By DOUGLAS MCARTHUR 


Wednesday, January 23, 2002 – Print Edition, Page T3

Air Canada appears to be serious about tracking down the anonymous Aeroplan dissidents who are using the name "érrorplan" on a flyer and Web site critical of the carrier's reward plan.

Just ask Frederick Ghahramani, president of Air Games Wireless, a Vancouver-based on-line games company. He says he knew nothing about érrorplan until an Air Canada security agent popped in to grill him last week. Ghahramani says he isn't involved in the anti-Aeroplan campaign, but for some reason his street address was used in the contact information on the érrorplan Internet site (http://www.errorplan.com).

According to Ghahramani, the security agent said Air Canada may call in the FBI to help with its investigation and that it will use all means "both legal and quasi-legal" to shut érrorplan down. Ghahramani says he protested his innocence and later sent an e-mail to érrorplan asking it to stop using his address. That request has been complied with, he says.

Rupert Duchesne, president of the carrier's Aeroplan division, said Monday the carrier plans to take action to stop the group -- who appear to be disgruntled top-tier Aeroplan members -- from using its "intellectual and physical property." He said its concerns are that the carrier's trademarks and logos are being used on the érrorplan literature and Web site and that a flyer, disguised to resemble an Aeroplan bulletin, is being distributed in Air Canada lounges and aircraft.

Not surprisingly, the folks behind érrorplan aren't rushing to identify themselves for fear of retaliation by Air Canada. But a spokesperson, interviewed anonymously be e-mail, says more than a dozen of Air Canada's most regular fliers are involved. Several are long-time Air Canada customers, while others migrated to the carrier more recently with the demise of Canadian Airlines.

They were spurred to action by looming cutbacks to the perks package Air Canada provides for its most frequent fliers: those who qualify for Aeroplan's Super Elite, Elite or Prestige designations. The first érrorplan bulletin reports on new stricter policies for upgrades that will take effect on March 1. Air Canada confirmed this week that some of the published information is correct (upgrades only from Y, M, B and H fares for Super Elite and Elite and only 72 hours prior to departure for Super Elite), but won't release other details pending the completion next month of mailings to all top-tier members.

The use of a false Vancouver address appears to be a joke or an attempt to protect the identities of the érrorplan members. They also registered the Web site under the name Bob Milton, who just happens to be Air Canada's president. The on-line contact information shows a California phone number that is answered only by an answering machine. Maybe that's the U.S. connection that could get the FBI involved.

Postings on the érrorplan site have been both supportive and critical of the project.

". . . I just can't fathom why AC would add insult to injury by downgrading programs for their best customers," writes one correspondent. "A typical SE [Super Elite] must spend well over $50K a year and they figure to save how much?"

Less enthusiastic is someone called Dave who writes: "Easy to set up a slimy website with under a thousand words. No guts to say who you are. Not much credibility."

Duchesne says he has no objections to criticisms of Air Canada appearing on the Internet. In fact, he says, the carrier has made policy changes based on comments at http://www.flyertalk.com, a site where frequent fliers post an endless stream of roses, raspberries and gossip about Air Canada and just about every other major airline.

Annoyed customers of Air Canada have been telling their tales of woe at another site, http://www.aircanadasucks.com for more than two years. And anyone with a beef about United Airlines can submit it to http://www.untied.com, one of the most influential gripe sites in the air industry. It was founded by Jeremy Cooperstock, now a professor at Montreal's McGill University, after a disastrous trip to Tokyo in 1996.

Despite numerous attempts by the airline to shut it down, it continues to receive an average of 50 to 60 complaints each month.

Toronto-based Regent Holidays went to the courts a couple of years ago to try and shut down a Web site of horror stories started by an unhappy client, Jim Morris. The verdict was that Morris could leave details of his own bad experience on-line, but could no longer post complaints from other travellers.

Duchesne says Aeroplan has been flooded with complaints recently from top-tier members, both about the benefits cutbacks and about its policy of secrecy. As a result it will revise the system next year, posting details of all proposed changes for 2003 on the Internet before the end of this year. It is also considering revisions to some of the changes planned for this year as a result of the outcry from members, he said.

Aeroplan became a separate division of Air Canada on Oct. 1. The carrier intends to go ahead with plans this year to spin off part of Aeroplan through a share offering or by bringing in outside investors. The funds would be used to improve Aeroplan, he said.

dmcarthur@globeandmail.ca