Air Canada

✅ Trip Verified | Vancouver to Brisbane. Exit row ticket was purchased for travel for my very tall son and myself for the long haul flight to find that when ticketed, my son was seated behind me not in the exit row. The plane was full so there was no way to accommodate him anywhere - they requires you to pay extra for these seats which had been done almost six months prior to the flight and then not honoured. Upon return I have been emailing customer service for a refund of these fees for a seat that was not provided and a month later am yet to receive any correspondence (let alone any refund).

Not Verified | Auckland to Vancouver. My experience with Air Canada was pleasurable. I flew out on the 3rd Feb 2020 to Vancouver and I was made very comfortable once the attendants were made aware of my situation. I would not consider the staff to be overly friendly other than that. My flight coming back on the 13th Feb 2020 was horrific due to me becoming ill whilst in the air. The flight attendant that took care of me was Isabelle and she is a credit to your airline. She was very attentive towards me and kept checking on me regularly. Good flights overall.

✅ Trip Verified | Air Canada cancelled my flight just because of less demand on that particular flight. No compensation was given or rescheduling was made. It was even impossible to contact Air Canada customer service. No one ever picked up phone after holding for over an hour. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to fly with Air Canada’s. Extremely poor customer service and not cheap anyways. Luckily I was able to purchase another ticket with Cathay Pacific!

✅ Trip Verified | New Delhi to Vancouver. This flight was very impressive, the kind of flight where you would love to fly AC again. We were warmly greeted and directed to our seats. The biz class seats are much nicer from when we last flew them 6 years ago. There is more room and more storage space and a mattress pad as well. We both managed too get comfortable sleep at the beginning of this 14.5 hr. flight. The food was very good and plentiful. I slept through breakfast so th FA'S whipped up a snack of cheeses, chicken Tikka and a nice Cognac to go with it. Our lunch was amazing. I had lamb chops, salad, and mashed with a nice chilled Molson and then there was desert, a fluffy butterscotch torte, cheeses and ice cream, and a Couvasier Cognac to follo and Lavazza coffee. The IFE system was very easy to use and had a lot of options for movies, TV, music, etc. too many to list and the hand held device was easy to use. The flight crew were very polite and attentive too and I had a chance to speak with them during a slow moment they had and they were so nice. We have flown other top rated carries such as ANA, Thai, Asiana, Emirates, Turkish and Cathay Dragon but this one AC flight tops them all. Bravo! Well done!

✅ Trip Verified | My last experience was a flight from Toronto to Mumbai. They made us wait almost 4 hours in the plane before taking off. They gave us mini oatmeal bars to help us wait, and half glass of water. They blame external circumstances (last time was: not enough employees to defrost the plane). Even for very simple flights like Montreal - NYC or Montreal - Miami they are late. Last time I went to Miami, flight delayed of 6 hours. Last time I went to NYC (1 hour flight), flight delayed of 2 hours. Don’t bother bringing a carry on: they never have space for them. They’ll ask you to check in your bag anyway and you’ll have to wait for it at the airport tray. Only positive thing I would say is that employees are generally very affable. It’s truly not their fault.

Not Verified | Toronto to Rome via London. Air Canada treats Aeroplan members as second class citizens I am posting this warning to all those you fly with Air Canada and who use air miles to book flights. Air Canada clearly discriminates amongst its passengers. This is now my second experience and hence definitive confirmation of these discriminatory practices. I recently booked a flight to Europe from Toronto using my aeroplan miles. Upon booking my 2 flights I went through the seat selection process, selected seats and paid $125 each for that privilege. The payment was processed by Air Canada and written confirmation received of those specific seat allocations via email. Weeks later I received an “Air Canada – SEAT CHANGE” notification, arbitrarily moving our seats from Row 18 (seats bought and paid for – for extra legroom due to a leg issue I have) to Row 33. and then said I would be refunded the seat selection fees. Completely arbitrary and not honoring the initial seat purchase! Since this was the second time this has happened to me, (the first time being much worse, which I will explain later on in this message) I had to speak out. I immediately emailed Air Canada after trying to get a hold of their customer service Dept – advised by an automated call that the wait time was more than 1.5 hrs - really? Maybe this is a factor of the significant quantum of customer complaint volume. I then received the token automated response to my submission form Air Canada “we will address your concern within 30 days”. Hence my public action here! As noted this is the second time this has happened. In 2018, on flights to/from Miami for attending a family wedding, I had booked 4 seats using Aeroplan miles and paid full fare for one seat (full-fare seat for my disabled father) in upgraded seating. We booked almost 8 months in advance, with the express purpose of early booking, being getting our seats assigned together so as to assist my disabled father on/off the plan and supporting him during the flights. Eight months early! All our seat selections were confirmed in writing to us by Air Canada at that time. Again, just before the flight (a week before) we get a notification that our seats were changed. Let me clarify this point - only our Aeroplan booked seats were changed! Not my father’s full-fare seat! I called to complain, they said it just happens. It was too close to the flight to seek any other remedy. In the end, it left us sitting in the back of the plane and my father sitting alone with strangers and without support to deal with his disability! Unbelievable! After our return, I complained through proper AC channels to ascertain the genesis of the change notice, highlighting the blatant fact that only the seats booked with air miles were changed and not full-fare seat. The AC response again was, it happens! The offered me a 25% discount coupon for a future flight. I don’t want coupons! I want honest, fair and non-discriminatory service from a Canadian company. Disgraceful! Now this has happened again and cannot stay silent as it is now clear beyond any doubt that Air Canada discriminates against its passengers. There is one level of service for full-fare passengers and another for Aeroplan members who use air miles to book flights. I encourage all others who have experienced this type of discriminatory treat to rise up and make Air Canada take notice and correct their business practices.

✅ Trip Verified | Toronto to Edmonton. Our flight is delayed for more than 3 hours now, and my husband and I spoke to customer rep separately and 1 answered because of weather condition and gates are full. The other one told me it’s because gates are full. She didn’t blame the weather condition when I informed her that our other family member already left for Edmonton via WestJet. The refused to give us compensation for food/meal as it’s not their fault “ it’s the airport's fault”. So, I called the airport’s customer support and told me there’s no such thing as “gates are full”. Poor customer service Air Canada and Toronto Pearson airport. Where do we turn to now?

Not Verified | Mexico City to Winnipeg via Toronto. Purchased ticket in November. Checked in at Mexico City at 12:00. No seat assigned in final leg. After 4 hours on airport was finally assigned last row middle seat. Wouldn’t change it to a different seat, even thigh when I hit in the plane there were multiple seats available further forward in the plane. The entire Mexico City staff is short-tempered, overworked, stressed out, angry and blames the customer for their shortfalls, as in “you should have come to the gate earlier” - as noted, 4 hours in the airport.

✅ Trip Verified | Frankfurt to Calgary. Cabin crew and inflight services were quite decent. I did have some problem with my missing extra luggage. The claims department did not handle the claim fairly. They did pay a claim of $500 which is half the cost of the item i had in the missing luggage. The first sector flight was with Lufthansa from Port Harcourt to Frankfurt.

Not Verified | Saskatoon to Frankfurt via Calgary. Not the first time and won't be the last time. Air Canada is by far one of the worst airlines that sometimes I have no choice but to fly with. Poor food, customer service, delays, lost luggage all are daily routine with this carrier. If you have any option other than Air Canada to fly anywhere, take it. I do the same!