Excellence Awards
Air Canada created special passes to recognize the hard work, team spirit and in some cases, bravery, represented by all Excellence Awards winners.
Scope & Eligibility
Applies to active and retired recipients of the Excellence Awards - employees of Air Canada (AC) - along with one travel companion.
Helpful hint:
Did you know that you can nominate a deserving co-worker for an Excellence Award? It’s a great way to participate in Air Canada’s employee recognition program.
Rules & Limitations
The information provided below is pass-specific and complements the rules outlined in the Employee Travel Policy. In other words, the ETP rules still apply unless otherwise stated below.
Rules
Valid for travel on AC, AC Express carriers, AC Rouge.
Valid for travel with one companion of the recipient’s choosing.
- Travel companion must be accompanied by the recipient on all legs/segments of the trip
Valid for a maximum of 90 days.
Bookings must be made within 21 days of the outbound travel date.
Valid for booking in executive class, pending availability.
- If there is no space in executive cabin, booking will be made in economy class with executive class waitlisted
- If there is no space in executive or economy class, another flight must be selected
Valid for a boarding priority of PJA/J00.
Valid for Maple Leaf Lounge access upon presentation of an employee ID and boarding pass.
Subject to applicable taxes.
No service charges.
Limitations
Not valid for travel on AC Vacations, Star Alliance, or other airlines.
Not valid for open segments.
Not valid for access to lounges not operated by Air Canada, including contract companies and Star Alliance carriers.
Not valid for Frequent flyer point accumulation.
Not eligible to advance seat selection.
Trips longer than 30 days and shorter than 90
The trip must be booked including a return flight at the time of the initial booking.
Once the trip has started, please contact the Employee Call Centre (ECC) at 1 800 413 1113 to modify the date of your return flight. When this happens, your billing will occur in two parts:
- Your departure flight will be billed about 30 days after your departure date
- Your return flight will be billed upon completion of your trip.
Oversell situations
In the event of an oversell situation, it is possible that positive-space pass holders may be denied boarding.
If this occurs, Excellence Award pass holders are eligible for:
- Protection on the next available flight
- Compensation for hotel accommodation, meal(s), ground transportation.
Billing
Trips may or may not happen as planned, which is why you are only charged for trips taken (not for booked PNRs).
As you board a flight (planned or unplanned), a “record” of travel is automatically generated and billing will be for the flights actually flown even if they are not those you originally booked.
Regardless of the boarding priority, billing will occur upon completion of one of the following, whichever comes first:
- You have returned to your point of origin, or;
- 30 days have elapsed since the travel began, or;
- You have completed eight sectors of travel
Billing Examples
Example 1: YUL-YVR-HKG-YVR-YYZ-FRA-YYZ
- An employee travels from Montreal to Vancouver to Hong Kong
- The employee then does a turnaround to travel back to Vancouver, but changes direction and continues to Toronto, then onto Frankfurt and back to Toronto (instead of returning to Montreal)
All travel occurred within 30 days and 8 flight segments, but it will be billed and deducted as more than one trip because the employee did not return to the point of origin.
Here is a breakdown of how it would be billed:
Montreal → Vancouver → Hong Kong
- MAR 22 - YUL YVR HKG
- First point of turnaround (HKG)
Hong Kong → Vancouver → Toronto → Frankfurt → Toronto
- MAR 29 - HKG YVR YYZ FRA
- APR 05 - FRA YYZ
- Change of direction (YYZ to FRA to YYZ) – trip 2 complete
- Second allotment taken.
Explanation:
A trip is considered complete when the first of one of the following takes place: the traveller returns to the point of origin, or 30 days elapsed since the travel began, or eight sectors of travel were completed.
According to the example above, the employee may think that only one allotment will be deducted since they traveled within the 30 days and 8 segments required and did not return to the point of origin. However, any change of direction after the first point of turnaround counts as a trip.
The change of direction occured when the employee travelled through Toronto, onto Frankfurt, and then back to Toronto.
Example 2: YHZ-YYZ-YVR-SYD-YVR-YHZ
- An employee travels from Halifax to Toronto to Vancouver to Sydney
- The employee then travels back to Vancouver ands flies directly back to Halifax
Here is a breakdown of how it would be billed:
- Halifax → Toronto → Vancouver → Sydney
Sydney → Vancouver → Halifax
- APR 22 - YHZ YYZ YVR C2/Y10
- APR 22 - YVR SYD PJA/J00
- APR 29 - SYD YVR PJA/J00
- APR 29 - YVR YHZ C2/Y10
Explanation:
On this trip, the employee used different passes on different legs of the trip. They travelled from Halifax to Vancouver with a C2/Y10 pass and used their Excellence Award pass to travel between Vancouver and Sydney. Even though this is considered one trip, the Excellence Award pass was used for part of it, which means it will be deducted from the travel profile.
This policy is subject to change without notice.
Last update: Jun 1, 2021