Air Canada » User reviews

captain.cupcake flew Air Canada Economy, on a B777-300ER (08/04/2012 19:42)

This was my first and last flights with Air Canada.

On checking in at Heathrow my partner and I were greeted by surly, rude scowling staff.
Boarding was very slow and not very organised.

We booked and paid extra for exit row seats but were very disappointed to find no window on row 31.

After an on time departure the meal service was started. The food was cold and too salty. We overheard a number of other passengers complaining.

The crew were off hand, rude and patronizing to say the least.
The IFE in my seat would not work and my partners was intermittent at best. We asked the crew if they could reset the system but got a reply of 'sorry we don't do electronics' not what I would expect from a major carrier.
It turned out that no IFE was working on seats ABC down the entire aircraft.

We did land ahead of time - the only good thing that day! Checking in at Vancouver we met the rudest agent in aviation history!.

On our return we had the same seats - 31AB. These seats were broken and would not recline, not good on a 10 hour flight.

No announcement was made about meal service starting. My partner was waiting to use the bathroom when the meal service started. The crew refused to move to allow him and other passengers to pass resulting in him waiting 20 minutes to return to his seat. When the crew reached our seats they would not leave a meal for him as he was not seated yet he was standing behind them!

The meal inbound was worse than the outbound. We has some meat and rice dish. The rice was hard and not fully cooked and the meat was cold and tough.

I was a flight attendant for 15 years and so am aware of the demands put on crew. It really doesn't take much to make passengers feel valued.

If you want a carrier that gets you to your destination on time but are not concerned with comfort or a decent service the Air Canada would suit you!
NEVER AGAIN

jtbutche flew Air Canada Business, on a A330-300 (07/01/2012 18:06)

Extremely professional, great service, great food/drink, and wonderful airport lounges.

Seat are comfortable, the mood lighting is relaxing, the flight attendants are attentive and professional. What's great about Air Canada is that every single long haul air craft has the exact same product. You don't need to worry about what type of air craft you are on ext.

Devasish flew Air Canada Executive Class (short haul), on a A320-200 (04/12/2011 05:31)

I have flying with Air Canada since 1998 off and on. Both business and Y class. The routings are Toronto-Sao Polo-Buenos Aires return. Toronto-London-Toronto. Toronto-Zurich-Toronto, Toronto-LA, Tokyo-Vancouver-Toronto and Zurich-Toronto. Wow! Exceptional Zurich, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, LA(in Business Class) Recent days Toronto-London-Toronto in Business Class...Food, Drinks and services unparalal. But seating position not that great comparing AB330 and Boeing 767 Tokyo-Vancouver-Toronto. One more time will fly in Business Class on British Air Ways to European destination just redeem BA points. Last year I flown with BA but seats are very poor condition. Services worst.

Charles-P flew Air Canada Economy, on a B767-300ER (25/11/2011 10:03)

I had heard bad things about Air Canada but was pleased to find a comfortable seat, nice crew and reasonable food. I paid a small premium for a bulkhead seat in economy as Business was fully booked however I noticed there were two free business seats that were given to friends of the crew.
Reasonable IFE with a mix of the usual comedies (Friends etc) and 20 odd films including some Canadian Films that made a nice change. We were late leaving Calgary as a thorough de-ice was needed but this time was made up and we got to Frankfurt on time. The flight was about half full so there were lots of spaces for other economy passengers to stretch out.
In conclusion - reasonable value for money but disappointing to see Business Class seats being given away by crew when I would have paid.

Dadou73 flew Air Canada Economy, on a B767-300ER (24/10/2011 14:59)

I wasn't supposed to fly with Air Canada on my journey from Toronto to Geneva, but the very nice ground crew found me and put me on Air Canada 830 from Toronto to Geneva via Montreal and I was very happy of this flight, very friendly and professional cabin crew, incredibly good entertainment system, good food and clean and quiet cabin for an old 767-300ER ! I'll fly with them again !

Ladyexpat flew Air Canada (16/09/2011 13:25)

I traveled from Seoul (Incheon) to Halifax, Nova Scotia. This is a long flight with two plane changes. Check-in at Incheon went without a hitch and we departed on time. Since I had paid extra for a bulk head seat, there was no in front of me. I noticed quite early in the flight that the plane was extremely cold. I dug out my sweater and socks and was still freezing. I finally managed to get the attention of a flight attendant and asked her if they might have an extra blanket (economy blankets are like tissue paper). She wasn't optimistic, but did find me a first class blanket. I was so grateful!

The food between Incheon and Vancouver was not memorable. Of course, except for the breakfast. Does AC ever serve anything besides those horrible eggs and sausages?

Also, one of the toilets was out of order for the entire flight. Since the flight was full, this meant very long wait times.

We arrived in Vancouver on time, but ended up having to wait 30 minutes to disembark. Apparently, we were sharing our gate with another flight. I did not have much time between flights, so I was a little anxious. I arrived at the baggage hall and waited for 45 minutes for my bag to show up. Then it was off to the conveyor belt, through security again and onto the gate. I arrived at the gate with only minutes to spare. I cannot understand why Air Canada does not give more time between connecting flights.

The flight from Vancouver to Toronto was uneventful. Again, one washroom was out of order. Again, the flight was horribly cold. The flight attendant came along as asked me if I wanted a hot water bottle. That was much appreciated.

All food on the flight from Vancouver to Halifax had to be purchased. The attendant checked the first sandwich she was about to sell and discovered that it was out of date. She had her co-worker check the remaining sandwiches and every one of them was out of date. I couldn't help but wonder why she had to broadcast this to the entire plane. It makes a person wonder how often they check the food they're selling. I remained hungry.

As soon as I arrived in Toronto I was told that gate for my flight to Halifax had changed. I headed to the new gate, which was deserted. I wandered around and finally spoke to another AC ground crew. They informed me that my flight had been canceled! I said to the ground crew that this must happen a lot. She was rather snippy with me, and said NO it doesn't. I smiled and informed her that the exact same thing had happened to me five years ago on the exact same flight. Short of calling me a liar, it was pretty obvious that she didn't believe me.

Then there was the issue with my seat. I had paid extra for a seat with leg room. I was told that my money would be refunded. I said I would prefer the seat that I had paid for. I was informed that families would be seated together first, and then I would get what was left over. Then I was asked how many in my party. When I said ONE, she was a little surprised. I'm not sure why, but she was. She said she would see what she could do.

I sat down and waited, hoping that I would get upgraded. That in fact did happen and I was grateful. The flight from Toronto to Halifax was uneventful. As usual with Air Canada, it took forever for the bags to come out in Halifax. We arrived after 2:00am, so it wasn't like there were any other flights!

Overall, the flight was okay, but not great. I do thank the flight attendants who gave me the blanket and hot water bottle, and the attendant who upgraded me to business class for the lag of the journey.

Ladyexpat flew Air Canada (16/09/2011 12:44)

skedguy flew Air Canada Executive Class (short haul), on a A320-200 (15/09/2011 02:05)

The boarding process was completely mishandled as they attempted to board people with kids and the elderly / handicapped first. However there was a rush to the check in lines and the agents proceeded to check every one in regardless of cabin. So much for priority boarding.

Once on board there was adequate room in the overhead bins for my carry on and I was offered a news paper before takeoff together with a choice of juice or water.

Push back was on time and we had a relatively short taxi and took off after 5 minutes (exceptional for SFO).
After takeoff we were informed of the services available in the main cabin and their buy on board facility. Headsets (cheap bud types) were handed out together with a menu.

We were informed that the Thai Chicken curry had been replaced by Salmon so it was back to the steak option. Asked for a glass of Champagne but was told it was no longer served on North American flights. Classy! Settled for the red wine which was a Latin American Malbec and was quite drinkable.

Dinner arrived all on one tray and with a stone cold roll rather than the promised “warm breads” on the menu. No seconds on breads which I would have appreciated. The meat was not too tender but quite flavorful. To finish you could be forgiven for having visions of cheese and dessert. Well you would be bitterly disappointed. What used to be the mid flight “treat” has now become the featured dessert in Air Canada’s apparently unending quest for cheap over quality. Yes the fresh baked cookies (again no seconds offered and it looked like they were selling the leftovers in the main cabin) and ice cream were better than nothing.

However, if AC has any pretensions about competing on quality this flight laid them to rest in a very deep grave.
Sad! For a time it looked as if they were attempting to compete on quality (at least in the front cabin) but apparently not in North America.

I guess if your competition is from US carriers this is only to be expected. This sort of flight is why niche carriers like Porter and Sunwing are growing like weeds in AC’s major Toronto hub.

skedguy flew Air Canada Executive Class (short haul), on a A320-200 (15/09/2011 01:45)

Lujoleasing flew Air Canada Business, on a B777-300ER (21/06/2011 07:09)

I lié to Tell you I had many options to SCL to SEA , but I wanted to take a different route to my usual AA via Dallas or Miami, so I see AC flys with the, and had the new configuration of side single seats in Business, so the flight was nice the food catering leaving Santiago was pretty bad however returning from Toronto to SCL was quite better, the staff was quite indifferent to any premium PAX, but not bad, the 777 was my main reason and to evaluate AC Business servive, today this route is done in a 767..too bad...

Jan2009 flew Air Canada Economy, on a B777-300ER (30/07/2010 20:18)

alwaysairbound flew Air Canada Business, on a B777-300ER (10/07/2010 20:13)

Poor customer service marrs a potentially great product. Bear in mind I travel long-haul on a weekly basis. What started off well was utterly disappointing. Firstly, for a £4000 ticket ...."orange juice from concentrate" ....get real !!. Soft drink options also limited, with only Diet Coke in the sugar free range, so for anyone wishing a "caffeine and sugar-free" option (Sprite Zero/7 Up Free) ....forget it. I also was due to have surgery onmy return to the UK and had ordered a "special meal" five days earlier. Not only was it not on board, there was no apology and no alternative offered. Two weeks earlier in Virgin's Economy Class the same happened and the crew managed to out together a jacket potato with beans and salad for me from crew provisions. On AC, eventually a flight attendant brought me a bread roll which was so dry it had to have been 3 days old. Again no apology. I wrote to Air Canada in April 2009 to outline my disappointment. As of July 2010 I have received no reply. In fairness, the seat is very good, if a little firm for sleeping, and could do with a bottom sheet like the NZ/VS similar product. The service and catering was simply not up to scratch. Little details like the orange juice which i mentioned earlier - unforgivable. At LHR I waited 90 minutes for my bags.

retoborer flew Air Canada Economy, on a B777-300ER (04/06/2010 03:49)

This time I had to fly Economy as my Agent was not able to rebook the Ticket to Business despite that Business was not fully booked.

Seat are great for a big guy like me. FA very friendly and approachable especially the Asian Crew not only for Western as well for Chinese Passenger. AC was good and relative modern the seating arrangement of 3-3-3 is great 18.5 Inch seat wide is the biggest in the industry and compared with Emirates and other Airline very comfortable.

Only minus point is the Reservation Department which is pathetic if you want to upgrade and pay full fare for a new ticket are not able due to so it is very frustrating.

Once complaint to to Air Canada in Canada you get a non relevant answers which only aggravates you.. If you want to spend additional 4000US and the Airline is not willing to work with you (mind you not asking for upgrade more as full fare price) and you Staff is not willing to assist you I would consider this as having a Major attitude Problem

However the treatment on board as well on the Ground was superior I wish some of the top Airlines would have this approach.

andrewk flew Air Canada Business, on a B777-200LR (18/05/2010 15:38)

As a frequent traveler to Asia, I was searching for a better way to fly in business class from Rochester, New York to Hong Kong. I decided, after reading a very positive review in “Business Traveler North America”, to switch my business from Continental to Air Canada. In April 2010, I made 2 roundtrip flights on Air Canada from Toronto to Hong Kong in Executive First.

I was very pleased with most aspects of the flights. The seat comfort is excellent. The flight attendants were professional, courteous and hard-working. The food was above average and in a few cases, quite delicious. The only glitch was boarding in Toronto. I would recommend Air Canada as one of the best North America-based airlines I have flown. As an extra bonus, after only 2 round trips, I earned Gold status in Air Canada’s FFP-Aeroplan.

tiggerbrown flew Air Canada Economy, on a B767-300ER (15/03/2010 19:55)

Flight looked quite full but having paid for exit row seats (think they call it Preferred Seats) we had plenty of legroom which was just perfect. Bum-width was ample too.

Seatback screens had huge selection of films & music to keep me happy all the way from LHR to YYZ.

Only drawback, as I believe is already warned about, is that the overwing exit row seats get *very* cold. Wrapped in 3 blankets I was almost ready to pop my outdoors jacket on. Despite that I would still endure the cold for the extra room.

Corporate-gal flew Air Canada Business, on a B767-300ER (15/03/2010 11:46)

Check-in: I was due to fly Ottawa – Halifax – London so checked in online, chose my seats with relative ease and was presented with four options for my boarding pass: text or SMS, e-mail, interactive link or printable boarding pass. I chose the latter. Although I did not need to go to the check in desks at Ottawa, the queues as I passed by looked orderly and not too busy. There were plenty of desks open, plenty of staff on hand and the self-service check-in points were being well utilised.

Lounge: I used my Continental President’s Club membership to gain access to the Maple Leaf Lounge. The lounge was large and was very busy by the time I got there, because of all the internal shuttles to other Canadian cities that were due to depart. There was a reasonable range of snacks and drinks including non-alcoholic fruit juices, coffee and tea, as well as beers and wines. The self-service food bar had a range of salads as well as hot soup, bread, cheese and biscuits. There is WiFi but it appeared as if you had to pay to access it.

Boarding: Boarding calls were a bit ‘hit & miss’ in the lounge, so I went to the gate at the time indicated on my boarding pass. As I waited at the gate my name was called and I was put onto the Ottawa – London direct flight and upgraded to Executive Class (Business class) – apparently the Halifax route was overbooked and I had helped them out by accepting the direct flight instead. This meant another 3 hours back in the lounge. About 15minutes prior to the gate time on my new boarding card, the lounge announced it would be closing and asked that all members made their way down to the gate to start boarding. When I got there we waited another 10 minutes before Executive Class passengers were allowed to board. Boarding took about 20 minutes in total.

Aircraft and Seating: The aircraft used on this route is version 2 (on the Air Canada website) of the Boeing 767-300, with the new Executive First herringbone layout and the one long cabin in Economy with the galley positioned around rows 17-19. I was in seat 7A in Executive Class, which is the best line of seats if you are travelling alone as it faces the ‘wall’ of the seats in row F, the middle row. Row F faces the seats on the opposite side of the aircraft in row K and are better if travelling with other companions. The seat has full instructions if like me, it is your first time using the seat as the controls do look confusing when you first see them. There is a handy under-foot-stool storage area, a laptop/paper storage to your right-side and handy little shelves to your far right and near-left for placing drinks and other things such as your toiletries bag. A bottle of water was safely stored away in its requisite hole to the right-hand side of me. The bed is fully flat and for sleeping is probably the best I’ve tried – a plump pillow and light duvet made the experience comfortable and I awoke feeling fully refreshed albeit was a short flight of 6hr 30mins. The only downside of the herringbone layout is it is very difficult to look out the windows, making you twist quite awkwardly if you wish to do so.

Food and Drink: A welcome drink of orange juice or champagne was offered pre-take off, although the stewardess had to battle through the other boarding passengers to get around to those in Executive Class, so the timing of this was rather delayed. Menus were handed out before take-off. About 30 minutes after take-off the cabin service director came round to ask for your choice of main course – the menu also offered a ‘Gourmet Express’ option for those who wanted all the courses served at once, so they could then get to sleep. 45 minutes after take off the first drinks service was offered with the usual compliment of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and a small dish of warm, salted nuts. The full meal service followed shortly afterwards with the first course being served, followed by the main courses about 15 minutes later. Desserts and cheese and biscuits were offered separately along with after-dinner drinks, tea and coffee. I was asked if I wanted to be woken for breakfast, which I asked not to be, although I did wake up in time for it, I did not partake and only settled for an orange juice and a smoothie.

Service: Service was friendly and efficient.

Entertainment: A good selection of films listed in various categories was offered, as well as on-board radio and a selection of music, of which there was not a lot of choice which appealed to me. I watched one movie during dinner, before settling down to sleep. The screen in Executive Class is quite large and there is a separate control handset, as well as the controls via the ‘touch-screen’ method, offering full AVOD facilities. The in-flight maps were not working.

Overall: A good quality service, with an acceptable range of entertainment, good choice of food and wines and very comfy seats.

Corporate-gal flew Air Canada Economy, on a B767-300ER (15/03/2010 11:21)

Check-in: I checked in online, chose my seat with relative ease and was presented with four options for my boarding pass: text or SMS, e-mail, interactive link or printable boarding pass. I chose the latter. Although I did not need to go to the check in desks at Heathrow Terminal 3, the queues as I pass by looked orderly and not too busy. There were plenty of desks open, plenty of staff on hand and the self-service check-in points were being well utilised.

Lounge: I used my Continental President’s Club membership to gain access to the Maple Leaf Lounge (Lounge B). This appeared to be for all Star Alliance carriers although it seemed to be SAS concentric. There was a reasonable range of breakfast snack and drinks including non-alcoholic fruit juices, coffee and tea, as well as beers and wines. The WiFi is free and you simply log on using the username and password clearly displayed on the small notice boards around the bars; I made full use of this facility before I noticed that boarding had commenced.

Boarding: Boarding was well organised, although when they called Executive First and Star Alliance passengers it was not clear whether they were referring to Air Canada tier status or Star Alliance. However, I ventured up to the door, stated I was Star Alliance Silver Elite with Continental and I was allowed to board.

Aircraft and Seating: The aircraft used on this route is version 2 (on the Air Canada website) of the Boeing 767-300, with the new Executive First herringbone layout and the one long cabin in Economy with the galley positioned around rows 17-19. I was in seat 13K, which was the only row in the front of the Economy cabin that did not have a window. This would probably be an ideal seat if you simply want to sleep on a night flight. The seat pitch on the 767 is confusing to say the least, albeit the layout throughout Economy is 2-3-2, rows 12-17 on the outboard seats, i.e. the two sitting together, have seat pitch of 33”, with the middle rows having only 31”. Throughout the remaining majority of the aircraft, the seat pitch is 31” or 32”. Therefore if you want a bit more leg room, then the outboard seats up the front of the cabin are the best bet.

Food and Drink: A hot lunch was served about an hour after take-off and this was not preceded by a pre-dinner drinks/snack service. All drinks are free, including alcoholic beverages. I chose the chicken, which came with a pasta salad starter and was served with veg and mashed potato. The desert came in the form of a soft cookie. Although no pre-dinner drinks service was provided, another round of post-dinner drinks was forthcoming. The crew also passed through the cabin regularly offering water.

Service: Service was friendly and efficient, but was not awe inspiring.

Entertainment: A good selection of films listed in various categories was offered, as well as on-board radio and a selection of music, of which there was not a lot of choice which appealed to me. I therefore watched a couple of films and did some work instead. The screen is quite large and whilst there is no separate control handset, the controls are all via the ‘touch-screen’ method instead, offering full AVOD facilities.

Overall: A reasonable quality ‘full’ service airline, with an acceptable range of entertainment, comfy seats and decent food.

MartinV flew Air Canada Economy (short haul), on a Embraer 190 (01/03/2010 16:12)

Flights on the Embraer 190s from YYT to Toronto often leave luggage behind, due to the small hold.Alerting the staff on the importance of having luggage on board due to connections in the hub one flies to not always has the desired effect and one has to wait for luggage to be shipped by Air Canada to the destination point. Air Canada staff does not make it a secret that this is a "normal" procedure. Quite frustrating on multi leg trips or particularly annoying if the next part of the trip involves a cruise.

hyperlink47 flew Air Canada Business, on a B777-300ER (06/07/2009 16:52)

overall a great flight to china from toronto. my favourite part was the stand up bar cause it was right near my seat so i could just put em away the whole flight. great for sleeping and lounging, crapper windows a nice touch

dublindave flew Air Canada Economy, on a B777-300ER (04/01/2009 23:06)

The new Air Canada 777's are now even more appealing in Economy Class due to the endless hours of TV shows or movies on offer on the screens available in every seat in this class.

I just flew in US Airways Envoy and it has only 1% of what Air Canada's Economy TV had to offer.

If you can grab a seat in rows 61 or 62 by the window at the rear of the plane. At this point the plane starts to curve and so the gap between you and the seat in front has a greater pitch.

mohammad2 flew Air Canada Business, on a B767-300ER (14/12/2008 16:49)

Good

mohammad2 flew Air Canada Economy, on a B767-300ER (14/12/2008 16:46)

Not too bad

skedboy flew Air Canada Business, on a B777-200LR (01/10/2008 18:47)

Altogether a very comfortable seat. Cetainly better than BA Club World and more closely comparable to BA First Class. Only problematic component is the seat table which slides away into a spring loaded cavity and is capable of clipping the fingers of the unwary. Alas the food and F/A s can vary so as to render your experience very much of a flight to flight proposition. A recent YYZ HKG gave good food but lousy F/A s while the return trip featured lousy food (theres a surprise ex HKG) and very good service. On both flights the Thales i5000 sucked, being totally inoperable in one direction and needing a couple of reboots in the other. Also, thanks to AC's new VP of Marketing the cinematic content is boring bordering on the trite.

maxudaskin flew Air Canada Economy, on a A320-200 (30/09/2008 03:43)

Clean and comfortable. Not the best legroom, but not too bad. Overall, 5/10. Service is impeccable and the pilots are friendly.