radar

I’ve sent an email to ollo@aircanada.ca to tell them about the language problem on their Comment Cards. It bounced. I’ve sent another one. It bounced another time.

Air Canada, où êtes-vous? (I hope you understand my question!)

Everyone knows that Air Canada is proud to serve their customers in English and French. Here’s what they’ve written on their Comment Cards.

“The choice is yours…
the pleasure to serve you is ours
Canada’s Official Languages

Air Canada is commited to offering you services in English and French. Should you have any questions or comments regarding our official languages services, contact us at OLLO@aircanada.ca or go to aircanada.com and click on Contact US / Linguistic Affairs.”

That’s funny to read, on the same card, an erroneous French translation for “Air Canada values your travel experience […]”. They’ve translated it into “Nous attachons beaucoup de prix à l’expérience que font nos clients[…]”. I won’t explain why it’s wrong to translate it like that, but trust me, it is.

You can download the comment card here.

What’s also funny is that I write a post about translation, but I can’t even write English perfectly myself.

I’m back to work.

I’ve just realized that Beatrice Tarka (Mobissimo) was on Barenaked App: The Figure Behind the Top Web Apps panel today at 10am. It would have been a perfect opportunity to meet her.

Here are the slides.

Good job Evan. I think everyone in the room would have liked to listen to Evan for an hour or more but we only got 30 minutes. ; )

Actually, I thought it would be easy to have access to the Internet since it’s a geek event but it’s not the case. Most of the time port 80 is blocked so I can take my email but I can’t post. I should use a post by email kind of plugin… anyway. My favorite panel so far was “Turning Projects Into Revenue Generating Businesses” where Shanalyn Victor (Pixelgirl Shop), Ted Rheingold (Dogster), Gabe Rivera (Techmeme), Tara Hunt (Citizen Agency) and Ryan Carson (Carson Systems) explained how the get revenues out of their small growing businesses, how this all started and how they deal with advertising, partnerships, affiliate programs, etc.

Evan Prodromou’s (Wikitravel) Commercialization of Wikis: Open Community That Pays the Billspanel is in an hour. I’m gonna be there for sure.

Actually, there are too many panels at the same time, it’s not always easy to choose!

After only 3 months of operations, Vacances Maestro has ceased activities since this morning. Vacances Maestro was offering a range of vacation destinations and products with departures from Jean Lesage International Airport.

Because of that, there are actually 1645 Maestro’s customers outside the country wondering how they will get home and hundreds of customers who bought packages for the next weeks who would like to know if they will get their money back… and how.

In this kind of situation, as a customer, I always refer to the company to get information I need and to answer my questions. In fact, Maestro should give travellers all the information they need. I guess the staff of the customer service do the best they can but I don’t understand why they didn’t use Internet to communicate with their customers so far?

What should Maestro do?
They should remove the actual website and create a simple page explaining:
- The facts about what is going on with the company.
- How customers currently on a trip will get back home and what they should do.
- What will happen with the packages customers bought for the next weeks/months and what they should do.

In my opinion, Quebec Airport should also write a news on their website and even a post on their blog to give info about what happens with the tour operator or, at least, link the customers to the information given by Maestro on their website… ok, in this case it’s not possible. ; )

Just a quick post to let you know that I’m glad so many people continued (and still share) the T-List. I’ve discovered a lot of blogs with it and I think it creates a little buzz around the tourism-travel-hospitality blogosphere. ; ) I will have to practice my Spanish and German because it looks like some interesting blogs are written in those languages.

By the way, Scott Rains added the T-List in Technorati Where’s the Fire. Thanks Scott.

Let’s continue to share the T-List!

Your flight info on your cellphone via SMS (Short Message Service)… it is now possible at YUL. Many airports already offer this service but Montreal-Trudeau becomes the first canadian aiport to provide this service.

You can Read the press release for more information.

–
In the press release, you’ll read: An FAQ (frequently asked questions) section and a demonstration of this practical new service are available on the ADM website by clicking “Passenger Services/New Airport Services.”

Why didn’t they link it instead of explaining how to get there!? This is not that important but… ; )

Okay Travel/Tourism bloggers, it’s time to get known. I have to say that I hate this kind of game but since it could be helpful for everyone, why not? The goal is simple, I want my favorite blogs (Guillaume, Chris, Darren, Claude, etc.) to be discovered by a maximum of people from the tourism and travel industry.

T-List stands for Tourism/Travel list. This concept have been used in the past with the Z-List. This time, it’s up to travel and tourism bloggers to be discovered. ; )

Instructions
- Write a post.
- Copy/paste the link list from the post you’ve discovered the T-List into it.
- Make sure the links are active and correct.
- If your blog is on the list, remove it’s not a self-promotion post. As Tim Fehlman (Z-List) said : “Don’t worry, because if your name is on mine, it’s on others and will spread.”
- Add your favorite tourism and travel blogs on it.
- Add the url of the blog where you’ve discovered the T-List as well.
- Publish the post.
- People will notice the T-List and continue it.

Here is the list
Hotel Blogs
Les Explorers
Chrispitality Media Blog
A Luxury Travel Blog
Travel Rants
Travolution Blog
BootBlog
Erin Julian
My Travel Backpack
Happy Hotelier
The Travel PR Blog

Your turn!