Canadian Dart Hero Gets No Satisfaction from Air Canada

Now before I get in to any of what has been going on, for those of you who are reading this and are not a dart player, or have never thought about playing beyond your friend's house or local leagues, being a dart player, as a professional or semi-professional or even at a National level, in Canada (and all of North America really) takes travel.  Lots and lots and lots of travel, as events can be literally thousands of kilometers and yet only days apart.  Especially  if you are also travelling overseas to compete like Jeff Smith needs to do, while very visibly representing Canada where he goes over very well with the British crowd as darting ambassador for the Great White North. 
Jeff (nicknamed the silencer) is in fact the most successful representative Canada has had in the darting world since John Part became world champion an amazing three times, with quarter final, and final appearances in the legendary Lakeside darts championship, after coming in as an unseeded player. 
Jeff, for all his darting glory is mild mannered, approachable, polite and friendly.  Everything you would want a Canadian sports ambassador to be.  Oh I am sure he enjoys his success, but so would you or I, and for all of it this New Brunswick resident, Oilers fan and family man is still pretty darn down to earth.
You would think that all of this would be enough to not get shafted by a major airline.  
I follow Jeff on social media and for a while have been watching his frustrations with Air Canada unfold.  
The basic gist of it I can maybe better put in to Jeff's own words 

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​"Air Canada is ridiculous.. They left me stranded back in May in Montreal over night with no compensation for the hotel I had to book. I was so mad, I cancelled my flight to Chicago that I had 2 tickets booked. Supervisor said I would get a full travel credit to use within a year that no refund would be given. So just went to use the travel credit, they said there's a $210 per ticket change fee thats over 60% of the price of the tickets I lose..
There is no where to call, customer service says thats terrible and that I need to email Customer relations.. so I try.. guess what its a dead end and wont accept any information. So they steal my $800 and there's not a damn thing I can do about it.
Anyone ever have any success with Air Canada once theres an issue? Cause I cant get anywhere with them. Airport says call they cant do anything, customer service says they cant do anything, email customer relations.. and thats a dead end wont go through."
​-Jeff Smith

Now before any of you jump to any conclusions about Jeff being a spoiled "Out of Touch" celebrity, I should point out that this is a guy, who right before he is about to play in the final for the world championship is responding on social media to his family, friends and fans back home, thanking them for their support and in many cases responding personally.  No, Jeff may enjoy some small amount of celebrity, but he is no prima donna.  In fact,despite being lucky enough to have a couple of sponsors to help offset the costs Jeff despite his overseas success and having reached a number one status in Canada does not live off of darts and has to also put in time at his auto-body shop just to keep it all going.
So Jeff is spending a lot of time away from home and his family and spending tons and tons on air travel, sometimes for his own glory but also often enough representing Canada and Canadian darts.
Now I am not saying that this is reason that Jeff get any kind of special treatment, but rather that he not be given the run around.
Amusingly (but also sadly) as part of the exchange between Jeff and his fans on Facebook, Air Canada was frequently tagged, and much to everyone's surprise and delight finally responded and invited Jeff to contact them in a private message.  We were all (and I think Jeff included) expecting there to finally be a resolution and for everyone to walk away happy.  Jeff would get his refund/credit and Air Canada would mitigate some of the massive damage being done to their reputation.  
Sadly, this was not to be so.  
Instead they tell him he needs to respond to an email from their 'customer relations department' and then more or less scold him for trying to seek some sort of recourse through 'social media channels'.
Now,I might be missing something here, and I understand division of labour within a company, but with a company as large and wealthy as Air Canada, it boggles my mind that their customer relations department does not have a social media presence.  I would expect them to be more or less the same department, but not so for Air Canada.  The result being that they almost look good for responding, until you learn that the problem is that customer is just doing it wrong, in a message that could only be termed terse. 
This may yet all still be unfolding but I think Jeff has pretty much given up.
If this is how Air Canada treats a Canadian hero, I would be afraid to see how you or I would fair.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that Air Canada comes to their senses.  Kind of makes you wish that our top dart players got a little more support in general. 

​-DFS 
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