Air Canada rouge

I recently booked a flight on the Air Canada website from Toronto to Barcelona and back. Air Canada "Rouge" seemed marginally cheaper so I went with that. Nowhere in the booking process was there any warning that "Rouge" is essentially AC's version of Air Transat at AC prices: they've ripped out all the seats with entertainment systems and replaced them with pre-1970 style seats decreased the seat spacing and if you want a beer or glass of wine you have to pay through the nose. It would have been nice to have some indication of this in advance! On top of that the service was slow and terrible. Whoever in AC management thought that creating something as sub-par as Rouge was a wise business decision needs to have their head examined. This will do irreparable damage to AC's already sliding reputation.

I booked my flight from Rome to Los Angeles with Air Canada which I have flown with before and enjoyed. It was not until I received my booking confirmation that I realized that the first leg of the trip (Rome to Montreal) was with Rouge and the second leg (Montreal to LA) was with regular AC. After having already committed I checked the reviews for Rouge and became startled. All of the negative comments had me dreading the trip. It is a long flight and to be cramped would suck. Much to my surprise and pleasure the seats were fine! Of course I have noticed that most of the negative reviews were for Airbus planes and we flew on a 767 but the seats were identical to the regular AC flight we took on our second leg. There was plenty of leg room. In fact there was more leg room on the Rouge flight than on the Lufthansa flight we took getting there. The seats were plenty wide. The staff were a little young but nice and cheerful. The food was great and plenty of it. I read so many bad things about the lack of inflight entertainment but then they played two recently released movies on the cabin televisions more than I got on my last American Airlines flight going the same route. Overall it was a great flight and experience. In fact it was much better than the second leg we flew on regular AC in that the staff sucked on the AC flight and they charged for snacks and food. The only thing better was the in flight entertainment was in the headrests which is always great. Bottom line I would definitely fly Rouge again and would recommend to friends.

I had AC Rouge for the return flight of my itinerary (BCN to YUL) and was dreading the 8 hour return trip based on the reviews I read here. I was pleasantly surprised perhaps due to my own lowered expectations and was compelled to write this review as I don't think this airline is getting a fair shake. The plane itself was clean and in good condition and the crew was friendly courteous and helpful. The flight offered meal service which was no better/worse than any other airline I've flown. Regarding the leg room I found no difference between AC Rouge and coach class on other airlines. By comparison I've flown transatlantic on Air Transat Air France and United and frequently use AC main line within North America. If there is a difference it's negligible. Overall I'd say the leg room was "industry standard". For instance during this same vacation I took a short haul flight with Vueling which I would say had "no leg room". Regarding inflight entertainment I consider this a non-issue. Yes there is no inflight entertainment other than the movies shown on the main cabin screens. However in this day and age of smartphones and tablets I was more than satisfied to watch movies of my choice on my phone. The only thing that would've been nice would be to have had USB chargers for devices (my daughters tablet ran out of battery 3/4 way through the flight). Ultimately my first priority is reaching my destination safely and for this reason alone I tend to gravitate towards Air Canada. Factor in the competitive pricing and I'm likely to fly with Rouge again at some point.

AC1752 July 31 2014 and AC1753 Aug 7 2014. I have never been so disappointed by an airline! I paid what I thought was business class and found it to be cattle class. Nothing and I mean nothing provided. I will avoid Air Canada vacations if this is their primary carrier! I now have to book a trip to San Diego . Last time it was air Canada and it was business class. Now they dump it to Rouge and they have the nerve to call this business class? Same price without any service. They should be ashamed to call this anything but cattle air. Bring drinks and real food with you! Just fly with them once and you will see!

Before booking our flights to Canada we debated between Virgin (our usual airline to the US) or Air Canada. Our agent told us that although Virgin were better Air Canada would be fine with similar legroom entertainment food etc. this was last year before anyone in the UK had heard of Rouge. The seats only recline one inch the person behind me who was just average height had his knees in my back the whole journey there are no air vents above the seats and the entertainment is shocking. For an airline to introduce a new service which is in effect a transatlantic budget airline but still with Air Canada prices is absolutely appalling.

LIS-YYZ. Poor communication embarrassing service and a disappointing lack of even a modicum of care about their passengers seems to be how this airline operates. Flight got cancelled in the middle of the night. We received just a text (and not even an email) to a link with our updated flight "status." Essentially we had two options: stay in a hotel organized by the airline or go on your own and hope to be reimbursed. We were told that we would be rebooked on a flight 21 hours later. After the most unbelievable line at check in (one person said he had been waiting for 2 hours. Note that we were the only AC flight going out that day) we checked our boarding passes to see that we were actually delayed again by another 2 hours putting us 23 hours behind schedule. We didn't even get a text telling us this so we woke up at 5 am for no reason. It's not really Air Canada - don't let the name fool you. No attempt to rebook us was made like a normal airline. I once flew American Airlines not exactly known for its service and had a flight cancelled only to be rebooked (ironically) on Air Canada. Don't expect that decency from Rouge. I will never ever take this airline again. I'm a proud Canadian but I'll be looking elsewhere. These reviews are awful for a reason. Watch out.

YUL-YYZ on Air Canada Express YYZ-LAS on Air Canada Rouge. All the flights went smooth and on time from take off to landing. I knew what to expect when I purchased the ticket on Air Canada Rouge. There's no entertainment unless you have an Apple device (such as Ipad) and have download their application and be aware there's no charging ports on board. The flight crew was fine nothing special you have to purchase for meals. Overall it's pretty much the same service on a normal Air Canada flight but with less legroom even in the emergency exists the legroom is not a lot. Overall you get what you paid for on Air Canada Rouge which is fine but don't expect a super service and lots of legroom unless you fly in Premium class.

No seat back entertainment for transatlantic flight Toronto to Dublin yes I know you can have your personal electronic and download app but with three kids - nice/need to have hands free! Seats as hard as the road no leg room and when I asked flight attendant to ask the person in front to put their seat upright just for the meal service I was told no you have to ask them. Shirking the responsibility or what? Instead of fancy ridiculous looking uniforms that probably cost a fortune what about spending it on the very outdated 767!

Flew back from Rome to Montreal (9 hour plus flight) plus had a one hour delay Have been spoiled by the regular Air Canada flights (elite status). Had read emails about the "Rouge" experience from others well Air Canada has embarked on a journey to destroy their brand which took many years of solid service to develop. Forget the direct flights with Rouge take the alternatives. My next trip to Europe will be with Lufthansa. Nice to have had the chance to catch up on old movies - due to lack of choice!

Flew Manchester UK to Toronto 6/8/2014 - returned 22/8/2014. Chose them because they had a good name did not realise it was not Air Canada and secondly price. Really good price for this time of year. The cabin crew were young I like their trendy uniform. I think the return journey crew were better than the outbound only because going they were asked questions about travel connections and should the passenger pick up their luggage or would it be transferred they did not know the answer. Also I think the return journey at night is easier for the crew because people sleep. I found the crew very attentive and very friendly they did not forgot requests from passengers. The downside of the flight - no duty free I did not realise this on my outward journey. The inflight entertainment I had read you could purchase a tablet for $10 which I did on my outward journey - the tablet kept freezing whilst I watched a film. I think it took me 3 hrs to watch the film. Other passengers also had problems. I did not purchase the tablet on the return journey but the same thing happened but they made an announcement that they rebuffed the machine and I think that did work but they didn't do this on the outward journey. The food was ok although I am not a fan of airline food and would of preferred a salad or a sandwich. These days it is hard for crew with food requirements there were a lot of different diets and it was not made easy when the passengers moved seats but they handled it very well. I would definitely travel with this airline again. My seats were fine I had leg room. Yes it is no frills but not everyone can afford luxury travel and also don't always rely on bad reviews. I was surprised how good my flights were.