Did you know about Air Canada Overnight Kit for stranded passengers?

Irregular Operations, weather delays, and missed connections have become a travel norm than an exception. At any given time at an airport, it’s not uncommon to see passengers battling one of these misadventures. And while airline status and credit cards can help mitigate the impacts to some extent, there is no such thing as seamless travel anymore. During a recent missed connection in Toronto (YYZ), I was forced to overnight in the city. While resigned to my faith, my curiosity peaked when I was given a thoughtfully designed Air Canada Overnight kit to help during the interruption.

Air Canada Overnight kit – Missed Connection

I travelled from Ottawa (YOW) to San Francisco (SFO), with a 2-hour connection time in YYZ. Unfortunately, with persistent thunderstorms across the Ottawa-Toronto region, my flight in YOW sat at the gate for 1.5 hours, eating into my precious connection time at YYZ.

Stranded at YOW gates

I landed in YYZ with 30 minutes to clear Immigration and make my flight. YYZ, too was experiencing rolling delays throughout the day, and I had hoped that the delayed SFO flight would work in my favour. Unfortunately, new to me, US Customs at YYZ had closed at 8:30 pm, and I was 5 minutes too late. I had officially missed my connection, and all passengers were redirected back to the departures area to seek help from the respective airlines. As an Air Canada 100k Elite member, I beelined to the concierge desk to see if I could be accommodated on the first flight out the next day, as soon as US customs re-opens at 4 am.

It may surprise some, but Air Canada Concierge Service is the program’s best Elite benefit and worth retaining or trying to gain top-tier status. The YYZ concierge team was having a field day themselves trying to rebook several passengers impacted by rolling delays and cancellations all day. While it took some time, the concierge team offered me 2-3 options. I agreed to a downgrade from Business to Premium Economy to get on the first flight to SFO the next day. Once rebooking was confirmed, I was presented with the following;

• Hotel voucher to spend the night at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel
• Taxi voucher to help me to and from the airport and hotel
• Meal vouchers valid for an entire year
• An Air Canada Overnight kit

While I was half expecting the vouchers, I was pleasantly surprised with the overnight kit handed to me. Once at my hotel, I had the chance to access the contents of this kit and was highly impressed with how thoughtful the amenity was;

Air Canada Vouchers and Overnight Kit

The overnight kit included a note from Air Canada, a plain white t-shirt, Dental and Shaving kits, a charging cable, moisturizer, deodorant stick, and fabric freshener – neatly packed in a classy net bag with the AC logo. The note read;

Dear Valued Customer,

We are sorry for the disruption to your travel plans today. Rest assured that we are doing everything we can to see that your belongings are located and brought to you as soon as possible.

In the meantime, on behalf of Air Canada, we would like to offer you this Overnight kit to assist you during your stay.

Air Canada

Air Canada Overnight kit – contents

Amenities – Dental Kit, Charging Cable, Moisturizer/Deodorant, Shaving Kit, t-shirt,

Wow! A T-shirt and a charging cable?! Colour me impressed. In many ways, this kit was superior in content to the amenity kit offered to Signature Class passengers on long-haul flights, albeit under very different circumstances!

Air Canada Overnight Kit – Who gets it?

Is this kit only for the stranded 100K Elite members or all Air Canada passengers whose trips have been interrupted? I contacted Air Canada for an official policy, and their response was;

Thank you again for your interest in Air Canada’s overnight kit which is given to all customers in need of a few essentials regardless of their Aeroplan status. The Air Canada Baggage Desks across our airports have been distributing these overnight kits to customers whose bags are delayed or miss a connection resulting in an overnight stay. The kits are available at all Canadian airports including our Air Canada Concierge.

Takeaway

The Air Canada Overnight kit is a thoughtful amenity to assist stranded passengers, and I was glad to learn that it is available for all passengers regardless of their Aeroplan status. It was an unexpected silver lining for me amongst the frustration and anxiety of being stuck in a transit city overnight.

Related reading:

The new Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge SFO is a stunner

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