Air Canada

Miami - Toronto - Copenhagen 24th April 2014. AC917 - A321 AC882 - B763-300. My family and I went to Florida on vacation. We flew out with Lufthansa - excellent service. On the way back we flew with Air Canada. I had pre- selected seats close to the wing (row 27) the B763 has 2-3-2 seating setup so selecting 2x2 was perfect for us. When we checked in at Miami airport we were told our seating had changed for the flight between Toronto and Copenhagen. Our seating was now: me my wife and my son (age 10) moved to the middle section in row 35 and my daughter (age 5) placed on row 14. I tried to talk to 3 different staff members in Miami airport none was interested in helping us. One suggested we could find a passenger ourselves to swap with. When we were boarding they realized it probably wasn't a good idea to place a 5 year old alone and swapped the seating. I am shocked about the lack of service. What shocked me the most is that I tried to talk to 7 different Air Canada staff members. On top of that (which just is minor compared to all the other): Their "continental breakfast" was a dry banana cake. Their entertainment system was so good that I could hear both my own movie and the movie of the passenger next to me. Both planes were dirty.

Flight 165 from Montreal to Calgary. The crew were impeccably dressed which can make or break a first impression. I was seated in the economy cabin directly behind business class and was expecting a standard North American carrier style of service but instead received more. The business class flight attendant was sure to make sure my drinks were always topped up and even went as far as to refer to me by name a very pleasant surprise in economy. The flight crew were friendly and present throughout the entire flight. Multiple water runs occurred. Legroom was generous in the bulkhead row and the cabin was clean and fresh. The inflight entertainment system was also up to date with multiple options for programming. I will certainly fly Air Canada again.

AC855 on 4th November 2013 from YVR to Heathrow London. I returned on AC854 27th November 2013. Breakfast as the last meal on the plane was a real come-down. It should leave passengers with a satisfied feeling glad they chose Air Canada for their journey. Instead a piece of cellophane-covered yellow cloggy sponge slice that tasted of nothing paired with a small sweetened yoghourt. It was such a sad and disappointing closure to my trip. Regarding the holding pattern over Heathrow it was amazingly beautiful but that only made the unpleasant breakfast experience worse! My seat would not move one millimetre but was pronounced broken as soon as I explained the problem. The flight attendants were excellent.

BGI-YTO-FRA. Found out upon check-in that plane would be delayed by 2-3 hours thus missing my connection. Was told that I would have to stay overnight in Toronto and was already rebooked for a connecting flight next day. My email address and mobile phone number were given in the booking but nobody from AC contacted me beforehand. Upon boarding I saw a second AC plane on the tarmac. Pilot explained that the plane was grounded due to technical problems 2 days ago and ever since they were struggling to find replacement planes. Also the incoming plane was delayed due to technical problems. But no information prior to check-in resulted in no chance to rebook thus missing an important meeting and wasting 19 hours at YTO. Flight itself ok (nothing special and nothing wrong) but the frame conditions were very unsatisfactory.

Return flights on new Air Canada B777 High Density YVR-HKG and YVR-LHR in last month. With the new high density configuration Air Canada has lowered themselves to a truly awful class of business travel. Seats are uncomfortable and cramped controls to recline are finicky and require a lot of to and fro'ing to get seat into lay down position. There is no storage space around your seat for storage of pillow blanket or your shoes. Staff are clearly not happy with new service nor are other frequent passengers. If traveling alone do not take an aisle seat on either side of the cabin - the window seat occupant cannot leave their seat without having you get out of your seat. Cathay and BA much better choices as they are either less costly (or the same price) and you get a personal pod. Will not fly AC again there are much better options on this route.

My wife and I booked a trip to the Caribbean in May 2013 to travel in early April 2014. We used a popular online service for our flight reservations. On our return trip back home to Michigan we had to go round about through Toronto switching airlines to Air Canada for our half hour last leg home. We arrived at Toronto to find that We had less than an hour to connect flights and our baggage wouldn't be checked through to our final destination so after waiting 25 minutes for our luggage and a long trek through a huge unfamiliar airport we missed our flight. But instead of putting us on the next available flight the attendant at check-in directed us to call ticket information. After about 20 minutes of being on hold we ended up at an information desk and they sent us back to the check-in counter where we encountered a gentleman who proceeded to blame us for the mix up arguing and threatening to charge us $250US to rebook. This went on for some time then after we had given up and were going to pay (again) for the flight he abruptly stopped rebooked the flight told us he was doing us a favor and we were on our way. What an ordeal after about a day and a half of traveling it was a nightmare.

We flew LGA-YUL and back on AC. My finance and I flew out separately and returned together. Staff were polite enough in LGA but displayed a consistently lackadaisical attitude. They didn't start boarding the flights until 10 minutes or less before scheduled departure (even though the plane had been at the gate for at least 30 minutes prior) so predictably both flights pulled back from the gate late. My flight then took a 30 minute tour around the taxiways which granted AC has no control over but they provided no updates or anything until we finally started our take off. On the return trip we first ran in to possibly the rudest person working a service job I've ever encountered at YUL. The second AC employee we dealt with was quite nice and apologized for her co-worker. Again at the gate the staff was lackadaisical fumbling around and not boarding the flight until 10 minutes before departure (even though the boarding pass said boarding would start 55 minutes prior to departure and the plane was at the gate for a good 20 minutes at least before boarding started). Luckily it only lead to 5-10 minutes delay on the YUL-LGA trip. On all 3 flights there were no announcements about how or where to pick up baggage when we landed. Overall I feel like we were lucky that our AC experience was only somewhat bad. The general attitude and competency of the AC staff gave me absolutely no confidence that they would have been able to handle any real problems. I'm going back to Montreal again next year and will do my best to avoid AC for that trip and any others I take in the future.

April 3 flight # 1820. return April 17 flight # 1821. Rouge not good. Please do better leaving a seat in the middle open on each row is a bad fix. April 17 flight from Cancun great staff. Much improved. Seat depth and width are the issue. Proud of Air Canada and the Maple Leaf Logo.

Winnipeg to Toronto - this flight was the same as for all prior trips on AC. Staff were at best lifeless and indifferent. Some were outright haughty. At the end of the trip one is left with the impression that AC staff are taking their frustrations out on the passengers. I don't have the same experience when I fly the competition (Westjet). AC management might try some positive motivation with their staff before they chase away more customers.

YYZ to SYD via YVR in business class aboard 777-200 LR. Toronto to Vancouver leg was standard domestic business class experience. Ok food good entertainment nice service. Vancouver to Sydney was excellent. Nothing to complain about at all. Service was superb. Great meal service and a well stocked galley for between meal snacks. Tried the dim sum chicken breast skewers and fruit - all good. The pod seating is very comfortable. What really impressed was that the washrooms were so clean throughout the entire 15 hour flight. I used them frequently and they were always spotless. Air Canada really stepped it up on their international business class. To give you a comparison I've flown Singapore Airlines a few times and on this long haul flight Air Canada was even better (in both directions). I hope economy class had a good experience as well.