an avenue of trees at least 10 miles long. We noticed that there were painted chevrons alongside the highway and were told that it is a method to have drivers see at least three chevrons between themselves and the vehicle in front, an attempt to cut down on fender benders.

Our hotel at Amsterdam was full, due to some convention taking place, so our alternate hotel was in Utrecht.

Upon arrival in Amsterdam, we had an hour leisure time and, for lunch, we ate at the KFC. For euro 6, Dawn and I shared one meal of chicken, coleslaw, fries and a drink good value and plenty for both of us. An hour long canal cruise was next, passing some interesting architecture, a galleon and a heron perched on a pole in the canal. We saw a three level parkade just crammed with bicycles, goodness knows how each are identified by their owners.

To clear the garbage, which ends up in the canals, once a week, a dam is opened at low tide and the water flows out into the north Sea one would assume the garbage would flow back at high tide, but nothing was mentioned about that!

Then, conducted by Graeme, we had a lightening walk around the red light district, and viewed the girls in their front rooms with picture windows. There were no takers amongst our group though!

We noticed how scruffy the city was, not just due to the soft drugs or the red light district, both of which are legal, but the garbage. We did not see any obvious 'down and outs' lounging in store entrances though. There are hoards of bicycles everywhere too.

Due to our arrival being a Sunday, we were unable to visit a diamond factory which was listed on the itinerary.

Gas was euro 1.42 ltr That was our visit to Amsterdam. We boarded our bus for the Mercure Accor hotel in Utrecht, which was off the main road and very quiet. Around the hotel there was some heavy duty construction which necessitated Freddie, our coach driver, to do some very careful navigation. This was our first taste of how skillful he was.

Our supper was an excellent buffet in the hotel.,

Monday Sept 12th - This morning we left at 8:50, after a great buffet breakfast at the hotel. The weather was cloudy but warm. Our coach had to go through the same construction zone as when we arrived, except, there was a truck unloading T bars for concrete works, which held us up for about 20 minutes before we could really got rolling.

Our route took us through Arnhem, during which Graeme gave us a synopsis of the WW11 events there, and on to Cologne for a pit stop and a view of the cathedral. The cathedral is a gaunt building and attempts have been made to clean the outside, but the scheme was abandoned and only one corner was cleaned just to show tourists the difference. Some bomb damage was also evident to the building. The city we saw around the cathedral was clean and no garbage about. For lunch here we had rolls with applesauce at euro 5.95

All along the auto route we noticed graffiti on every piece of upright structure. The structures consist of either concrete, glass or metal and, even in the countryside these are erected to contain noise pollution and are now covered with art of varying degrees and tastes.

The toilets at the service centres on the auto routes in Germany are well catered for and include clean toilet facilities BUT, there is invariably, a charge of euro .50 cents. This fee is either collected in cash by an eagle eyed matron who, if busy giving change could easily be circumvented, or, if there is a turn stile, one has no option but to deposit a euro .50 cent and receive a ticket, which is FULLY refunded upon the purchase of anything in the store - so do your business first and then redeem your ticket.

We drove through lush fields in drizzle and misty conditions, passing Kolbenze and Bonn during which Graeme gave us more information on the WW11 action at the Ramagen bridge. We crossed the Moselle river and then we arrived at the quay on the Rhine river, where we took a cruise for 1 ½ hours, which included a free drink and some excellent scenery with vineyards and quaint villages. We disembarked at Lorelie Rock. Our coach was awaiting us, and we drove along side the east bank of the Rhine.

Our hotel was the Ramada Micador hotel at Niedernhausen nr Wiesbaden Germany.

Tuesday Sept 13th - We left our hotel at 7:35 driving past Frankfurt airport en route to Innsbruck through the Swabian Uplands to Munich where we had an orientation tour showing us the Olympic stadium, the Marienplatz, with its Glockenspiel clock, which, unfortunately, was not working.

The female facilities at the service centre we stopped at had a novel system with the toilet seat which, apparently, was self cleaning - the male mind boggles at this phenomenon when the gigling girls explained the device!

It was pouring with rain while we were in the coach as we approached Innsbruck.

We noticed the large volume of transport trucks on the roads we traveled in Europe.

At Innsbruck in Austria, our orientatiom tour showed us the Golden Roof and Wilten Basilica. We visited the City Hall and the Hoffbrau Hall where we enjoyed a German beer, this was a hall frequented by Hitler in pre war days.

We bought some post cards from a street vendor and asked for the stamps, we were directed to a near by tobacconist. When we enquired about the stamps, we were told that they did not sell stamps by themselves, only with cards. It seems that, as there is no profit in selling just stamps without cards. I went storming back to the street vendor and explained the problem asking him to take my cards back, but he refused. Fortunately, there was a young girl he was talking to and she had a go at him in his language, but he just shrugged his shoulders. The young girl said she would open her store and sell me stamps. What a kind gesture. So we learnt to buy card and stamps from a store in future saves angst.

Our coach had a gadget fastened to the front windscreen which is used to pay tolls automatically, and is recharged, financially, from time to time. This saves stopping at the various tolls on the roads. Also the driver has a unit with a hard drive inside which records his hours and miles traveled. This is to ensure he does not exceed his lawful duty hours.

Our hotel at Innsbruck was the Grauer Baer hotel.

More in another NetLetter - for those interested!

======================================== Dargal Interline has the following offerings -

5 Night Cruises

5 Night Caribbean aboard Imagination ~
Carnival - Nov 26
Ports of Call: Miami, Florida; Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Miami, Florida
From:Interior: $269 Oceanview: $339

5 Night Caribbean aboard Inspiration ~ Carnival Jan 07
Ports of Call: Tampa, Florida; Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; Cozumel, Mexico; Tampa, Florida
From:Interior: $299 Oceanview: $339

5 Night Bahamas aboard Celebration ~ Carnival
Jan 23
Ports of Call: Jacksonville, Florida; Key West, Florida; Nassau, Bahamas;Jacksonville, Florida
From:Interior: $299 Oceanview: $309

7 NIGHT
7 Night Caribbean aboard Carnival Glory ~ Carnival
Nov 19
Ports of Call: Port Canaveral, Florida; Costa Maya, Mexico; Belize City, Belize; Cozumel, Mexico; Port Canaveral, Florida
From:Interior: $349 Oceanview: $449 Balcony: $689

7 Night Caribbean aboard Elation ~ Carnival
Sep 10
Ports of Call: Miami, Florida; Half Moon Cay, Bahamas; St. Thomas, USVI; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos; Miami, Florida
From: Interior: $361 Oceanview: $444 Suite: $939

7 Night Caribbean aboard Carnival Conquest ~ Carnival
Nov 27
Ports of Call: Galveston, Texas; Montego Bay, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; Cozumel, Mexico; Galveston, Texas
From:Interior: $429 Oceanview: $529 Balcony: $669

7 Night Caribbean aboard Carnival Victory ~ Carnival
Dec 04
Ports of Call: Miami, Florida; Costa Maya, Mexico; Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Miami, Florida
From: interior: $449 Oceanview: $549 Balcony: $599 Suite: $999

7 Night Mexico aboard Carnival Pride ~ Carnival
Feb 26
Ports of Call: Los Angeles (Long Beach), CA; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Mazatlan, Mexico; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Los Angeles (Long Beach), CA
From: Interior: $459 Oceanview: $609 Balcony: $689 Suite: $999

7 Night Caribbean aboard Carnival Triumph ~ Carnival
Mar 18
Ports of Call: Miami, Florida; Cozumel, Mexico; George Town, Grand Cayman;Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Miami, Florida
From: Interior: $459 Oceanview: $559 Balcony: $709 Suite: $1,149

7 Night Caribbean aboard Carnival Valor ~ Carnival
May 21
Ports of Call: Miami, Florida; Nassau, Bahamas; St. Thomas, USVI; St. Maarten, Netherlands Antille; Miami, Florida
From: Interior: $526 Oceanview: $676 Balcony: $789 Suite: $1,164

7 Night Caribbean aboard Carnival Miracle ~ Carnival
Nov 20
Ports of Call: Tampa, Florida; Georgetown, Grand Cayman; Costa Maya, Mexico; Cozumel, Mexico; Belize City, Belize; Tampa, Florida
From: Interior: $549 Oceanview: $803

7 Night Alaska aboard Carnival Spirit ~ Carnival
May 31
Ports of Call: Vancouver, British Columbia; Ketchikan, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska; Skagway, Alaska; Cruise Lynn Canal; Sitka, Alaska; Cruise College Fjord; Cruise Prince William Sound; Whittier (Anchorage), Alaska
Interior: $679 Oceanview: $829 Balcony: $1,016 Suite: $1,391

Cruises: Rates are quoted in U.S. dollars per person (based on double occupancy). PORT CHARGES ARE INCLUDED. Taxes, fees and Dargal's non-refundable $40 Service Fee per room is not included. All rates are subject to change, availability and eligibility. All offers apply to new bookings only, are capacity controlled and may be withdrawn without notice.

Dargal Interline Worldwide Phone: 1-800-690-3223 International:(Int'l Access Code)-800-2832-7425

The mailing and formating of the NetLetter for HTML format is provided by the ACFamily Network and Nerds On Site. Content is researched and submitted by Vesta Stevenson and Terry Baker. Thank you for letting us into your homes!

The archives of the NetLetter are kept on the ACFamily Network Forums area. They are in plain text format so you can print them from there if desired. If you are not a member of the ACFamily Network yet, we encourage you to join us there. Non members can Register here. (It's Free!)