Air Canada Customer Reviews and Air Canada Passenger Trip Reports

Flew to and from Washington, DC to Tokyo. The aircraft seemed to be old and the bathrooms were not particularly clean. While I cannot make any specific complaint about the flight attendants, I noticed that their company seems to have gone out of the way to hire the most socially awkward and unfriendly people. Would it kill them to smile? Overall, I would give them a C+ or a B-. Well, it was a relatively cheap flight, so maybe I got what I paid for.

A 6 hour flight with no meals, not even snacks! There was an option for buying food, but the offer was so poor, they were out of all the good items. There is only one cart with water and juice! Since my seat was at the back of the plane, I was waiting 2.5 hours to get some water. I asked one staff member to bring me some water, she said that she was offering only food and I would have to wait for the other cart. Charging for blanket? Charging for headsets? Old, uncomfortable seats. I've flown on 2.5 hour flights with small European companies and they still serve snacks, offer drinks more often. Never again Air Canada!

My wife and I flew Sydney (Australia) to Vancouver on 20/4/13 and return on 12/5/13 as part of group tour. Cabin crews were pleasant and efficient on both legs, the food was OK for airline food. Good selection of movies but the on board earphones were hopeless (bring your own). Outbound flight left 1 hour late due to storms in Sydney but AC delayed our connecting flight from Vancouver to Victoria to wait for us - great. We paid for preferred seats and requested 18AB outbound and 18JK on return, well worth the extra cost (Boeing 777-200LR). Would probably choose different airline for next trip, even with a one stop route.

LHR-YVR-LAX,HNL-YVR-YUL-LHR. Five different aircraft types on these legs ranging from B777 to E190,all with good leg room and cabin crew. All flights on time.

My wife and I booked a trip to Bangkok from Edmonton 8 months in advance, a trip I have made many times with AC but has been 1.5 years since last trip. Vancouver to Hong Kong was late so we missed our connection to Bangkok, but Thai Airways stepped up and quickly got us to Bangkok. Return trip was messed up! Air Canada completely messed up our advance flight bookings, our connection from Tokyo to Vancouver didn't exist anymore so they rushed us onto a waiting flight to Calgary, then after 3 hours in Calgary we got thrown on an old dash-8 prop flight to Edmonton (which they couldn't seat my wife and I together on). Needless to say after all this they of course lost our checked bags. AC food is the worst I have eaten, flight bookings completely disorganized, customer care and professionalism is gone.

NRT-YVR-YWG one way May 9th, 2012. I was very impressed with my experience on Air Canada on my long haul trip. Upon boarding the flight from Narita, I was greeted by name to verify my meal request and drink order. The 777-300ER was very comfortable and sleep was no problem with the seat I was in. Food was Indian Vegetarian, which was very tasty. Staff were professional and courteous, but not as outgoing as staff on Asian carriers. I enjoyed the AVOD and in-seat power on the long haul flight as well as the water runs made by the cabin crew. The ambient lighting in the cabin made for a relaxing experience as well. Upon arrival at Vancouver, the cabin crew were friendly and pleasant and were genuine in thanking the passengers for flying with them. The transfer staff at Vancouver were professional and helped me through my transfer to Winnipeg. The last flight was also comfortable on the E190 with plenty of legroom and water runs. Overall, I was pleased with my experience on Air Canada and believe they should have been ranked four stars long ago.

Flew from Frankfurt to Vancouver via Calgary. We got booked for a 7 hour layover in Calgary for some reason despite the fact that there where flights in and out to Vancouver every hour or so. When we finally did get on our flight the crew seemed extremely ill-prepared and in-experienced, laughing and joking with each other more than attending to the passengers. The crew on-board all flights were consistently snappy and overall unfriendly, it always felt like we (the economy passengers) were a nuisance to them and that they would much rather just attend to the business class passengers. After reading other comments, it seems that a common pattern seems to relate to Vancouver or Calgary based crews. Toronto related flights appear to get shining recommendations. The headrests were too high leaving my neck sore, little leg room. Food was terrible, I've had frozen microwave dinners far more appetizing. The only plus side was the selection of movies on their touch screens, but to add I was lucky enough to have had my own earphones. My girlfriend had to get complimentary headphones which fell apart in her ears. We ended up taking turns with mine.

Flights from Victoria BC to Costa Rica via Toronto and return. All flights were on time, friendly crews and no problems. Overall an enjoyable experience.

On 2 May 13, wife and I flew AC 848, YYZ to LHR on a 777. Wife, a PWD (person with disability) had contacted AC medical months ahead to ensure that she would have a wheelchair to take her to aircraft door after her electric air transportable scooter was placed in its travelling case and checked in with a priority tag on it. Check-in in YYZ routine with a pleasant CSR. Manual wheelchair available to go through security etc. and get to aircraft door. Priority boarded. Flight no problem. Cabin staff good. Food another thing. One beef dish, hardly edible. 6 persons on flight used wheelchairs, but instead of having them available at aircraft door in LHR, told to wait until everyone else had disembarked. Fantastic Heathrow employee assisted with wheelchair right to baggage claim area. Return trip 12 May 13 from LHR to YYZ on AC 857 on a A330-300. At check in counter 2 hrs before flight. LHR AC staff clueless, but pleasant. Took over 30 minutes to check in. Manual wheelchair finally rounded up and used to get to through long terminal trek to aircraft just in time for priority boarding. Cabin crew pleasant and food decent. Again crew turned snarly when we tried to disembark with other passengers in YYZ. Forced to wait until every able bodied person off aircraft. AC cabin and ground crew can't get their head around staging of wheelchairs at side of gangway. Finally got a wheelchair but the ground representative seemed to feel that jogging speed is a safe way to push a wheelchair. Finally handed off at the elevator to an absolutely fantastic staff member who pushed the wheelchair to the customs and baggage claim area. She stayed with us until the electric scooter was unpacked and operational and escorted us to the final exit.

London to Syracuse in upstate New York via Toronto on flights AC859 and AC7284 on 4th/5th May 2013 and back on 9th May. Outbound flight from London was fine, the seat was comfortable, the staff friendly and a good selection of inflight movies. The meal, however, was pretty awful, even for airplane food. The supplied headphones for inflight entertainment were of a very poor quality, it was hard to hear the movie over the cabin ambience. Connecting flight from Toronto to Syracuse was fine, but delayed an hour. Departure time of my flight from Syracuse to Toronto kept being pushed back with no explanation or apology. Ended up missing my connecting flight to London. All airport staff could advise me to do was phone Air Canada. Left Syracuse 2 hours late. On arrival to Toronto, I found an Air Canada official who checked their system to advise I had been rebooked on the next flight to London. Food on return flight from Toronto to London was equally bad as the outgoing flight. The passenger next to me had the pre-ordered vegetarian option. His food arrived 20 mins before the rest of us. What I couldn't get my head around was why an airline would choose to serve dinner at 22.00 at night (03.00 destination time), then proceed to try to sell duty free at 23.00 (04.00) and wake us up at 02.00 (07.00) to serve us breakfast, which was coffee / tea and a muffin. The next time I will fly via New York or Chicago.

April 26 - May 9, Edmonton to Bangkok return trip booked 8 months in advance. Connections in Vancouver and Hong Kong on the way, missed our connection at Hong Kong but Thai Airways stepped up and got us there 1 hr later than the original flight. Return was much worse! Connection was in Tokyo from ANA to AC, when arriving at Tokyo, AC of course had overbooked again, so ground staff made us run to the ticket desk, run through security, run to the now waiting plane bound for Calgary (not Vancouver), all within 30 mins on landing at Tokyo. Drafty and cold for 10.5 hrs on route to Calgary beside the emergency exit doors (which is usually nice for the leg room). Got put on an old beater dash 8 prop plane for the flight to Edmonton (not seated with my wife of course, because of AC's usual over-booking problem). The best parts of the trip both ways was when we connected onto a different airline than AC (Thai and ANA). AC's cabin staff do their job but are never happy, they made you feel as though you are bothering them. Asian airline staff are kind, helpful, always smiling and seem to enjoy their job. The food, what can I say? After eating a meal on Thai Airways, AC's food is poor! I have made this trip over a dozen times in past years on many different airlines, and it is very clear that AC's quality, care and service have depleted.

Flown Toronto to Winnipeg on March 5th, and Winnipeg to Calgary, Calgary to Edmonton, Edmonton to Saskatoon, Saskatoon to Winnipeg during first week of April. All flights were on time. Very polite and efficient ground staff, especially check in agent in Toronto who sorted out my baggage issue. Cabin crew polite and always ready to help. Certainly will fly with them again.

London Ontario to Grand Prairie Alberta. After having my flights booked for the last 6 months I showed up with my wife early in the morning and we were the first to check in. After sitting for an hour in departure bay we hear the oversold announcement. Shortly after there were no volunteers I was called up to the podium and was told that I was the last one to check in and that I would be put on a flight separate from my wife to Toronto an hour later. They did offer a $200 voucher but it is useless as I fly once every couple of years and the voucher expires after 365 days. After talking to another representative I find out that I will be here for another 3 hours. My flight in was no picnic. The combination of many layovers for hours, cramped seating, old aircraft's, and lack of entertainment made for a gruelling flight. The price of food was outrageous, especially for the quality provided. Absence of service was also noted, not even a pillow was offered or provided. Bring your own headphones as there is a charge. My wives below standard touch screen TV was frozen the whole flight, and the options available were limited to old movies, bad sitcoms, and empty categories. Flight from Toronto to London was very bumpy and rough from take off to landing and also seemed very unnecessary. The Dash-8 aircraft was very old, cramped and had lighting problems. Overall a bad experience I will not fly Air Canada again.

SYD-YVR on B777-200LR. When first boarding, crew offered plenty of smiles and 'good morning/hellos.' Throughout, they were cheery and helpful, and kept it quiet in their rest area. They frequently came around to collect trash and offer beverages, all done with a smile. Entertainment system consisted of a touch screen only (no remote), with poor sensitivity and a grainy display. Games and Music weren't available. Movie selection was very old with no new releases. Infuriatingly, each TV show had just 2 or 3 episodes. Legroom was very restricted, with no footrest provided. One virtually useless, flat pillow was provided, with a packaged and clean reasonable-sized blanket that was warm and soft. Seat was ok, quite hard after a while but with passable recline and a flexible headrest. Seat was well cleaned and maintained, with no visible defects, however, my tray-table has some food stuck to it in different places. Frequent rounds of the trolley interrupted my sleep. My meal choices were an omelette with bacon or pancakes with 'fresh berries.' Pancakes arrived burnt and cold. All things considered, my experience with Air Canada in this situation wasn't great, but I understand that many of the bad things I experienced are variables that most likely change from flight to flight. The seats were ok and staff service excellent.

I had return flights PAR-Montreal-Paris. On the flight, flight attendants were very professional providing food and drinks in efficient way. My general observation is very low quality of the food. I do not believe that the food would cost fortune if you make it tastier with more healthy ingredients. I am travelling a lot with different airlines but the food of Air Canada in economy class is the worst. Otherwise, the planes were both on time and the entertainment system was very good.

Tel Aviv to Toronto. Paid extra for more leg room and froze the entire trip because of drafts next to the exit door. Had to request a blanket twice. I literally spit the food out in a napkin because it was so bad. Movies were very outdated. Plane was littered with garbage. Will not fly AC again.

Had to sit in a middle seat and, while I can normally survive that, I almost died on the flights between Toronto and Punta Cana (almost a 5 hour flight). So cramped that my knees wedged against the seat in front of me. Not to mention that when the person in front of you reclines (and they will) you feel like you are packed in a can. I will never fly this airline for a vacation again. Entertainment very outdated. Played one movie and then a documentary. When asked why they would play this instead of another movie the employee said "it's Air Canada policy that we not play two movies on a flight less than 5 hours" - ours was 4 hrs 45 minutes.

Ottawa - Vancouver in Economy class, on an Airbus 319. I arrived at the airport with 3 pieces of luggage, over 85 kgs in total. 2 agents saw me but were too busy chatting among themselves to offer any assistance. As is typical for Air Canada, flight departed late and arrived late in Vancouver. On board, no complimentary meals - only food for purchase. Food/Drink service was very slow. Seats were very uncomfortable and hard - difficult to sleep or relax. Cabin looks ugly and unattractive. I think the quality of Air Canada's service and value for money aspect leaves much to be desired.

Flew SYD-YVR and back in April. Never again would I fly this airline. The food was the worst I have had in years and the staff were rude and snappy and made you feel like you were disturbing their day. Beyond awful is all I can say. Avoid at all cost.

Flew Montreal to Frankfurt on Easter Monday. Departure was delayed by an hour due to aircraft replacement, but otherwise straightforward. I was lucky to get three empty seats in Economy on a relatively full flight, which made the trip all the more comfortable in 3-3-3 seating. The B777-300ERs have LED mood lighting, which really adds to the experience. AVOD is typical AC EnRoute, with some options disabled, but otherwise great in terms of selection. As with previous flights, catering is a huge disappointment. While I usually don't mind airline meals, this dinner was quite awful, and breakfast before FRA was reduced to a single muffin with coffee. Crew was fine, there was transfer assistance provided in Frankfurt right on the air bridge to make up for the delay. The product isn't bad, but sometimes tends to feel like a transatlantic LCC.

Munich to Toronto on an A330, front bulkhead seat 18K. The legroom isn't particularly spacious, but the seat doesn't seem cramped and actually makes for a nice flight. The major drawback is the IFE touchscreen located on the bulkhead wall, which is both misaligned to the seat and extremely uncomfortable to control, having to lean far forward. The aircraft wasn't old, but had its quirks, such as the cabin wall resonating with an obnoxious buzzing sound throughout climbs and descents. AC's IFE is decent, but it had some outages during the flight. Worst of all, however, is the minimal meal service. I feel the food wasn't even to usual economy standard, with only a tiny wrap served on arrival to YYZ, and only two drink runs (with very occasional water) on the 8½ hour flight, leaving me to feel genuinely hungry on landing. The crew was delightful to talk to and attentive, but the service is lacking - especially when you have to bring your own headphones and food on a transatlantic flight.

Winnipeg to London Heathrow and back via Toronto, in Economy. First-time long-haul passengers should be aware that there are two different levels of service in Economy. Long-haul Economy is more traditional, with meal and snack services and pillows and blankets. North American Economy is a bit more sparse, with the requirement to pay for food even on flights that are several hours in length. Nevertheless, a good flight experience: fine range of entertainment options, legroom and long-haul food service were as good as it gets in Economy these days, and the ground staff and flight crew were all courteous.

I recently flew from YVR to PVG, and was very disappointed with my experience on Air Canada. The seat comfort is good, and the personal entertainment system is wonderful. However, the service and attitude of cabin crew is deplorable. The flight attendants were very rude, and snappy on my 12 hour flight. Air Canada may have been upgraded to a 4-star airline, but it has a lot to learn with regard to customer service. I will think twice before I book again.

First time with Air Canada from Paris CDG to Toronto. Very pleasantly surprised by the Economy flight inwards. The plane is an A330 fairly recent, with a good IFE that offer plenty of choice (although little in terms of comedy), with a screen of correct size. The seats are standard economy seat(2-4-2), leg room is acceptable even for this long flight (much better than AF's 777, but then one can hardly do worse). The good surprises came from the (free) meal, with very correct pasta and a choice of alcoholic and soft drinks, and even a hot sandwich before landing, and of the crew, smiling, efficient, offering (free) drinks, hot towel etc.. At least on this route, with a decent plane, much better than US carriers.

Return flight Toronto to Paris CDG, had the chance, because Economy was overbooked with groups of students, to be upgraded in business. Same plane as the inwards flight: A 330. The seating is 1-2-1, with moderns seats installed obliquely, therefore giving a good sense of privacy. Complete courtesy bag with socks, mask and some cosmetics. the seat is good with a large choice of positions including completely flat bed that really allows you to sleep. Excellent dinner with good wines, service of high standard. Good breakfast with orange juice, fresh croissant etc. The only issue was that the large IFE screen of my seat never accepted to work despite efforts of the crew. Not too important for a night flight, but would have given a 10 otherwise.

B767 are badly showing their old age, uncomfortable seats, worn out restrooms, no PTV in the plane to Hawaii. I'm glad I got a discounted ticket because I would have been mad to have paid more for this kind of average service. I would like to congratulate the crew who was obviously trying very hard.

Flew from Toronto to São Paulo, Brazil on a 777. Flight departed 15-20 minutes late, flight attendants very attentive, two of them speaking Portuguese. Courtesy drinks and food during dinner were amazing, breakfast was ok, they always serve the same, pancakes or omelette, they need to have more options. In-flight entertainment system is pretty good, new releases offered as well as international films. They have a wide variety of sitcoms, movies and other different TV shows and news. On the way back coming from Brazil, plane was completely full, on board service was impeccable. Flight attendants always looking after the passengers serving water. They should totally turn the lights off as many of us want to try to sleep. Despite the fact that most of their crew is helpful and very courteous some of them should smile more and be nicer. If Air Canada has a partnership with TAM Brazilian Airlines why sometimes flights are cheaper if bought on the TAM website? Overall, as always a very pleasant experience.

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