Air Canada

AC034 20 September. Just got off a 14 hour flight from Sydney and thought the crew was excellent. They were attentive continued cabin presence and friendly. I also thought the seat (even though a little warn) was better than other airlines like Malaysia Airlines A330. Very pleased with everything and well worth the price. Definitely a 7.5 out of 10.

Flying from Kingston Ontario to London Heathrow is a tiring trip at the best of times delays at the start when a plane needs additional time and maintenance to be flightworthy only makes it worse. Paying extra to get a seat with extra legroom is worth it although the seats are getting threadbare and any padding that may have been there no longer shields you from the frame of the chair this is especially true on their smaller aircraft flying into Kingston. Due to maintenance issues the entertainment system on the Toronto to Heathrow leg had to be completely rebooted mid-flight making it unusable for about an hour. Luggage handling was slow and bags marked “Priority” were some of the last ones off. Since they are the only airline that flies out of Kingston it used to be worth the extra 30% on fairs for flights going outside of North America to fly Air Canada for the convenience but with chronic scheduling problems because of aged aircraft it is becoming less so.

We recently returned from New York La Guardia airport to London Heathrow. Our first flight was delayed which meant we missed our connecting flight to London. Both my sister and I missed several appointments - work for myself and registration for her PhD and meetings for my sister. It was also my sister's 25th birthday which is an extra detail but made the subsequent experience much worse to take. Our return flight included a connection at Montreal - the plane from New York was delayed and from the offset the staff on the plane were incredibly rude disengaged and unhelpful when we asked for advice and reassurance. The whole process was terribly managed - we arrived at the boarding gate in time to see our plane pull away from the gate - some better communications and we definitely could have boarded that flight with a five minute delay for the other passengers at most. We were then sent around the airport with cursory explanations and a lack of basic guidance - for example no one explained there was a shuttle bus to the hotel or even pointed us in the right direction. There was a lack of staff in the airport due to it being a bit later in the evening and we felt completely unguided in the process. I was stunned that a customer-focused service could have such a poor grasp of good communications and moreover just didn't seem to care about it's customers as well. We arrived in London 12 hours after our scheduled arrival time. Overall the process was poor in itself - bad food stingy amounts. When my sister asked if we would be served another meal the attendant smirked and said 'You could loosely call it a meal'. I'd never fly with Air Canada again.

Over the last two years we have taken 31 flights. Of those flights 11 were on Air Canada and on 8 of those 11 there were either delays of more than two hours or cancellations. My most recent was on Air Canada YVR to YEG - the flight was cancelled and it created a great deal of confusion for Air Canada. First they would let us know about putting on other flights in 15 minutes half an hour later they were still confused and lost. They said they would give a lunch voucher but couldn't get them to print and that took 45 minutes. Finally a lunch voucher that would buy an airport pre-made airport sandwich. Back after lunch and sched on flight in another hour (now 2.5 hours later). This is very typical or even quite good service for this airline. Food and beverages - if you like a mini bag of pretzels and some juice or water or coffee then great. I only travel Air Canada when absolutely necessary.

Toronto - Tel Aviv - Toronto B787 Dreamliner. Executive First. Aircraft is superb and is now my favoured choice over the B777. Innovative numerous improvements in passenger comfort and convenience. Cabin staff really proud of the aircraft and it shows in their service. Flights left on time and arrived early. Concierge at Tel Aviv personally accompanied me to my seat (a first). Overall a thoroughly enjoyable experience on both flights. A thumbs up to a great new aircraft and a motivated and delightful crew.

I am a Star Alliance Gold Card holder and fly business class frequently. I just returned from a trip to Thailand and flew the Vancouver to Hong Kong leg (return) business class in their newly configured 777-300 series aircraft. The new business class seating arrangement on this aircraft is an unmitigated disaster. Where do I begin! It is primarily a 2-2-2 layout with 3 rows being 1-2-1. This single seat is only available to AC super elite members. So AC has decided that any other full fare business class travelers on this aircraft are not entitled to a single seat. Ridiculous. The tight seats are far too firm and narrow footwells make it impossible to properly stretch out and have a relaxing sleep. There is no storage area and materials used are cheap and do not even belong in a Premium Economy section. Window passengers do not have a clear access to the aisle. You have to climb over the other passenger. This is unacceptable in a business class in today's airline industry! I browsed through the Duty Free Magazine located in the seat pocket in front of each seat and asked the Flight Attendant if I could order something. She advised me that the configuration of this aircraft did not permit any duty free sales on board. No duty free on board when there is a duty free magazine located in every seat pocket! I will never fly on this aircraft again and my frequent flights to Asia will be on other Star Alliance carriers which are improving their business class product not reducing it to cattle car status such as AC.

Flew LHR to Vancouver Premium Economy on newish plane with different layout premium economy is no longer separated by a bulkhead and curtain so we had to put up with kids running up and down the aisles and noise. On top of this they messed up on our return flight from Calgary. No premium economy available so we chose the front two seats in economy they changed the plane last May didn't tell us so we lost the seats after a few calls to the call centre in India they refunded the charge for the so called premium seats but it's not a money issue we wanted the seats. Arrive at the airport and now we have to pay $70 for our third case that was FOC on the way out. We explained we would have booked it if we could but no joy they charged us. The only way to complain is to write to them apparently which we will for sure. Based on these issues I wouldn't recommend this airline.

On 14th Sept flew Air Canada express - Saskatoon to Vancouver on AC Express. Excellent service by flight attendants. The plane is starting to show its age. We then flew AC 47 to Honolulu. Here again the aircraft is showing its age. Our preferred seat 12 A and C has no window. Service was excellent. The flight attendants were older and were very professional. We learned that Air Canada Rouge is taking over this route in Mid Nov. and we will be returning on that flight in Dec. Our flight departed late however arrived in good time. We had problems stowing our carry on bag as bins were completely filled. Flight attendant did put our bag in a bin in Business Class.

I flew from Toronto to Tokyo on my way to Manila on 22 Oct and had the worst service experience I had in a long haul flight (12 hrs). I was seated at the window seat on several occasions I had a request for food water in the middle of the flight I pressed the attendant button waited more than 20 mins then an attendant went by and just went past no stopping on our side of the aisle and asking if anybody needed anything this happened in the middle of the flight when everyone was asleep so I didn't want to call out loudly but was waving my hands. This went on for 3 more attendant passes me before I was able to get the attention of an attendant. On the way back flying from Tokyo to Toronto I opted for an aisle seat thinking it was easier to get their attention it was but they were not the friendliest or most cordial I was asking for snacks in the middle of the long flight I was asked to go to the back myself to get pretzels and cookies. No more long haul Air Canada flights for me if I can avoid it.

A trip from home from Greece to Calgary resulted in arrival 41 hours after the scheduled time. Air Canada did not contact me once during this time only provided vague updates through the hotel staff. On the ensuing flight from Greece customers were still charged $10 rental fees to use the in-flight iPads despite being delayed more than a day and a half. Disgusting customer service and clearly poor plane maintenance practices. A good way to ruin a vacation is to fly with Air Canada.