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Number 448 Feb 10, 2000 We 1st Published in October 1995
Chief Pilot - Vesta Stevenson - Co-pilot - Terry Baker
<NEW> e-mail address is:
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As you may have already noticed WE HAVE CHANGED OUR NAME.
To just plain THE NETLETTER.
<NEW> Terry's and my joint e-mail address is NOW:
please change your Address Books.
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WELCOME ABOARD
Service Agent
& Service Supervisor (Pearson Airport)
coordinator
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Editorial
Re this item in NetLetter 447.
Want to keep up with the latest news from Employee Communications? Send
in your home email address. If you have a home computer and you'd like
to receive a personal copy of Horizons Daily, Horizons Flash, Industry
2000 Update, the Rumour Mill, or other Employee Communications
electronic publications, let Horizons know and they will send them to
you. To sign up, send your name, employee number, title, department,
location, and home Internet address via email to
It's a great way to keep informed!
Apparently our requests for the above may have knocked down Air Canada's
Intranet and some of our readers reported that their requests were
rejected on Fri and Sat. So I sent out this form response:
Dear NetLetter reader:
You are not alone in being rejected<G> I'm just the messenger and I put
the address in the NetLetter exactly as I received it. Try again on
Monday, because it looks like a very good e-mail address to me. (ps
sometimes the AirCanada intranet can go down, and maybe with over 700
readers of the NetLetter all trying at the same time, to gain access, it
did) Let me know please if when you try again, you get thru.Thanks
On Tuesday I received this reply from one of our readers: Many thanks
for your reply and suggestion. I waited until this morning and sent a
new request. No automated rejection has appeared, it seems your
diagnosis was correct.Thanks again.Bill Bartlett (ps in the meantime
Alan Rust is checking into this matter closer. He has better resources
than I have.)
his message to me read: I applied for the Horizons list on around Jan
25/00 and it was not rejected, but I haven't received a confirmation
that the mail was received or any electronic communications from them. I
have been pursuing this in the last few days and I am pretty sure the
address is working now. I sent a another message last night and it
wasn't returned. I contacted the "Help Desk" today and they are looking
into it, I'll check back with them tomorrow they might have been
overwhelmed by the response. I really don't know if it applies to
retirees or not, I asked them but they haven't replied yet. (I don't see
why it wouldn't).Regards,Alan wiladvfur
Wed Feb 9 Subject: Horizons Mail I've looked into the problem regarding
the "
assured it is working now. Also, retirees are eligible for the list
according to Yaffa Bouskila who is handling it at Air
Canada.Regards,Alan Rust.(ed Thank you Alan)
=-0-=
Gilles Bolduc <
Len Raymond who used to be a supervisor at Montreal reservations in the
60's. So far he has not had any success and wonders if any of our
readers knows where to reach him and would let him know or give him
Gilles' e-mail address.
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Page from a Log:
I would like to shed a little more light on Doug Davidson's reminisce of
the "dance floor" fiasco (Newsletter #447). At the time (and 1972 comes
to mind as the year of the deed) I was working within the Public
Relations Department in Montreal as Manager, Television, Radio & Film
Services and one quiet (and as I recall) sunny afternoon received a
query from our PR Manager in Vancouver, Al Carlson, concerning a rumour
which was flying around that fair city relative to Air Canada's
(supposed) plan to provide a lounge for First Class passengers on the
upper deck of the 747's complete with dance floor, bar, hostesses
(flight attendant's) in lounging pajamas and a piano replete with
pianist to provide the background music. It was further rumoured that
these exclusive enclaves were to be named (you guessed it) "The Mile-
High Club". The idea of Air Canada actually providing passengers with
this service was so ludicrous to those of us in the PR department that
we passed it off as one big joke and so informed the media who, as one
can imagine, were clamouring for interviews. But, it was necessary to
inform those entrusted with the broader powers of office that this
rumour was raising its ugly head and besmirching the pristine name of
Air Canada (you can tell I worked for 35 years in PR) and also being a
graduate of CYA University (cover-your-...well you know) didn't
particularly relish the thought of being seen as the man who tried to
stop the steamroller by standing in front of it if, in fact, the rumour
held any credence at all. I drafted a quick memo to my colleagues in PR
and added a few queries of my own ("How the hell are they going to get
the piano up the circular staircase?") and thought it prudent to advise
the Marketing Department, just in case...A phone call to that "bastion
of banality" (Ok, I'll admit we were rivals for the public's attention
in those days.) and the subsequent response to my query caused me to
open my mouth so wide in shock that a ten-pin bowling ball placed in
that orifice wouldn't have touched my dental work. (You guessed it
again!) The rumour was no supposition at all - it was totally valid! The
Marketing Department had advanced so far with this little gem as to be
choosing the fabric for the lounging pajamas and (as Doug Davidson has
confirmed) pulling the aircraft in for the installation of the dance
floors and (presumably) the dismantling of several pianos. As I recall,
the previously sunny afternoon at that moment took on a very heavy
overcast as the proverbial fan, a permanent fixture in the PR Department
which rarely ceased its wild spinning, commenced to spew out another
dank offering upon the unfortunate (and in this case guiltless) heads of
those assembled. In a desperate effort to remain "spic and span" I raced
(slightly ahead of the deluge) armed with the dreadful revelation into
the office of Don McLeod, at the time Director of Public Relations and
my immediate boss. Don had developed a bit of a nervous tic over the
years and when confronted with the (seemingly daily) dispatch that "All
hell has broken loose on the 41st floor!" (the site of Air Canada's
Executive offices) would run his fingers over his scalp and through his
ample hair in practice of a form of tension relief. Upon receiving my
news he commenced his almost uncontrollable habit to such a degree that
he very nearly rendered himself bald...Needless to say, in the face of
massive (and deserved) negative response from many organizations dealing
with women's rights and some governmental bodies, the idea was (to be
polite) shelved. As a former public apologist for the airline, I just
want to go on record as stating that at no time did the Public Relations
Department receive a briefing on this plan of action from Marketing
prior to the leak of information to the Vancouver media and had we been
brought into the picture at its conception would have insured that it
would never have reached full-term. Yes, even as its sobriquet, "The
Mile High Club" was about to be placed in the hands of the advertising
media for distribution to the travelling public, I am, to this day,
incredulous that not one person in Marketing knew of its other (and
perhaps even more exclusive) meaning. And if you, the reader, don't know
its "air force" nomenclature, ask your Mother. Or better yet, ask former
members of the Marketing department who, I can assure you, today know of
the "real" sense of the term (I believe to their everlasting regret).
Perhaps, now that I have opened an old Marketing wound, I can expect to
have the old fan turned in my direction and be once again the recipient
of its fetid offerings. Terry Denny -
=-0-=
NEWS FROM THE PIONAIRS:
FYI the latest package of info re the AGM is now online through the
Pionairs Page on the A-Crew website.Cheers,Tom
=-0-=
Check it out_flight attendant recruitment sessions continue. Do you know
someone who would like to be a flight attendant? Recruitment sessions
continue in Vancouver. If you know someone who would love to fly with
us, we want to meet them in Vancouver, February 13, 10:00 am-5:00 p.m.,
and February 14, 12:00 pm-7:00 pm, at the Sheraton Wall Centre Garden
Hotel, 1088 Burrard Street. For a complete list of requirements, call
(514) 422-7961 and select option 2.
=-0-=
Well three cheers for Pacific Coastal Airlines of BC. They know where
their loyalties lie because it serves some of western Canada's logging
communities, whose practices are frequently criticized by ecological
activists. Apparently, they denied passage to a Greenpeacer last August
to a coastal logging town. The passenger reported this to the Canadian
Transportation Agency who rapped the airlines knuckles and threatened
them with severe punishment if it banned Greenpeace staff again.
"Pacific Coastal states that it provides transportation to many loggers
and logging industry personnel...and that, as a result of Greenpeace's
attitude toward the logging community, it thought that carrying members
of this group could compromise safety," the agency said in its official
ruling. However, Daryl Smith, the airline's founder, told the National
Post newspaper he regarded Greenpeace as a "quasi-terrorist
organization" and "we don't want them on our airplanes" said Smith. He
is a former logger himself.
GTAA OPENS REDUCED RATE PARKING LOT The Greater Toronto Airports
Authority (GTAA) today opened a 2000-space reduced rate parking lot at
6135 Airport Road, across from T3. The new lot is fully serviced by
frequent, 24-hour shuttle-buses and provides travellers with a less
expensive alternative for long-term parking. The rates for the new
reduced rate parking lot will be $13 (plus taxes) per day, and $59 (plus
taxes) per week - 30 per cent less than garage parking in the airport.
All major credit and debit cards are accepted.
=-0-=
COMPUTERS NEWS
ALASKA AIRLINES SENDS ALERT ABOUT FRAUDULENT WEBSITE It is with great
regret that Alaska Airlines alerts the public that a fraudulent website
has been created on Internet soliciting donations for the families of
the passengers and crew of AS Flight 261. The site is not sanctioned in
any way by Alaska Airlines. Further, the fraudulent site may also cause
further damage by the spreading of a computer virus to those who visit
the site. The only official site for information about Flight 261 and
benevolent fund raising efforts for the passengers and crew is
www.alaskaair.com. Alaska Airlines has mobilized its own specially
trained team of employees to support and care for the family of the
passengers and crew on Flight 261. The airline will continue to help
loved ones and families through this difficult time.
=-0-=
LOS ANGELES (AP) - It was one of those private pacts a daughter makes
with her dad. The one who died first would send a signal to the other
that all was well in the hereafter. Two days after her mother and father
plunged to their deaths on Alaska Airlines Flight 261, Tracy Knizek
believes she got that message. A commercial fisherman who helped scoop
debris from the crash site found the red-and-gold Mason's ring worn by
her father, Bob Williams. Until she was told of the ring's recovery, the
Suquamish, Wash., woman had struggled to accept her parents' deaths. It
was only a year ago, after her grandfather died, that she reminded her
father of an agreement they made years earlier. "Ever since I was a
little girl, my dad and I had a deal. Whoever died first, the other one
would come back and tell them what it's like," she said.
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2563876789-bcc
~-=o0o=-~
Travel
"Scandinavia Tour - June 17th, 2000
This tour is a 12 day tour of Norway, Denmark & Sweden, cost $1480.00
Cdn per person (tour only). Information packages available through
Interline Plus (formerly Canadian Interline) - person to contact is
Katherine Gillis - phone number 1-800-665-3100 Extension 1306. If you
would like to contact me my phone number is (613) 841-7091 or email:
the deposit of $200.00 per person is due Feb. 15th. Katherine will
accept your credit card over the phone or perhaps let her know you are
mailing the deposit. I believe we have a count of about 22 persons so
far. Looks like a "GO" so see you in Copenhagen!!!
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DID YOU KNOW?
You can read or retrieve back issues of "the NetLetter"? Just visit our
web site at: http://www.acfamily.net/netletter and click on the
"Archives" button. This area is only open to "the NetLetter" (aka BYN)
subscribers and you will need the following password to enter - User
Name: netletter Password: vesta
That's it for this time, please we need your input, send
comments and email addresses of any others who may be
interested to:
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Mailing of 'the NetLetter" is courtesy of Alan Rust administrator of
the "AC Family Network" at: http://www.acfamily.net
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---Todays is 02/10/00---in Victoria, Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada,
an island in the Pacific Ocean.
http://www.acfamily.net/
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þ CMPQwk #1.42þ UNREGISTERED EVALUATION COPY