Ed Bennington
Where were you born? In Washington, Pennsylvania.
How long have you been in the business? I started in 1978, doing customer service for Braniff International at Cleveland/Hopkins Airport.
How many people work for CITC? 5 full-time, 1 part-timer and 8 volunteer Board Members including myself.
What’s the best part of the job? Being able to create a vision, do the blue sky thing and look at where, we on the Board, want the organization to go.
What do you do when you’re not chairing CITC? I’m Manager, Rewards at LoyaltyOne (which most people know as AirMiles), and I’m a part-time professor at Seneca, teaching Business and Travel.
What did you want to be as a kid? I wanted to go into the theatre.
What was your first job? Burger Chef: I was the guy in the back who flipped the burgers!
What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done? Emigrating to Canada in 1992 with LoyaltyOne. I was supposed to be here for 2 months and here I still am!
Any guilty pleasures? Ice cream. And it has to be full fat – isn’t that terrible?
What’s your favourite airline? British Airways.
When were you happiest? I was in Boston, working for Braniff and living in an apartment complex by the airport full of airline people – very social and great fun.
What keeps you awake at night? Thinking about retirement and how am I going to do it – and what am I going to do. It surprises me that I do that.
What was your proudest moment? Professionally, when I won the Chairman’s Excellence Award here at Loyalty.
What is your greatest extravagance? (laughs) Shopping for Murano glass in Italy.
If you could change 1 thing about the industry what would it be? I sometimes feel we don’t always work together as an industry – and are sometimes our own worst enemy.
If you could sit next to anyone on a long-haul flight who would it be? Superman.
What kind of car do you drive? A Suzuki Grand Vitara.
Do you have a favourite charity? AIDS committee of Toronto.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years? Being retired and teaching part-time.
