Air Canada Reviews

I didn't received any money or anything for my loss. However for all they care for their baggage and service please don't use Air Canada because you will became one of us victims who lost their baggage and nobody did anything about it. Shame on Air Canada. They told me they hold lost baggage in Montreal and I told them that I will drive there to get my baggage but they said they are not sure if the baggage is there but are saying they located them. Once again worst company to fly with.

What major company does not know what the supplies offer or not? Especially when they are still being offered online thru Air Canada vacations site. This is very frustrating, ridiculous and horrible service on their part. I wish I never booked with them and I would never recommend it to friends and families. This is the second time something has been cancelled on this trip. So much for having a relaxing honeymoon. Horrible. Horrible. Don't book with them!!!

Our friends who travel all the time in situations like this, almost all airlines will accommodate somehow, especially an elderly traveling with a small child. However, Air Canada did NOTHING!!! They offered them NO hotel stay, when their next flight was gonna be a day later, and not even at least an upgrade to Business or First Class. When my exhausted mom asked Air Canada representatives if she can get a room, she was told to go to the Sheraton Hotel, however, when they arrived at the hotel they told my mom she would have to pay $300/night. How does the airline expect an elderly, traveling with a small child to NOT sleep for over 24 hours and pay $300 for a room??? So, my mom and my daughter took shelter on a COUCH inside the hotel lobby, where my daughter was able to sleep for a few hours, while my mom watched over her.

The next morning (July 26) at 6 am, my mom and daughter went back to the check-in desk at Air Canada when they were told the next flight they can take is that night at 8 pm. Still, Air Canada would not accommodate my mom and my daughter to at least get a room for them so they can rest a few hours before they board the next plane. At this point, my mom went 24 HOURS not sleeping. No one helped my mom, she was bounced around, people telling her to go here and to go there. I can understand an airline not being able to accommodate passengers if several planes are stranded with hundreds of passengers overnight. But as far as we know, only this one flight was delayed, and only a handful of people got stranded.

So, why didn't the airline help my mother and my daughter??? The airline knew her flight was 8 hours delayed from Newark, she is 76-years-old and how does the airline expect an elderly NOT to sleep for more than 24 hours??? That's beyond inhumane! When I contacted Air Canada to complain, they totally did not care. My mom will NEVER be flying with this airline again and neither will I. No wonder almost all their reviews online are 1 star and all negative. Coincidence? I think not!

When I completed the purchase over the phone (as there was no place on the website to include a voucher), I was told I would have to pay a rescheduling fee because the previous agent did not note in my file that I was bumped from the flight due to overbooking. But the agent did, in fact, book me back to "Saskatchetoon" [sic]. Complete idiots - telling me to use the competing airline, not setting up my file properly, openly admitting that they did not know how a voucher would work, and then not even being able to pronounce the name of the place I was returning to.

Went online to Air Canada's website and was directed to a chat line. After giving my information to the other end. I wad advised that I would have to fill out a multi-page form and mail it to Canada. When I asked for the name of the shipping company they contract with they gave me the name of "same day delivery", I can not find contact info for them. When asked for the contact information they told me they do not have any. After reading all the other complaints about Air Canada, I WILL NEVER USE AIR CANADA AGAIN FOR TRAVEL AND I WILL MAKE SURE NONE OF MY EMPLOYEES USE THEM!

I was promised a compensation of USD100 (Incredible. I was traveling also business class) and I was told I had to deal with the french office (being resident in Italy). I called few times the French office (customer service) and INCREDIBLE to SAY... NO ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH. I sent few emails to Air Canada in Toronto and as well NO answer.

If I would have known NO one in customer relation speaks any other language beside French I would have never traveled with them. If you are a resident of any other country south of FRANCE (including Spain, Italy, Greece, Austria etc.) YOU ARE LOST if you do not learn French. I am very upset for this and I hope someone could help me. Thanks.

We begged the clerk to allow us on the plane as we had AMPLE time to clear Customs and board the plane as scheduled and as we paid for. We asked to speak with a manager. The manager, Mr. ** came down and told us that he could not let us on the plane but that he would get us to LAX today. He specifically authorized the clerks to get us home even if on another airline which cost the airline money.

After waiting for over an hour, the clerk stated that there were no Air Canada flights that we could take and that she was not authorized to put us on another airline - directly in conflict with what Mr. Abbas had told us. We asked for him to come speak with us and her again but he had gone home. The second manager who came down, I believe her name was Elaine, contradicted Mr. ** and basically said there was nothing she could do for us. We explained that we did not have enough medical rations for our daughter - to no avail.

Air Canada stated that there were no flights for us for almost 5 days unless we would fly in 2 groups and go to Calgary, then LAX. Traveling with our disabled child alone is unbelievably stressful and difficult, which we told the clerk, also to no avail. Because we had no option, we agreed to fly in 2 groups - which was traumatic for all of our children, just to ensure that we had some way of getting home.

We asked who would pay for our hotel which we had not budgeted into our vacation plans and were basically told we could sleep at the airport if we wanted. Where we sleep was our problem. Fearing for our daughter's medical safety, I then purchased 2 direct tickets to LAX on WestJet - totaling over $1,000CAD to ensure her health and safety. At no point did the clerk offer to refund our tickets so that we could buy all of our tickets with another airline. My sons and husband are currently at a hotel which is costing another $300CAD.

As soon as I returned home I searched online to see how I could bring the rest of my family home sooner and without 9 hours of travel. We picked Vancouver because the travel time is only 3 hours. We NEVER would have picked a destination requiring 9 hours of travel. There are several direct flights from YVR to LAX tomorrow that they can take - but there are no economy seats left. I called Air Canada's 1-888 number - waited on the phone for over 40 minutes (which is outrageous!) and was told by the representative, Adam, that there was nothing he could do. He did state that Air Canada could refund the return portion of our tickets. I asked him to do that for me immediately. He said he could not find us in the system with our reference number and then he HUNG UP on me!

I called back and waited another 40 minutes. I spoke with Jose, who seemed very nice and said he was going to put me on hold to see what he could do. I waited an additional 26 minutes and then the line went dead. I called a third time. I waited for AN HOUR!! The clerk said that Air Canada would not allow my family to come home on business class (God forbid they right their wrong) and said he would transfer me to a supervisor in Montreal. And of course - he disconnected me. Now when I call the outgoing message actually says that the airline has too many calls and they just won't pick up at all (the phone just hangs up on you).

I am in shock that anyone would willingly fly this airline with customer service like this. I am also beside myself that Air Canada cares so little about disabled children and families with young children. I have never experienced anything like this and have been traveling for over half of my life. Air Canada should have put us on any flight we could have taken to get home - together and today - regardless of the ticket class. And hour-long waits and the inability of anyone to resolve problems, or transfer phone calls successfully is unbelievable. A truly terrible airline.

After 5 days of losing my bag they told me to submit a claim but I need to attach all of my receipts. I took a day off work and searched for all my receipts to send to them. I had to go get re-prints from stores. I was lucky enough to have gone shopping before my trip so I still had a lot of my receipts. I sent this "package" of paperwork and receipts over a week ago. I call to ensure they have it and they said it takes up to 7 days to get this in the system. I have asked what the procedure is and they say it takes up to 6 weeks to search for the bag. If they find it then I get my bag back and I am not entitled to a thing - even the out of pocket expenses, days off, stress etc that I have endured during this time. If they do not find my bag by 6 WEEKS (which is so long and the worst service I have ever heard of) then they will file my claim.

My insurance will not cover me until the bag is declared "missing". I have not had one call, apology, penny etc from Air Canada. I was told by the central baggage center to email the claims department but no one responds, I have tweeted - no one responds, I have called and spent 40-50 min at one time on hold and I have even resorted to emailing the CEO. At this point I do not care if my bag is lost but just cover my expenses so I can get on with life. The customer service is the worst I have ever experienced!

Our flight from Philadelphia was delayed, we were assured numerous times by ground staff and airline crew that our flight from Toronto would 'wait for us'. We arrived at Toronto and we were relieved to find out that our Dublin bound flight was delayed. We went through security and immigration and must have had our boarding passes scanned 4 times. We arrived at the gate and no one had boarded yet. We then wait in line, get to the desk and we were told that our seats had been given away. We went to Customer Service and she said because we had missed our flight we would be put on the next flight to Dublin in 24 hours. Thus causing us to miss all our bookings in Dublin and potentially being late for our wedding in England. We were offered alternative flights to England and the best they could do was get us to London (we needed to be in the North of England) by the next night.

To keep it short, we paid for hotel bookings, flights, car hire (all of which were nonrefundable). We did make it to our destination in time, but not without being out of pocket and with a huge amount of stress. Even on our journey back to America from Dublin our flight was delayed. 5 out of 5 flights delayed. This is simply not acceptable and we will not be traveling with them again. I have contacted them and sent receipts asking for reimbursements of the things we had to pay for so I am remaining hopeful but would like to ask if anyone has had any luck getting money reimbursed from Air Canada?

When they asked to at least get their checked baggage, Air Canada refused saying it would stay checked until their next flight. They didn't care that this could cause a serious medical emergency if he was without medication for several days. Nor did they care that they expected them to hang around a airport for several days without so much as a toothbrush. The entire Air Canada staff seemed to just have a "Oh well, sucks to be you" attitude. After several hours on hold we could get nowhere. Air Canada refused to even have someone look for the bag, telling us, "it's a mess down there... but don't worry his bag will go with him on the next flight."

Finally one staff member took pity on them and got them onto a flight the next day; however, their luggage is still missing. The Air Canada agent in Florida didn't seem any better telling us to call the 1-888 number which only gets you a call centre in India who takes your information and is supposed to forward it to Air Canada. After another hour on hold and a deep language barrier we were told that they would put a rush on trying to get his bag (and medication) to us. When we didn't hear anything from them we tried to look up our baggage claim number on their online site, only to find out that they have no record of the claim. The call centre didn't even forward our claim. So here we sit again on hold (1 hour 35 minutes so far) to hopefully get some medication before we have to check into an American hospital.

Air Canada you should be forced to change your name. You should not be allowed to represent Canadians anywhere!!!!! Honestly I don't even know how you stay in business, based on the number of horrible reviews I have read. I for one will never be flying Air Canada again and I will strongly discourage everyone else. I would rather spend more money for a flight to know that the company can be counted on to know WHAT IT IS DOING, and actually cares for its customers.

We got in a line-up to go through security at 05:40 am. The line-up for security consisted of 4 lines approximately 100 yd. long that zig zagged back and forth until they got everyone through security. Our plane was scheduled to depart at 07:25 am, which we explained to airport personnel who pulled us out of line around 7:05 am. We were told by Air Canada personnel not to worry -our plane would wait for us. We got through security at 07:15 am.

Once we passed through security, this same helpful person told us that we needed to immediately get to Gate 21, which was at the far end of the terminal (500 yards minimum or a 15 minimum steady fast walk) from security. Both moving walkways were broken down. We rushed as best we could but we did not have the assistance needed to get there as quickly… as I am assuming Air Canada expected.

My wife and I both have health issues (prostate cancer/heart issues/pacemaker for myself) and my wife is a three time cancer survivor and had open heart surgery 2 years ago)… and standing in line for hours, then the pressure of trying to get to the gate was overwhelming. We are not strong enough to run – which Air Canada expected us to do.

We arrived at Gate 21. The doors were closed, but the plane had not left the walkway yet. The Air Canada person advised that we had missed our flight. We were led to believe that it was our fault and we did not plan the appropriate time to get there. No apologies and both of us feeling exhausted and disheartened at the treatment of us as their customers.

I then exclaimed "where was our luggage"? Two checked bags and one checked golf clubs. We were informed that our bags left on that same plane (which I believe is a security breach - and anyone I have shared this story with is alarmed at this hole in security) AND the next flight was 5 hours later and we could sit and wait. We were exhausted. My wife was so exhausted and unwell that she was not able to leave that boarding area for hours.

I know Air Canada is a large organization. There are many other choices of airlines. We went with the one we have flown with for years and years… and trusted on many levels. This experience has permanently tarnished our view of the Air Canada brand - and additionally, has validated how little Air Canada cares about their customer and more importantly, how little they care about customers that might need a little extra "care" given their age and health.

We were at the airline 2 hours early. We had done the check ins prior to arriving to ensure we did not need to stand in lines and we were badly mistreated, I am guessing because of our "age". It would seem that Air Canada has an ageism issue over and above NOT being customer centric. We don't fly as often now, however, we have proven our loyalty over years of staying true to this brand but we will NEVER fly Air Canada again. There are so many other options who actually consider their customer both from a "caring" and "security" perspective. Air Canada has breached our trust on many, many levels. We are sharing this story now with anyone who will listen. Air Canada cannot be trusted and they certainly cannot be trusted when bags are sent without their owners.

One of the agents kindly explained that passengers with delayed and cancelled flights have to move to section number 3 and we have followed these instructions. When we have reached the available agent in section 3, we have been told again to move to section 2-15 for ticketing. The section 2-15 would be open at 5:30 am. Next we have asked the first available customer service agent about other options to get the tickets to Ottawa and have been advised to call to 1-888-440-5641 to re-book the missed flight AC 742. Finally, we have re-booked and got a new flight AC 440 departing at 7:10 am.

To get the boarding tickets we had to go back again to the section number 2. The line was enormously long. Meanwhile we got very frustrated and overwhelmed to move around from one section to another. Not to mention that two our kids were sleeping uncomfortably on the hard chairs. Likely, one of the agents (a blond woman) recognized us and escorted to the priority line. While waiting for our turn to get the boarding tickets the other customer service agent approached to us and asked to go back to the main line. That was the end for my patience: I have refused his request and started to complaint about Air Canada services in a very firm manners. After all he turned around to the check-in assistant and asked her to put the note that I was a Rude Passenger.

In about two minutes we have got our boarding tickets and I went back to ask his name and occupational title to bring this incident to the manager. He refused to identify himself and then I've asked to see the duty manager immediately. The manager apologized for his behaviour. Honestly, I've been shocked. Moreover, I don't want to say that all employees from Air Canada act unprofessionally, however the agent I've interacted with should not be in customer services at all. Air Canada employs more than 28000 of dedicated Canadians and this agent is a big shame among them.

It seems a big deal for them induct people to transfer the flight by one day and not inform in right way the necessity of Canadian visa and not help us to change the airplane to don't need to cancel the flight. We noted this when we arrived to Canadian consulate, they are very familiar with this kind of situation. Good deal for Air Canada that induce people pay to not travel and doesn't help them after. Take care with this company. You should rather KLM, Air France, Lufthansa, TAP, British Airlines or all American companies. I flied in all of them many times and all was good and all problems were solved by the staff. The reputation of Air Canada is supported just by the name of that very good country. I travel a lot and that was the first time with problems where land staff was so unhelpful.

To finish my terrible experience, the flight was delayed on departure for more than 25 minutes and my connection Montreal-New York was lost and I can see they cancel some customers' flight and add me and others in their places. They canceled/transferred for another flight all passengers who did check-in in less than 2 hours of the flight. So be prepared to arrive at least 3 hours before in the airport to avoid surprises. Air Canada see the customers like numbers and play with them according to its convenience.

Also, they will resell your seat arbitrarily, without any previous warning and have no problem stranding you in a different country, forcing to pay exorbitant change fees. If you try to straighten the situation AFTER the entire fiasco, the only recourse is a random email. I would not only NOT recommend this airline, but I would stay far, far away from using Air Canada! The worst experience of my life! Stay far, far away!

However, this was his first time flying internationally so I called ahead to the Air Canada number to check on procedures of meeting him once he landed in LA. I was told that he would be walked through customs in Vancouver and then escorted to me in baggage claim by an agent when he landed in LA. The agent said that she wasn't sure how they handled it in the states but that's how it was normally done. I asked her to confirm so I knew where to get my son. She came back on the line and said "yes I think he would be brought to baggage claim." The answer wasn’t very reassuring. I would think that a customer service agent should be able to answer any question about unaccompanied minors whether they are traveling in Canada or the States.

My son was told at the beginning of the flight to stay in his seat unless to use the restroom and that the flight attendant would come get him at the end of the flight. This is a normal procedure for him. However, he was not shown where the call button was in case he needed assistance. For the entire almost three-hour flight he was not offered a beverage or food. No one checked to see how he was doing or if he needed anything. That made him uncomfortable because that is not what usually happens when he flies alone.

At the end of the flight, he was left on the plane. He was the only one on the plane until the cleaning crew came on. He was scared and was waiting for the flight attendant to come back for him. Finally, the cleaning crew told the flight attendants that he was still on the plane. The flight attendant said to my son, "oh, you are still here?" It appeared to him that he had actually been forgotten about. This realization really upset him. He had just followed the procedures he had been told by the flight attendant and that he has experienced many times on the other airline that he usually flies.

I was waiting for him in baggage claim as I was told by the Air Canada agent on the phone. I knew that my son would be the last off of the plane since he was an unaccompanied minor. However, after about 20 minutes of waiting, I asked the Air Canada baggage employee if he would be brought down to me. They told me that he would and to keep waiting. After about 10-15 more minutes passed, I was paged over the PA to come to gate 26.

I went upstairs to ticketing where I found a gentleman named Sebastian. He appeared to be a manager, but I am not sure of his credentials. He saw that I had my son’s bag so he couldn’t give me a gate pass to go get him so he looked his name up on the computer and offered to get him for me. He was very nice and helpful. I waited about an additional 20 minutes. By this time, I was getting worried that something was wrong.

Finally, my son was brought to me. I could tell that he was visibly shaken and about to cry. He told me he was so thirsty, starving and had to use the restroom. I thanked Sebastian and signed for my son. I took my son to the restroom where he proceeded to tell me about his horrible ordeal. I was happy that he was home and was going to leave it at that until he told me his account of the situation. I was appalled at what I heard. It wasn't what I was expecting. No one checked on him the entire three hours or even offer him a drink of water at the least.

In addition, to everything else that happened, apparently, his passport was left on the plane by the flight attendant so Sebastian had to remind them to go retrieve it for him. Apparently, that is why it took so long to bring my son downstairs. The whole situation appears to have been mishandled. I went back to Sebastian at the ticket counter to explain all that my son told me so he could review the mishap with the crew. Sebastian was bothered by it as well. He didn’t understand why my son wasn’t brought down to me in baggage claim either. Consequently, Sebastian apologized for the experience, however, that does not erase the trauma that an eleven-year-old boy experienced on his first solo flight with Air Canada.

I hope that actions can be taken to educate that flight crew on handling unaccompanied minors so this doesn’t happen to another child. Also, I believe that the customer service agents should also be educated on the various airports unaccompanied minor policies. Finally, flying should be a fun experience for children; they shouldn’t be forgotten about. Air Canada was paid money for a service that they failed to provide in my son’s case. My son arrived at 1:00 p.m. He was not in my care until about 2:15 p.m. That is unacceptable. He will not be flying unaccompanied on Air Canada again.

The aircraft was kept unreasonably cold during the entire flight. I was wearing a long sleeve fleece jacket and long pants - others only had much less on. People were complaining of the cold temperatures. I asked for a blanket to stay warm and was not able to get a blanket from the attendant. It appeared to me the colder temperatures were being utilized to try to reduce the odor from the non-functioning and smelling lavatory. I overheard the attendant telling a customer seated 3 rows from me "You are scaring the other passengers. Please be quiet about..." He stated this to her 3 times - making a point to stop by and bring self close in and tell her. I could not hear what she was telling him. But his voice was loud enough to be heard by customers in the surrounding seats. His voice tone was condescending and punitive in quality.

I do believe that keeping people from having access to basic necessities during transport (lavatory use and warmth) are grave concerns. The flight time was 1 hour and 40 minutes. There are health conditions that people may incur or have that would not allow this to be safe or acceptable. Our needs were not considered. I spoken with customer care representative, "Kristina". She stated there was a 269 minute delay from scheduled times. That the airline had no responsibility to arrive on time - their only responsibility was to get passengers safely from point A to point B. She said that there was no recovery for taxi or other costs noted. She said she would provide a 15% promo code for future Air Canada transport in compensation. I stated that this is not compensation - rather a gesture of goodwill. And it should not be called compensation for any losses incurred.

She stated she would email me the following: a letter of disruption for both the outbound and return flights, a summary of the concerns that she was forwarding to managers to address, a gesture of goodwill (referred to as compensation) in a 15% promo to be used in future purchases. I have not received any of these at this time. I will pursue this matter further as I believe the manner of which we were instructed to board a flight without functioning lavatories is not acceptable, in addition to their extremely poor communication.

Of course, sloppiness and arrogance are never a good combination, but this ugly combination is entrenched in the Air Canada culture. I can only imagine that for any positive reviews to even exist for this airline indicates that society at large has been beat down in its expectations of what is acceptable. During my travail, in one of several in-flight conversations overheard (regarding the incompetence and outrageous attitudes consistent among Air Canada employees) one woman actually set about defending Air Canada. Her reasoning was bizarre and reminded me of the strange phenomenon whereby a hostage victim has a tendency to defend their captor.

The arrogance, callousness, and carelessness of Air Canada employees is stunning... consistently stunning. During our nightmare (in which we missed a connection through their fault and were delayed 24 hours with no compensation -- not even an apology) we were told by a smirking Air Canada employee, "We do this to people all the time." We were told be 2 other Air Canada employees to read our contract. "All Air Canada has to do is get you from point A to point B, WHEN that happens doesn't matter." Despite the ludicrous nature of this assertion, it was clear that it was well-rehearsed and had been repeated many times before. Can you imagine... WHEN you arrive doesn't matter to an airline!? Boycott Air Canada!

It never occurred to us that Air Canada staff would be unaccommodating to underage kids in distress; therefore an Air Canada flight from Calgary to Toronto and an Austrian Air flight on to Vienna seemed like the ideal option to coordinate with the Envision team. The connection would be in Canada with a 2 hour wait between flights. But I made a critical error - I overestimated Air Canada's interest in serving disadvantaged people in the event of a delay. And underage solo travelers are disadvantaged; they are unlikely to advocate effectively for themselves when faced with adults in positions of power or authority. When the departure date of June 25th arrived I drove Mitch to the airport and accompanied him to the check-in counter. I told the representative there that my son was a minor assuming (big mistake) that they must make a note of the fact in their system to prioritize such individuals in the case of unforeseen events.

Mitch and I walked to security where we said our good-byes. I was nervous to see him go off on his own, but I believed Air Canada would provide quality service if any flight delays or changes had to be made particularly since my son wasn't an adult. I received a confirmation call from Mitch saying he'd arrived at his gate so I left the airport. An hour or so later he called again to say that mechanical problems were delaying the flight. I encouraged Mitch to be proactive and talk to the lady at the gate. Considering his age and connection time they might make an effort to book him onto another flight departing for Toronto shortly. Apparently all other flights to Toronto were full. I drove to the airport again. I needed to talk to a ticket agent about getting Mitch on another flight to Austria once he reached Pearson Airport.

My conversation with the agent went like this: "Hi, I'm Tracy, a concerned mom wondering what will happen to my son when he reaches Toronto." The expressionless face behind the counter asked for some information and tapped his computer keys. "He's currently booked on the same Austrian Air flight he was supposed to go on today, except that it leaves tomorrow." "So hell have to stay overnight then?" "Yes", said Mr. Expressionless. "Unless they can book him on something earlier once he lands." "How is he supposed to get a room as a 17 year old minor?" "He'll get a hotel voucher." "And how will he get to and from that hotel?" "The hotel will be close to the airport." Expressionless became annoyed. "There will be an agent to meet him when he gets off the plane. That person can help him." He took a ticket from another agent who interrupted our conversation and proceeded to shut me out.

I pulled up the electronic copy of the original ticket to Austria on my phone and held it in front of his face. "Just to confirm then, he is booked on this flight, but for tomorrow afternoon instead?" Expressionless/Annoyed glanced in my direction and glanced at the phone. "Yes, that's the one." He was clearly done with me. "Thanks then", I said and made way for what I could only assume was another disgruntled customer. Needless to say I felt uneasy. I didn't feel reassured at all. I headed home and waited for Mitch to call once he reached Toronto which he did. There was no agent to greet him; in fact there was no agent in sight. He was entirely on his own. He headed toward the Air Canada desk and proceeded to stand in line. I told him to call me when he was assured of alternative flight plans.

Meanwhile I called Air Canada Customer Service to see if there was anything I could do from my end. After being on hold for 10 minutes a representative finally said "Hello". Her favorite line was, "I don't work at the airport so I can't tell you what will happen with your son. These are the critical facts I was told: Your son isn't entitled to any additional service as a minor. You can purchase individualized care for your child if he is 12 or under and on a direct flight. Otherwise, children traveling alone are viewed the same as adults." I was surprised by this fact. My response was simple: "Even if this is policy, how can a representative put off an anxious minor? Where does human kindness come into play? How is a minor any different from a disabled or elderly traveler who needs special/additional care?"

She couldn't answer these questions. Instead she kept saying that she doesn't work at the airport so she can't speak to what goes on there. Seriously? What's customer service for then? Not parents anxious for their children apparently. Shortly after I got off the phone, Mitchell called me again. They were having trouble finding him another flight. He had no hotel vouchers or assurance he'd been booked on any flight like Mr. Expressionless claimed he was. I decided to call the Customer Service line again. I needed to know my kid was going to get on a plane. After holding for 15 minutes I was greeted with a pleasant voice. I can say this third service rep was helpful and I was grateful for her efforts and understanding. She asked me to wait while she went to draw up my son's information in another department. She would see what was going on.

Meanwhile Mitch called me on my cell. I grabbed it in my left hand and had the rep on the house phone in my right. "Mom," Mitch said. "They're going to book me on another flight, but it's going through Istanbul. I'm not comfortable going through there Mom! I don't think I should take it." My son is up on current events and he'd heard of the suicide bombings in Ankara and Istanbul. The rep said "Hi into my other ear. So your son was not re-booked on any flight Austrian Air or otherwise. But I see his file is currently open and they are booking him through Istanbul." "I know," I said. "But I gotta say I'm not real comfortable with that." I noticed a subtle change in the tone of her voice which implied we were being paranoid and picky struggling over an Istanbul connection. I carried on the two conversations at once and we came to a conclusion. Mitch would take the option through Turkey despite his reservations and mine.

The rep stressed that he wouldn't have to clear customs in Istanbul and it did seem worse to have him linger indefinitely at the Toronto airport. In addition the agent assured me that Turkish Airlines was a member of the Sky Alliance team and therefore met high safety standards. She saw no reason to worry. Mitch hung up to finish his booking and I spoke further with customer service. Mitch had told me that no one could locate his luggage so I inquired about that issue. "I don't know," she said. "He may have to take off ahead of the missing bag." She gave me the number for Central Baggage and wished me luck. I thanked her. She, unlike the previous service workers, had done what she could to help. Where were these efforts by other Air Canada staff?

Mitch called me after he checked in at the Turkish Airways desk. He said that, unlike the Air Canada agents who brushed off his baggage inquiries and indeed any inquiry he made, the Turkish agent promised to locate his bag, get it onto the right plane and meet Mitch at his gate with the claim tags. He was comforted by her efforts to help him. Unfortunately, she was unable to find the bag either. She went to tell him personally before he took off. After getting this information, I called Central Baggage. The man on the other end of the line spoke politely and confirmed that the bag had been taken to Toronto, but not beyond. The man said that even if they found the bag (Mitch had sent me the baggage claim number), he couldn't send it to Austria until my son filed a missing bag report at the other end. Wow. Let's make things as difficult as possible for the young person.

Mitchell called me when he landed in Istanbul and texted me after he made the connection there. I thanked God when I knew he was out of that airport. He called again when he landed in Austria. I cried with relief as Envision took him under their wing. My son filed a missing bag report and we hoped he would get his suitcase before the group departed for Prague and his luggage had to be redirected yet again. He says he got no reassurance or kindness whenever he made inquiries of Air Canada agents. He had to act the adult every step of the way. I'm grateful he was up to the task, but his anxiety levels were hitting the roof as he worked to find solutions to his plight. He's learned a lot about the potential pitfalls of airline travel - and one of them is agents who don't see a need to help inexperienced minors traveling alone.

June 28th, 2016: UPDATE. I was proof-reading this piece with the intention of posting it when a shocking story came through the CNN news feed on my phone. Explosions and gunfire had taken place at the Istanbul Ataturk airport today! Several people were killed or injured! A day and a half after my son was in that place! Clearly Star Alliance standards mean nothing on the ground. My son and I were right to have reservations about that airport. I still can't get over this whole experience. Young people between the ages of 12 and 17 on journeys with connections are not any different than adults in the eyes of Air Canada.

In the interim, I had spoken to a representative of Air Canada and I was told that I could expect BP50.00 per day, and when I asked about the cost of bringing an additional case home on my flight I was told that this would be credited when they settled the compensation. I received a cheque for the equivalent of BP50.00 ($96.00) and that was it. I wrote a letter and I have not received any reply. The resulting feeling I have is that I will only fly with Air Canada.

Boarding was ridiculously slow when they finally did start. The ticket crew had no sense of urgency and never once explained why we were boarding late. We left one hour late and totally missed our connection in Toronto. AC decided to book us tickets on the same flight we missed 24 hours later. We had little girls to get home to and I had a bunch of job meetings I couldn't miss the following day. Even though I explained that to the ticket agents, nobody cared. No one apologized even one time. In fact, they were quite rude during the entire deal which set me off and made me angry.

Our final destination was supposed to be Pasco, Washington so I was able to convince them to fly us to Seattle, WA that night so we could at least rent a car and drive four hours home. They refused to book us on a different airline to get us to Pasco that night. So, once we arrived in Seattle, which was also delayed, I spent $200 out of pocket to rent a car to get home at 3 AM after 35 hours of traveling a 9-hour time change. Oh, and they also lost both pieces of luggage in the meantime. Not once did any seem to care in any way, shape, or form.

To top it off, Canadian Customs and passport control people were extremely rude and not helpful. The biggest nightmare I have ever encountered while traveling. I will never fly this airline again and will gladly let all of my friends, family, and colleagues know to never fly them. They never once apologized or offered any type of compensation or vouchers for future travel. Horrible airline. Should be placed under new management, fire everyone (pilots and aircrew were great, only good thing about the airline) and start over from square one.

I tried to remain as calm as I could. I took the paper and went home. I rang the department of lost and found to find out the reason I still haven't received the stroller and I was told that Air Canada is not approving the travel costs (from the airport - home). BTW I live 2 hours away from Athens. Air Canada: Irresponsible, useless, unorganised, careless BASTARDS.

Original Review: May 30, 2016

We are flying to Barcelona from Alberta in 3 weeks and Air Canada is still changing planes, seats, times, etc. My girlfriend and I called 2 months in advance of the flight to reserve our seats next to each other. Without any notice, they changed the planes to a different type, canceled our seat reservation and now we are on very different seats. They said we can pay $100 per person to book next to each other on a preferred seat. I wish we had more options in Canada so we were not forced to book with Air CANADA. Next time, I'd pay more but travel with ease of mind with KLM. Shame of having Canada's name on Air Canada.

It was the tour company who book the ticket and this was the first time we flew with them. We were using different airlines and they have good service to kids. They give kids some stuff to make them busy and at meal time some airlines serve the kids first and they have different menu from adult. This is the first time I have experienced this. They have 2 options but since we were close to the last when they come to us the other option was gone so we were left with spicy chicken. They should have serve the children first but they don't care and I won't care either because I am not flying with them anymore.

I sent all the needed original receipts including the photos of the broken bag just as they asked for. I received an email asking for the original receipt of the bag!! I don't even remember when I where I bought that bag!! Who keeps the receipt of the bag for many years? And also asked me to take the bag to a bag repair store for the damage estimation!!! They are officially trying to find an excuse not to pay back the damage they have made to your luggage! They must have an office in any airport to take care of these cases and a person who verify your damaged luggage. Not that they have only one office in Quebec for all the Canada!! They are making it too complicated and time consuming on purpose so that you leave it alone and say forgive and forget!!!

Their technical support are completely ineffective - (they drank their own cool-aid). I emailed them many times with images of error messages and frozen screens, and screens with erroneous information, they never respond to this. Instead they send you a form letter bragging about how good they are, with instructions - which of course do not work. It is obvious that they failed to read the earlier emails, and failed to act properly. They refuse to provide any real time support - i.e. a competent human being that speaks English and is prepared to resolve the issues with their (very badly designed) web based services. Bottom line: in the last month 39 AC staff lied about promised callbacks, escalation, rectifying problems, their job title, and their roles. They are all managers - yet when asked to provide their name and employee number they re-state their job, or just hang up.

AC does a lot of pretending to be customer friendly, they brag a lot. The reality is that they do every trick in the book and some new ones to avoid providing any service or resolution. They have no live people at customer service - just automated replies of emails sent to them with ZERO promise of resolution let alone a callback. Folks the culture of deception and outright lies starts at the top - with the CEO and senior executives. They are cowards who just want to collect their fat salaries, pretend to each other that they are doing a good job. They are completely out of touch with reality and are routinely compensated by the taxpayer bailout after bailout. They do not deserve your business either.

When I arrived to the area there were approximately fifteen TG664 passengers still waiting in line for simultaneous check-in to two Air Canada flights AC26 and AC088. I had spent more than 10 minutes waiting in line. When it was my turn to approach the counter I was informed that check-in is closed, the passenger ahead of me in line was allowed to board the plane. It wouldn't have happened if check-in personnel prioritized processing passengers from departing sooner AC26 flight ahead of AC088 flight passengers departing 15 minutes later.

Air Canada in Shanghai knew how many passengers with Air Canada tickets will arrive from Bangkok and wasn't prepared to assist them in speedy immigration and custom processing, provide enough personnel to check-in all passengers on time. Two more passengers from TG664 waiting in line to other check-in counter were also left behind in Shanghai. The official reason for refusal to board me and two other passengers on flight to Vancouver was no show for check-in. That is the way it was noted in the AC26 flight documentation.

This incorrect interpretation of what actually happened was created by the Shanghai airport Air Canada shift manager on duty at this time to justify not giving three passengers left in Shanghai because of his negligence support described in the Air Canada Customer Service Plan. "If you miss your connecting flight due to reasons within our control, we will provide you with: snacks or meal allowances, hotel accommodations if you are away from home and we are unable to provide you with same day transportation to your final destination, ground transportation to/from your hotel if shuttle service is not provided by the hotel, an overnight amenity kit (if required)." All we had got from Air Canada shift manager in Shanghai on duty was telephone number in Canada to rebook our return home flight and direction how to get to the airport business center to make paid international call to Canada.

I have sent complaint letter to Air Canada Customer Relations describing in detail what happened and asking for reimbursement of the incurred expenses. Air Canada Customer Relations department in their response refused to acknowledge that Air Canada staff wrongdoings were the reason why I wasn't processed before the check-in was closed. There was no single word in the response referring to the events described. I hope this review will be read by somebody from Air Canada capable making Customer Relations follow official company policy on people who miss connection flight due to Air Canada staff missteps.

To put it mildly, I am extremely disappointed with the way Air Canada conduct business and treat their customers... Super Elite or not!!! As stated earlier, some of the vast annual profits would be better used in training their staff to a higher standard, where the passenger might benefit!!! I would never recommend this airline to anyone!!! Canada desperately needs some competition when it comes to Air Travel.

Cost is very important if indeed you can find flights that actually go where you wish to go. Flights from busy airports that leave at 6:30 am may make the airlines more efficient at using their equipment, but it is a real pain in the rear for a passenger since they must not only stand in line to deposit baggage but also for security. It is even worse when travelling from Canada since one must stand in line for US customs and immigration.

I have flown Delta, United, West Jet and Air Canada often over the past five years. We split our time between Florida and Ontario, Canada and we are always looking for flights between Ft Myers and Toronto International as we also spent Christmas in Canada. United has the Mileage Plus program which is the best frequent flyer program around. They are part of the Star Alliance which includes Air Canada so we can use points earned on one airline for flights on the other. There is not a lot to choose between these airlines in my experience. However, both Delta and United have a "one bag free" program if you have their credit card and that is worth $50 on every round trip.

It is really sad that we receive our bag after 2 months and we had to buy everything that was in the bag during our vacation, spend hours calling and tracking our bag, and spend hours during our vacation to do all of the paperwork so we can comply to send the documentation within the specified 21 days. We send receipts of new purchases for the first 2 days and we are given a mere $100 as compensation and told that this is full and final settlement? For what? For all the pain and trouble we went through?

Look at the damage done to my vacation, my baggage, items being unavailable during our vacation, lost items, stress and spending our vacation time doing shopping to replace necessary items that we got for our vacation and tracking our baggage? I cannot accept the $100 that is sent as part of settlement as the cost of damage done to our family vacation and the items purchased is far more that.

As we lined up to board the plane, we overheard a lady in front of us being informed that her seat had been changed due to the original aircraft being replaced with another. We boarded the plane which was a Boeing 777, only to find our seats had a wall directly behind us, no overhead space for our carry on luggage and only an aisle separating us from the toilet with the door directly opposite our seats.

The fifteen and a half hour flight was horrific. Our seats would not recline (we are medium height) and our knees were hard up against the seats in front of us which was very difficult especially for my husband with his knee replacement. Our screens were approximately eighteen inches from our faces and when the seats in front of us reclined, we were unable to move. Being in the middle seat with another passenger in the aisle seat meant I could not move without disturbing someone. The toilet was used the entire flight with a line up of three or more passengers in a continuous stream. This meant the light was constantly powering in our faces, the flush of the toilet and the use of the hand basin, not to mention the shocking smell (especially after two or three hours flight) added to our distress.

Not one of us in our row 28 HJK seats could bend down to pick up anything under the seats in front or things we had dropped as our heads hit the back of the seats in row 27 HJK. The staff on board were oblivious to our predicament and obviously did not give two hoots about us anyway. I had a bad fall four hours prior to departing Edmonton which was very painful and resulted in me trying to sleep in my seat whilst kneeling up backwards with my head against the wall behind our seats. That didn't work because my feet were jammed up hard against the seat in row 27.

We did complain to the staff as we left the plane, one member just shrugged her shoulders as if we were just garbage. Another staff member asked for more details to which I advised that the owners of Air Canada should travel in the same seats and see if they could cope for fifteen and a half hours, packed in like sardines.

Why did we pay the same as every other economy class passenger and be allocated the worst seats in the plane? We have traveled over sixteen times with Air Canada but have NEVER experienced such appalling conditions. Next year when we travel, we will look at any other airline except Air Canada. All we can say to Air Canada is that because of your greedy, nasty attitude to your clients, we will NEVER EVER travel with you again and will certainly spread the word about your shocking NON-service.

There was a lot of confusion at this terminal so I just went to question and got asked for a transit visa of Canada (my layover was not more then 3 hours). I was like "can I buy it there?" The staff was rude and told me "you cannot do that." "I have a valid US visa. Why do I need a transit visa when I am not stepping out of the airport in Canada" was my second question. I was told I was not the only one who is not allowed to travel, there are more people. (Does this help??) We all plan a travel.

I was told it is seem new rule.. But now when I read online the transit visa is needed for travelers starts from MARCH 2016 and not JANUARY 2015. I was not allowed to board the flight. I was not given any assistance to figure another flight. All they told me was cancel your tickets and book another one. I was like "can you help me cancel it, because I am with an international phone with no service and the airport."

Delhi terminal did not have WIFI service for people before they pass security. I informed this to the Air canada staff, they just ignored me and said they can help me out. I have your ticket, least you can do is help me cancel the ticket. But no!!! They were rude and just pointed me to a local telephone stating figure from there.

I had to book tickets using a overpriced local phone. Calling my family to figure my tickets was not a pleasant conversation and having all the stress. I managed to book new tickets for the next day and flew out of india. My trip was delayed by 2 days. I was suppose to reach home on the 12th morning. I didn't make it until 13th night with a long route which was hectic and unplanned for. I had to spend one day in a state I had nobody. I had to pay for boarding, I had to pay for a new flight, I don't know how to get my money back from a flight I didn't take. The ground staff did not give me any information. They just washed their hands off. I would expect an airline to figure and put you on a different craft but they did not even acknowledge my presence. The inefficiency of the staff and no prior notice costed me a lot of money and time.

When dealt with the medical desk to add the service animal to my itinerary after a few long, uncomfortable calls, I was told my condition "does not matter" and Air Canada does not accept my service animal and does not recognize my disability, despite the fact I do have a very clear note that I have from my treating doctor. I do strongly believe an organization that discounts and does not ones disability is inhumane and discriminating towards people with special needs and must be hold accountable. I am quite disturbed and saddened that living in a first world country I am subjected to such credulity.

I call them almost once a week, paying an international tariff to follow up on this case. Every time some person will say either that they have written to me or have the wrong address or telephone number. Sometimes they say that they are still looking for my suitcase. I travel a lot both personal/business and never came across such unfriendliness and inefficiency. Please do me a favour and never travel with this airline as they keep lying to their customers and coming up with excuses to pay a claim. I am still waiting for their supervisor to call me.

I paid the $300 to catch a slightly later flight plus baggage fee. (WestJet has always been able to ensure we got on our original flight, so the lack of help received was disappointing). Walking away we looked at our tickets and noticed they were separate, I went back and made it very clear if we could not sit together we would like the refund. The teller printed 2 new tickets from Edmonton to Calgary; she told me in Calgary they will have no problem swapping our seats to be side by side. When I questioned the statement she said she would put a note on file for us. We arrived in Calgary; I found the connecting flight and proceeded to the gate. When I told them that I was told we would be able to change seats, the lady very rudely explains that they can only change seats if they have room, she says they don't. This was very upsetting, considering I wasn't going to go on the trip if this was the case.

Now I was already in Calgary. She also said there were no notes on file. This was even more frustrating because I've been lied to twice by the rep in Edmonton. I asked to speak to the manager, after a little time she came over. She made some changes and finally we were able to sit together. When we arrived in Nova Scotia, Brian (my spouse) was paged to the bagging office, where they explained the Hockey sticks did not make the trip. The lady was kind and informed us it is set to arrive first thing the next day and they will deliver it to where we are staying.

We informed the lady that we are staying in New Glascow one night and the next day we would be going to Sherbrooke. They grabbed the address gave us a piece of paper and promised delivery to the address before noon. The next day it is 12:15 pm and Air Canada calls my spouse's sister? They ask her if it's being delivered or if we are picking it up. Since this phone call was LATE and to the wrong person, she had to call Brian to find out where the package is being sent. (Sherbrooke or New Glasgow).

The rep on the phone said no problem just call this number back and let us know. Brian and I decided to wait in New Glasgow for the hockey sticks, as he cannot play in the tournament without them. We tried to call them back to tell them to deliver the bag. When we got through they informed us they don't know what package we are talking about and were unable to pull it up by the reference number. So now we were being told that is it lost? We spent the next 4 hours on the phone trying to track down this package. Without these sticks we would have flown all the way to Nova Scotia for nothing!

Spending thousands on flights and vehicle rental for nothing. When we asked for a manager, we were told that there are no managers. What kind of airline is this? To add to this experience while spending hours on the phone with people who barely spoke English, we had 3 different people tell us to rent a hockey stick, do you have any idea how stupid that sounds, you cannot rent a stick!

Do you tell people to rent clothes when you lose them?! The amount of time we spend trying to track down a package took up a day that we should have been visiting with family on what was already a very, very short visit. Finally we spoke to someone and they said it was found, they said they would deliver and we would have it in 2 hours, 3 hours later still no sticks. And now we are running out of time. We phoned back and again spoke with someone who this time told us to buy a stick and they will send us a claims form to be reversed, $200 of the bill, (sticks are closer to $300.00) but this was better than nothing. She grabbed his email and said she would send the form. We went out to purchase the stick and waited for the form, we also pondered how we have no room in the stick bag for another stick. Of course no form arrived so we called back and were informed that there is no form.

We need to send in an online form, and wait for approval. So we would have bought the stick without any guarantee of return. From a company who lied to us this many times, this wasn't worth the risk. A couple hours later the bag showed up at a bus station!! They don't deliver to the house. Yet again another lie. At the very least you would expect Air Canada to provide free bag check on our next flight or credit back the charges to switch flights, but no we received nothing of the sort from Air Canada. Just a little tag on the bag saying sorry. We made a status on Facebook and an Air Canada employee (Ralph **) starts telling Brian to just buy a stick. I'm pretty sure if we wanted to buy another stick than we wouldn't have bothered bringing any! What a terrible, terrible company. I would like to know how a company with terrible customer service, no managers, who lie 24/7 is still in business.

I will be traveling soon and now have no luggage and no way to even figure out how Air Canada is treating the issue. Will they be replacing my bag? Should I buy a new one myself? It's absurd that it takes them well over 2 months to deal with the issue, but it's even more absurd that now that the case is supposedly resolved, they still won't tell me in what way it has been resolved, so that I have no idea what to do in regard to baggage purchasing for my upcoming trip. Would not recommend that you travel with this airline.

After a ten minute wait, my wife spoke to an AC rep who suggested that she delete the cookies and history on her computer and that she would have no trouble using the online service. That did not work either. Finally, in desperation we found an AC employee at a gate in another terminal at the airport. She was able to confirm our flight in minutes, setting our minds greatly at ease. So, our hats off to you SAMANTHA, for your courteous service and assistance. If the AC website worked nearly as efficiently as you did, we would have been able to resolve this situation in minutes.

In our case, the connecting flight to Europe was lost due to weather delays: traffic control in Toronto asked that Toronto-bound airplanes from the US delay their departure. Once our plane was allowed to depart and land in Toronto, it was a few hours later than scheduled, and the connecting flight to Europe already departed. We discovered that our names were already booked on the same flight the next day (that's good), but we really wanted to get to Europe faster. An Air Canada representative told us that there is a late flight leaving Toronto for London, and maybe we could get booked into that flight, and a connecting flight from London to our European final destination.

Another AC representative that was tasked to accommodate the needs of stranded travelers told us that she could not see on her computer the information about the flight Toronto-London, so she directed us to go the top floor (ticketing) and see if Air Canada ticketing could be of help. In the meantime, she booked us into our regular flight leaving the next day. She also gave us the hotel vouchers, the hotel meal vouchers, and the $10 vouchers for airport food purchases. Given that this delay was weather-related and not airline negligence, I thought that was a nice gesture. At the AC ticketing counter on the top floor of Pearson airport, the AC representative informed us that he was not allowed to put us on the London-bound flight because "you have been already changed once and I cannot change it again". Maybe a more senior ground staff person would have known how to bypass that on their computer system, in my humble opinion.

The hotel was somewhat medium-low quality, but that was expected, but otherwise the shuttle service was very efficient and predictable and pragmatic. Overall, not too bad, considering the horror stories I've heard. The two other small issues I found a little irritating is 1) go through Canada border and customs when arriving in Toronto if your final destination is not Canada, and 2) the gates for the Air Canada Jazz small-medium planes are in a remote area of the airport (gates 84-92), reachable after a very long walk and removed by the more modern airport facilities and food outlets.

The point (1) above did not apply on the return trip, as one can go directly to the US Border and Customs. However, the young ground staff personnel that are directing passengers on to which queue to go to gave misguided and misinformed directions, and got US-bound passengers to queue on the Canada border and customs path. I specifically verbally asked two separate people that my final destination was U.S., but still they directed me to "enter" Canada. Only because a fellow passenger knew my final destination and saw me, he called me out to follow him instead. Not sure why this happened, but maybe better training of ground staff should fix this.

The conversation with the person on the other end was not at all pleasant! I presume I was not important enough in her opinion! Wow!!! I have travelled for many years to Norway and Denmark. Every experience I have had with Air Canada has not been good. I try to avoid this airline, but seem not to be able to do so. Must have a monopoly for some reason on flights. Next time I will travel with Iceland Air - heard excellent airlines. And yes, I'll visit Iceland also! KLM and Lufthansa are very good airlines. One does not have to travel first class to have a positive experience!!!

I could have deleted the site check in and started again but as I was using a friend's internet and time was of the essence I decided to have the error 'simply' corrected at the airport on arrival. The actual entry should have been two bags in the hold for Pamela ** and one bag in the hold for Robert **. I did not get any page coming up asking for how many bags in the hold for Robert **. Evidently it is AC policy to charge $25 for the first bag, $35 for the second therefore our total charge for bags in the hold should only be $85. I am looking for a refund of $75.

When we got to the airport we asked the agent about a refund but they can't do anything, suggested we go online to Customer Service. 15 minutes 'hold' to be told that they can't do anything and we should go to the website and fill in the form at 'Tell us your Experience'. After that exercise, we got a reply that the 'problem' would be dealt with and would take at least 28 days to get back to us!

I have tried to get a response via email and facebook but other than "Thank you for your patience" auto-replies nothing has happened and it is now 14 days later. The flight itself was truly a nightmare, the seats are far too close and there is no leg room, even for my height of 5'7" - my husband is 6'3" and had to put his legs across my (centre) seat space, the kid behind kept kicking the seat, I politely asked the mother to have him stop, but that didn't work. The food was dreadful, no entertainment on 3-hour flight. A three-year-old boy, across the aisle, jumping up and down, screaming and shouting - flight attendants not to be seen!

On arrival at Billy Bishop, I was told that in fact my luggage was still in Montreal. Although the Baggage Agent told me it would be sent to Toronto on the next flight, it's now been more than 4 hours and 3 flights from Montreal to Toronto, and my suitcase still can't be located. In 4 trips to the Customer Service desk at Trudeau Airport, and 3 gate agents, there has not yet been an apology from Air Canada for the confusion or inconvenience. And of course, there is no luggage yet. I will be seeking compensation for the Montreal-Toronto flight because of the continual misinformation, compensation for my travel back to my hometown (since the friend who would have picked me up was not available the day after my original flight), and of course I may end up claiming for my lost suitcase if it doesn't show up. Stay tuned for the next update.

I emailed them the next day and received an auto-reply that my email would be reposed to within 48 hours. That was over 5 days ago now and still nothing. I understand the need for cancellation fees but their lack of service and stress with even trying to contact anyone or get a reply added a ton of stress to an already very stressful time. We ended up just cancelling and paying the $500 fee. After that experience we will not be booking any future vacations with Air Canada Vacations again! It is impossible to get a hold of anyone without waiting for hours, and they do not call or email back (at least not so far and its been a week which is terrible service).

With already 8 days spent without clothes and personal belongings, it's sad to feel like a long planned trip is wasting away. He has 4 more future flights booked with Air Canada that we are thinking about cancelling due to unreliability. I have been an Aeroplan member for about 20 years, and also have a credit card associate with Air Canada. I am certainly cancelling this and will never be flying with them again. I HIGHLY caution anyone considering flying with them in the future to rethink their choices.

Prior to this trip I received very good bonus from the company I'm working for and we decided to spoil ourselves a little and fly with comfort in business class. Well, on the way back (flight number AC 085 on October 23rd) we got unexpected troubles. Someone spilled a lot of coffee on my wife's seat (5D). The seat was covered in coffee, wet, and extremely smelly. The crew member tried to clean it but it wasn't much of an improvement. The smell was nauseating. The crew member could not offer anything in exchange because there were no other seats in business class available. I switched the seats with my wife. Paying such price, we both have been waiting for a much better experience. Instead, I got to sit on a stinky and coffee stained seat the entire way. So much for Air Canada business class.

This is not the end of the sad story. After we returned home, I had submitted a claim to the Air Canada customer relations department describing the situation. The reference number is **. Guess what? In a few days I received an email signed by Catherine **. It was just a standard reply, very likely saved in their computer system for any kind of claims. We've been offered an apology and a 15% discount on our next trip with Air Canada, good for one year only. What a joke! Why would we ever fly Air Canada again only to be subjected to this kind of service? I believe we deserve more serious attention from Air Canada.

Now I went online to Air Canada to book a confirmed seat and pay the money to do so. My flight shows as a ROUGE flight now on their website, not Air Canada and they are telling me now I have to pay for my meals! I booked and paid for an AIR CANADA flight in good faith. On a day I wanted to leave, Air Canada changed the flight to one a day early, months in advance, cost me over $450 in additional charges to stay the extra day, will not contact me anyway, and now the last straw is they changed the carrier and told me I now have to pay for my dinner! This is the last straw. I am 60 years old, have flown for years, used to be proud of an airline that carries my country's name and they are worse than an airline that flies out of Nairobi now.

I just got off the phone to Air Canada, trying to get them to honour our original tickets and provide us with the meal and they refused. They once again would not let me speak to any supervisor, as none are there (they never are by the way) and told me to make another complaint online. One which will go the way of the dodo bird again as I have already done so about the change in my flight over a month ago and to date have not had any contact from anyone at Air Canada.

In summary, Air Canada sold me a ticket and took my money, changed the date months in advance arbitrarily and cost me over $450 in extra hotel fees because I had to leave a day early and now changed the carrier to a discount ROUGE flight, which I did not pay for and doesn't provide the meal like Air Canada Flights, and now have the audacity to make me pay for my meal! Both of my tickets state Air Canada flights, not Rouge. The original booking and the one they made me change to. You cannot speak to a manager, ever, and they do not contact you when you do exactly what they recommend which is email them. They have become a shockingly inept and an embarrassing national airline and Canadians have become ashamed of them as a provider. To date they have provided me no customer service and no resolve.

After 3 hours we were finally checked in for a flight to Frankfurt and promised that our Frankfurt-Nuremberg tickets will be given to us in Frankfurt. But this was not the case: the lady at the Toronto counter (the name was kept secret as there was no badge) did something wrong. As a result, we had to wait in Frankfurt another 7 hours. Never again Air Canada! I cannot imagine how a simple task of rebooking due to a flight delay takes 3 hours, and everything goes wrong in the end.

Now a day later I have received a letter from customer service who are not accepting they were wrong not to have made notifications/announcement but again saying safety is the reason. I received 10% on a future flight - really??? I am sick of these airlines who just treat customers without any effort to create a pleasant service experience and admit when they are wrong and make the appropriate compensation. This cost me in terms of my reason to travel which was to work with a booking (I am a speaker) requirement to be at the conference! I couldn't get there and I could have had I been notified. Air Canada's service really sucks.

I asked Air Canada for reconsideration and argued that my request for a refund of the 'change fee' was reasonable and logical. Air Canada changed my flights twice with no consequence or penalty to them, yet on the same trip when there was a need to make a flight change due to a serious medical situation, Air Canada penalized me and actually profited from my misfortune ($524.50). That's just not right. Air Canada responded: "we are sorry that we have been unable to redress your complaint to your satisfaction... " It's their loss... I will take my business elsewhere.

We have had to strip down to nothing and wash our clothes. Can't go anywhere. Been covered in spit up with no blankets or clothes for the baby. I have had to buy all new supplies (creams and cleaning things at my expense). I have not got so much as a sorry. All I got was "I should have packed a carry on", "these things happen". (I figure a bag with bottles, a baby, stroller was carry on enough.) Normally I defend Air Canada and have supported them when people say should fly West Jet. I tell them Air Canada have never done me wrong. But this has been the worse experience traveling I have ever had.

I get 12 days off for my vacation and Air Canada has ruined 3 of them so far. Never dealt with such rude phone reps in my life. One argued with me say they have 99% success rate (not on connecting flights. There were 3 families flying home from Alberta within 2 weeks and they lost 50% of the bags.) I Emailed Air Canada and it has been 2 months and they have not responded with so much as a sorry. Worst travel company I have ever dealt with. Pissed off Customer.

I had said nothing to her to justify her rudeness and I thought about challenging her comments and manner but I was worried that it could develop into an argument and I would be reported for air rage. The plane itself was filthy with old discarded water bottles and wine bottles lying on the floor and the magazine holder in front was full of old discarded debris from a previous flight. On top of everything else my luggage as well as luggage from people on the flight was delivered to terminal 1 instead of terminal 2 and it took 1.5 hours for the luggage to be returned. I wrote a letter of complaint to Air Canada. The reply was quite pleasant even offering 10% discount on future flights, but I just considered it to be a fob off letter and I ripped it up and threw it in the bin. Unless I have no choice I will never fly with Air Canada again.

I called Air Canada on Friday the 18th to inquire about a refund or being placed on a flight with another airline that did not fly through Canada (because I was informed by the Embassy that a flight from My location to the US was fine, but from Canada to the US is not ok with my documents due to some pre-clearance that they have set up here). I was on the phone for about two hours with a representative who offered a refund if he could not place me on a different flight. After searching, he decided that a refund would be better. When I agreed to the refund he informed me that he was not authorized to do so but would have a supervisor authorize it and call me back before the end of the day.

I did not receive any call so I called back on Saturday the 19th. This agent told me that I would NOT be getting a call because supervisors don't do call backs. I explained the situation to her, she put me on hold for 20-30 minutes only to come back and say a supervisor would have to call me back. Before disconnecting she advised me to purchase another ticket with another airline before the refund because the prices are rising. I spend $750 on a new ticket with a new airline even though a couple days ago, the ticket prices (besides Air Canada) were around $600.

I finally received my supervisor call on Sunday the 20th. The lady who called identified herself as a supervisor with Air Canada, read my email address out loud to me and told me the refund has been approved and that I would receive an email confirmation shortly. Today is Wednesday the 23rd, my 'flight' leaves in 1 hour. I have not received a refund or an email confirmation so I called Air Canada again. 5 hours ago I called and was told there was nothing in the system about a refund at all even though I was called by a supervisor who told me that the refund was approved. I was told AGAIN that a supervisor will call me back by the 'end of the day'.

My flight departs in 1 hour and I am not LEGALLY able to take that flight due to my travel documents. I have wasted a week of my time, spending hours on the phone calling long distance to have this issue sorted out. I have also spent $750 on a ticket that should have been at most $600 and now I am still out the $450 that was owed to me for the refund that was promised to me. If the original Air Canada representative had admitted to not knowing the information I would NOT have purchased this ticket, I would NOT have spent $750 on my other ticket (instead I would have spent closer to $600) and I would NOT be having so much stress right now. They have ABSOLUTELY DEPLORABLE customer service and I sincerely hope that I am compensated for my wasted time this past week.

When we exited in Toronto at 8:35 pm, the Air Canada gate agent I asked for assistance and was told no one was available and that I needed to "Run to my gate (with my sprained ankle in a boot) bc if I waited for transport help I wouldn't make it in time" for a flight she knew we couldn't make anyway (US Customs closed at 9 pm and typically takes 40 minutes to clear and my bags weren't processed by Air Canada until 8:59). I have several witnesses who are ready to provide testimony to my attorney since I am considering a lawsuit since my ankle was further injured as a result of being forced to run through the airport to catch my flight after being delayed at no fault of my own.

After repeatedly asking for wheelchair or other assistance since I was in severe pain and unable to walk by this point, I was never assisted and shuttled from wrong person and wrong line to line. I literally was forced to stand in line until 10:55 on a broken ankle with a large crowd of other equally unhappy, stranded passengers before finally getting wheelchair assistance from the Toronto Airport staff (never once assisted by Air Canada staff). After being sent downstairs to try and re-book my flight and find some kind of hotel accommodations, I waited with about 75 other people as 4 other Air Canada agents left for the night (their shift ended at 9:30 pm), leaving 1 agent to assist a large group of stranded passengers. There were no hotel rooms available anywhere in Toronto. I tried calling the number provided for special assistance and after waiting for 43 min on hold (on an international call) I was told they could not help me.

I repeatedly asked to speak to a manager starting at 9 pm when we realized we couldn't get out of Canada for the night and I needed to get somewhere. I could remove my boot and ice/elevate my ankle which was rapidly getting worse. I spoke to the only manager on duty who barely acknowledged me and told us she'd be back in 15 minutes (and never reappeared). We finally found a very nice Canadian wheelchair attendant who took us over to first class where at 11:30 pm they simply confirmed the fact that we were unable to get a return flight to BWI until the next day and offered to fly us to Washington, DC instead (despite the fact that our car was at BWI), and would cost $150 cab ride to get back to Baltimore. Having no other choice we accepted.

They booked us on a flight from Toronto to Reagan National for 7 am and sent us off to sleep on the floor in an overcrowded lounge with 200 other people and $20 in food vouchers that we couldn't use (since everything was closed for the night). After awakening at 3:30 am in a lot of pain (I was never fully able to bring the swelling down, nor locate ice) and standing in 4 different lines starting at 4 am and repeatedly asking for transit assistance from Air Canada and again never receiving it, I found out customs didn't open until 5:30 am and we needed 2 hours to clear it in time (but our flight was boarding at 6:30 am). I tried waiting on several lines to locate our luggage to ensure it was on our new flight, rather than sent to Baltimore as originally planned, and simply gave up.

I was allowed special compensation by US customs (no connection to Air Canada) for my injured ankle so I didn't have to stand in line with everyone else. If we had not, we would have certainly missed our flight. I was then patted down twice by security bc my boot looks very dangerous (after I offered to take it off and was told not to). The saving grace was the lovely crew on our short flight to DC this morning (9/20) who moved us to business class to accommodate my boot (the only nice part of our trip). The crew was lovely onboard our short flight. However I was still in a lot of pain (sadly was pain free until my flight/horrendous experience on Air Canada).

We arrived in DC to find that 2 of our 4 bags were missing. And we were greeted by a lovely lady named Karen at the tiny Air Canada desk who apologized for our terrible experience and was very helpful. She located our lost luggage, arranged for taxi voucher back to Baltimore and arranged for our luggage to be delivered to my home in Baltimore. However, my ankle is worse after this trip than when I started due to the incompetence of Air Canada who told me to run with my broken ankle or I would miss my flight and there was nowhere to spend the night. I am exploring legal action for this horrendous experience and the damage done to my injured ankle as a result.

I did not believe that Air Canada's standards could fall further (Dead Cat Effect), but on the way to Barcelona with Air Canada Rouge (ACRR) much to my surprise, I discovered that it was indeed possible to offer an even worse flying experience, something on par with Turkmenistan Airlines or Sudan Airways (widely considered the worst in the world).

The overarching concept of ACRR is to minimize costs (i.e. service) while maximizing profit (more seats at higher prices). While this is a laudable business strategy, it offers the cattle in Economy (4th?) class an unforgettable experience, which leads them to consider never travelling with Air Canada again if at all possible! Although the night-flight to Barcelona was on a state-of-the-art 767, the ACRR seats lacked padding, on par with the oldest Dash-8 seats. Sort of like sitting in the back of a Hyundai compact. This wears thin after 9 hours in the same position because it is quite impossible to move once inserted into your stall. The seats recline only about 2 inches, which is really no different from sitting up straight, and which does not facilitate sleep. The seats are narrow, and preclude any sort of shift of position to relieve sore knees or aching backs.

The already inadequate legroom is further restricted by the presence of black boxes and doodads that seem to serve no other purpose except to occupy space. The seat controls are cleverly located at exactly the spot where the arm rests on the armrests (Duh!), such that the call button bells are constantly ringing, distracting the already inadequate staff from their main duty, which seems to be charging clients $6.5 for cans of Bud Light! Because of course, all that expensive free booze that Air Canada used to offer their international clients has disappeared. We no longer have even the meager consolation of a 3rd rate glass of plonk to relieve boredom and numb the pain in our backsides.

The EnRoute magazine touts the numerous movie options available to Air Canada travelers. ACRR has improved this feature also. Those costly touchscreens have disappeared. Tablet-equipped travelers can download a free app, virus- and Trojan-free one hopes, and revel in the 6 movies being offered. Or for the peons without tablets, they can be rented from ACRR! Luckily I brought a book, one of those paper things with the little black squiggles on the pages. Every now and then one of the few stewardesses, all cute and dressed in red, would distribute food and water to the cattle. Requests all had to be in English because most of them couldn't speak French. We were given a lunch at 1PM, and a mini-wrap at 9 PM.

As experienced Air Canada travelers, we came aboard with sandwiches and snacks, and got envious looks from our starving neighbours. Other luxury items like ginger ale is doled out sparingly on ACRR, with a large ice cube in the glass to minimize the volume of the costly elixir being dispensed. Toilet paper is also rationed and ran out 2 hours before arrival. As experienced 3rd world travelers, we are used to carrying backup supplies, but surely toilet paper in the lavatory is not too much to ask in exchange for a thousand dollar ticket on Air Canada.

As I mentioned, I was traveling alone with children and by the time I arrived back at the terminal we were the last in line. There was approximately a 30 min delay before the line even began to move. At one point I approached the counter to ask if they would take families with children first and was told by the representative that they had said no such thing and I was told to return to the line. I was finally served at approximately 11:45pm. I was told that we were being rebooked the next day (August 1) on flight AC 2042 scheduled to leave at noon. Also the hotel we were to go to was the Sheridan downtown. I felt this was an undue long trip to take at this time of night for my children and asked if I was able to book my own hotel. They said "no problem, just save the cab receipt and hotel receipt for submission."

By the time we made it to the hotel I chose that was close by, it was midnight. We checked in and my exhausted children immediately fell asleep. The next morning we got up, ate and returned to the airport slightly before 10 am to check in for our noon flight. It was at that time that we found out that our flight was delayed until 6 pm (no email was sent to notify us of this - we had received email the night before when our flight was cancelled so I know they had our information) and also no representative was available to check us in for an hour. We weren't even sure if our plane had been given clearance to land. So there my children and I sat and waited. We were checked in at somewhere around 11 am, and having nowhere else to go, proceeded to our gate. We used the provided food vouchers, had lunch and set up camp to wait some more.

We found out around 2:30pm that our plane did depart Toronto and the end to our nightmare could be in sight, however we didn't want to get our hopes up yet. In our many long hours of waiting I spoke to some other passengers that had been delayed from the morning flight and were compensated $1350 each for an 8 hour delay! My children and I had now spent over 15 hours in the airport, not to mention all the other troubles along the way, cab rides, hotels, and eating airport food for 4 meals. In the last minutes before the flight we were switched from gate A45 to A43 and back to A45. Finally we boarded the plane and made it to Toronto, sat on the runway for about 20 minutes while they found a gate for us and then it was over.

After arguing with her for 15 - 20 min she proceeds to try to book us on a flight that is a 4 hour drive away from me. If I wanted to do that, I would have booked out of Maine, which I usually do. So told her this was not a viable solution and she kept looking. After 1 hour of me becoming very upset she booked us on a flight for the day before and told me that they would pay for the hotel or if we booked, they would cover up to $100. Well you are lucky to find a hotel in Fort Lauderdale for $100 that you would be willing to stay at. Sadly I accepted and told her that I was not happy with this and went on to email customer relations. Customer relations later emailed me back and offered me nothing more except a 1 time 15% discount off of regularly priced flights. Slap in the face??

After doing some research, I discovered that the connection flight was the reason why we were bumped. We were supposed to fly to Toronto then on but apparently Air Canada did not sell enough seats so they downsized the plane and just "bumped" us. Also discovered that Canadian Transportation Agency in 2013 forced Air Canada to increase their compensation limit for customers that are bumped but I was offered next to nothing. Their protocol is to contact people and ask if they mind a later flight, offer compensation, etc but yet I got nothing. This is disgusting that out of the eastern part of Canada that Air Canada has a strangle hold on their passengers and that we really have little to no choice but to be at their mercy! I am thoroughly disgusted with them and for this very reason alone, will continue to fly out of the states for my vacation and other if I can help it.

Shame on you Air Canada for treating your customers like cattle and telling us when, where and what we shall be doing with nothing more than a "Sorry for the inconvenience". You want to make amends, then step up and admit that you did not follow protocol and compensate those that are "Inconvenienced" because of your greed!

One of the agents that was checking our bags asked us how long we are going to stay in the UK. I was surprised, why he is asking this, and then I asked him, "Why do you ask this question?" He tried to bully me and told me that this is his duty to ask me for how long I am going to stay in UK and if I don't answer his question he will cancel our flight and that it is his job to ask this question.

I travel a lot and this was the first time when I am leaving a country a flight agent asked me this question and tried to bully me. After I refused to answer his question, he shouted at me: "Leave this area immediately. Why don't you go back to your country?" Seriously? Finally my husband intervened and told me that he does not worth my time and energy. I am going to file a formal complaint with Air Canada. However, I thought I would share my experience with others. Never will fly with Air Canada ever again.

Thankfully, the stewardesses did not have to suffer the cold since they were able to use the in-flight blankets as warm capes while serving us. It was kinda cool, ya know, it was like being served by superheroes. During the entire duration of the flight we were held captive more like prisoners than passengers as we were denied the right to know where we were. At the very end, as the plane was practicing its acrobats over a lake, we could hear the pilot trying to figure out if we were flying east or west... the two are easily confused, especially for a pilot. In conclusion, for your own safety and sanity, please stay as far away from the prison, I mean, the airline Air Canada.

As the flight had already left cancellation insurance would cover nothing. The total for two to spend a week all inclusive starting the 17th of August until the 24th of August came to 1309.**, two one way tickets total came to 1130.** and I am still at home 11pm on the 18th on hold because my invoice has been emailed but not the tickets and customer service hours are 8:30am-10pm. I am hopeful that I can somehow get on the plane tomorrow morning at 6:30 but still no ticket.

Also once we land no one knows how we are to get from the airport to the resort. Our 1300 dollar week away has so far cost 2400 and I am a day late and still at home on hold with a purchasing agent to try and have my tickets emailed. The kicker is that had I been told "We cannot check your bags however, should you only take carry on you should still be able to catch the flight." I may be on the beach. CUSTOMER SERVICE means to SERVE THE CUSTOMER. Instead of trying to help us in any way to make our flight we were told "Too bad, go buy more tickets." No voucher offers, no help or SERVICE whatsoever. I will not fly Air Canada again and I will encourage as many as I can to take their business elsewhere.

In addition, the 7-year old was placed on a flight that would cause her and the other passengers to fly to Montreal at 23:00 and be in the Toronto and Montreal airports for 34 hours. There were other members of our family who were on flights that caused them to be in Toronto for 48 hours. There was no offer of lodging or food as the connection agents said, "There were no hotels in Toronto," because The 2015 Parapan Am Games were being played in Toronto over the weekend (it was a Saturday) and The American Psychiatric Association was having a conference.

My son searched the internet while I was making phone calls to different hotels. Everything we found was "sold out." We needed 6 rooms to accommodate the 15 passengers. We finally found the rooms at The Delta Hotel where the rooms averaged $575 each! That was far out of our financial means; however, I could not let small children and some adults, 70 years old, sit in a chair at the Toronto Airport. The connections agent also said they had no blankets we could use and they had no food vouchers. I wound up charging the hotel on my credit card and now have an overwhelming balance. There is much more to this story.

We were told to go to United Airlines for assistance, a member of Star Alliance and a sister airline, but 3 different UA employees told us they could not help because they do not have access to AC's baggage system. All we could get is an 800 number and an unhelpful person on the line after a hold. Our bags finally arrived in CLT, not RDU, two days later. I've been able to determine they are currently now in IAD for some reason. I assume they might make it back to us eventually. Dealing with Air Canada was a constant frustrating experience filled with miscommunication and misinformation from the airline. When they invite you to share your experience with them, you'll get an email saying you'll get a response in 15 business days for general commentary, 30 business days for baggage concerns, and up to 5 weeks for baggage tracing. Apparently, this airline cannot do anything in a timely fashion.

We also asked for a hotel accommodations. And storage for the fish in a freezer. They sent us to Concourse Hotel. When we arrived at the Hotel, they couldn't keep the fish in the restaurant freezer due to the CA food law. Only solution left, keep in ice or buy gas ice. Very poor solution since we could have stored the fish at the airport. They have no communication between the ticket booth and the claim baggage. United airlines have a freezer in their area. But wouldn't hold the fish because of their policy. Now I'm trying to find a solution on other people mistakes. It's 1315 I'm tired and upset that both Air Canada and United Airline could not help. Will not fly using the above airlines again!!

There is only one way to talk to your customers, that is P-O-L-I-T-E-L-Y and R-E-S-P-E-C-T-F-U-L-L-Y. No alternative. Sometimes I am wondering why we call our countries civilized. Everything is relative I guess and we still have too many pretentious and/or low IQ people who ruin the all experience of those who try to live intelligently and in peace. I wish I could have her fired. I am AVOIDING AIR CANADA at all costs from then on. Please AIR CANADA, try to be a civilized company. You owe that to your Queen?

Return flight resulted in not one, but two bags not making it. More than a dozen passengers did not receive their bags and there was one agent at ATL to process the forms for each of us. A long queue extending out the door. Next morning, still no bags. Nearly $8,000 for two tickets and this is what we got. Thought I would try AC because their lay flat seating for this flight got good reviews. Did not work out too well for me. Caveat Emptor...

This change added an additional 8 hours to our trip. We lost an entire day in Athens. We needed to call and change plans with the car rental agency, hotel, but most important of all we lost a full day of being in Greece with our family. Air Canada also gave us meal vouchers to be used in the airport. We needed to go to a completely different section of the airport to check in our luggage again with the new airline and after check in we finally went to eat. To add insult to injury, the vouchers Air Canada gave us were not accepted in this new part of the airport. We could not pass through security to back again so we ended up just paying out of pocket for our meals. So bottom line, we lost an entire day of our vacation and our trip will take an additional 8 hours to our final destination.

We went back to the agency we booked the trip with. As it turned out, Air Canada did charge us for 2 kids, NOT the infant, but their program had a glitch. Our invoice showed the correct birthday for our youngest child, while their back end system showed a different birth year. Their glitch resulted in so many inconveniences related to this ruined vacation. It is hard to explain a 2 year old why we get back to the taxi and go home, why we are unpacking our luggage.... Not to mention, the expenses, and the fact that my husband has only 8 days left of his vacation this year that he had to schedule half a year prior. We have not gotten our money back or a trip. I am very disappointed with the way Air Canada company works and how it treats the customers.

The agent I spoke with said that "this is not our booking", and I replied that "It is your airline & aircraft". When I informed Priceline of my needs, they directed me back to Air Canada. As I explained to Priceline the lack of service that Air Canada had given me, the Priceline representative agreed to contact Air Canada on my behalf, and informed me that he would send an email, per request from Air Canada, to add my son onto the reservation. He advised me to follow-up with Air Canada that evening to confirm the reservation had been updated. On April 15 at 8:19 PM Eastern Time, I called to confirm that my son was added. The agent I spoke with was rude, but she did verbally confirm my son's reservation had been added.

On July 12, my family and I arrived at the terminal in Montreal at approximately 7:15 AM, nearly 3 hours ahead of our scheduled departure. I followed directions to print boarding passes at the kiosk prior to speaking with an agent and dropping our baggage. Before entering the line for dropping baggage, I asked a female Air Canada representative at the kiosks about getting a boarding pass for my son, as one did not print out. She directed me to discuss this as well as stroller tags with the gentleman who was taking our baggage.

The gentleman accepted our baggage and directed us to another gentleman to ask about our son's boarding pass and stroller. The second gentleman that we spoke with informed us that there was no record of our son's reservation, and he also asked us about our baggage tags, specifically he wanted to see if a yellow Standby tag had been added to our bags. The yellow tag had not been added to our bags, and we were not aware that we would be flying STANDBY, as we booked our flight 3 months prior to the departure date. This was the moment that we knew our bags were already lost.

The gentleman did assist us with getting boarding passes for our son, which we had to pay for a second time, since the reservation was lost. He also provided us with a tag for our stroller, and he indicated that he was going to be tracking down our baggage to add the standby tags to our luggage. We were able to get seats on the flight, however the flight was delayed 35 minutes, which made our connection time in Toronto 30-35 minutes less. Upon landing, the flight attendant announced that passengers connecting to Vancouver should be allowed to exit the plane first, as they had less time for their connection. This courtesy was not extended to passengers who had international connections and reduced time for customs/security.

A female airport employee in the customs area, stamped our boarding passes and directed us to enter the line for US Customs/Border Protection. The line was shorter than others, but seemed to be lowest priority, as many people who entered this area after we did were through customs and security before we even spoke to a customs officer. By the time the US Customs Officer approved our entry to the US, we had 8 minutes until flight. This is when we learned that the woman who stamped our boarding passes was supposed to actually stamp our customs declaration/receipt, and security would not permit us to go through until the stamp was on the appropriate document. After working with a man I believe to be a supervisor in customs, we cleared security and immediately ran to Gate F 87 where our flight to Indianapolis was to be departing from.

My husband and I ran, with a broken toe and a steel plate in my leg, pushing a stroller, without any shoes on, all the way to the gate, which is hidden in the dungeon of the Toronto airport. We arrived 4 minutes after our flight had closed its doors. The gate attendant informed us that she was aware we were in the airport, and traveling with an infant, and that our first flight had been delayed, but that the airline decided not to wait for us to get to the gate. She indicated that several pages were made; we did not hear these pages, as we were desperately trying to get through security and customs, and those pages were not announced in that area of the airport. This woman informed us that there was another flight to Indianapolis, but not enough seats to accommodate my family. She directed us to Air Canada Customer Service.

The woman at Air Canada Customer Service gave us two options: fly standby (again) to Indianapolis and hope that another family experiences the same misfortune as us, or book a flight to Cincinnati which was scheduled to leave 5 minutes later, and rent a car to drive home. Because we wanted to be certain that we arrived home as a family, we opted for the flight to Cincinnati, OH, and reserved a rental car to drive from Cincinnati OH, to Indianapolis International Airport where the keys to our house were, and then continue by car back to Anderson, IN. The woman at the customer service desk informed us that she needed some time to track down our bags and reroute our bags to Cincinnati, and she asked me to check back with her again after taking some time to eat in the airport.

The flight to Cincinnati was delayed an hour and a half, and upon arrival of the airplane, maintenance had to be called to address some mechanical issues, which delayed our flight another 30 minutes. We departed from Toronto around 10:30 PM, and arrived in Cincinnati at about 12 AM on July 13. We walked to baggage claim and watched as all of the other passengers on our flight to Cincinnati claimed their bags, and as passengers from flights that landed after our claimed their bags. At 12:37 I approached an American Airlines employee (as directed by the United desk, which was closed), and informed her that our bags had not arrived. The rental car company was scheduled to close at 1 AM, so the woman advised that we call Air Canada's 1-800 number to report our missing bags, so that we did not miss our opportunity to pick up our rental car.

My husband called around 3:30 AM to report our bags, and as of 2:45 PM on July 13, our bags have still not been located by Air Canada. Given that the luggage tags printed and attached to our bags by Air Canada have bar codes to scan our luggage, I am astonished that the location of our luggage is unknown. Did someone fail to scan our luggage in/out of an airport location? This is unacceptable. The entire process of booking travel with Air Canada, Check-in, checking luggage, connecting, and baggage claims, failed my family dramatically. Air Canada did not successfully get my family to our destination, and only 2 of the many employees that we interacted with were eager to assist us with our travels.

When at the gate, the agent was too lazy to even check and just told me it was full. When I went back to ask before boarding her answer to me was, "I told you it was full, do you not listen!!" Wow!!! When on the plane and taking off, there was 6 empty seats in first-class. Is this how you treat loyal customers? I constantly get offers from WestJet but remain loyal to Air Canada. But what would you do if treated that way?? I understand everyone has bad days but as a business owner, even one customer is important - especially when I spend in excess of 30 thousand a year on flights. For in the end I would like to say that this probably won't change anything, but please be considerate to your loyal customers.

Mr. President and CEO, you seem like a very legit man and an honorable one. Please keep striving to achieve more customer service as there is much competition in the ailing industry and these little things to me make a big difference in travel. Most travel for vacations and dreams, and customer service can make or break a dream vacation or a business venture for someone or some families. Thank you. A response would mean the world to me and keep me as a very, very loyal customer.

I arrived for my flight at 12 pm and the attendant told me she had no way of knowing whether I'd get on the flight or not since she didn't have access to the seating plan. I'd have to wait until 2 pm to find out if I had a seat and at that time they'd figure out how and when they were going to get me there if I didn't. I persisted and went to an information desk once I got through customs and security and they at least told me I had a good chance of getting a seat. I got a seat but the plane left 10 hours late. Instead of being apologetic and understanding that we'd been greatly inconvenienced and stressed out, they were defensive and would say they didn't know what was going on--refer to a manager or another information desk.

When we finally boarded the plane they gave us a coupon that said to go to a website and find out what our compensation was. It turned out to be a coupon for 20% off a flight at their "regular" fare on a future flight. I haven't checked but I suspect that isn't much of a deal at all. I am so upset. To make matters worse the temperature on the flight was absolutely freezing. I asked the flight attendant if something could be done and she called up to the cockpit but nothing changed. It wasn't until our final descent that it actually warmed up to a reasonable temperature--after two hours of a flight so cold you couldn't sleep even though it was the middle of the night.

There are unfortunately no good alternatives to that flight from other airlines. Air Canada has a total monopoly. I can't believe the incredibly bad service we got and the way they treated us. They truly acted like they couldn't care less and we were an inconvenience to them!!! I wish there was something we could do to change this!!! It was unbelievable and unfortunately isn't the first really bad experience I've had with this airline.

They did not consider my case at all no help was given from them as I was travelling alone I had to go through lot of troubles and book a flight as expensive as 2000 $. After consulting with the support of Air Canada too they have been very unfriendly in helping and giving my refund as I was not wrong on the part as a traveler I did enquire with the Air Canada service and Customer care gave misleading information. If Customer care is not having correct information they should not give and route to correct place but they did not.

Air Canada should accept their mistake and they should understand the plight of travelers who are stranded with no option in their hand. More than money they gave mental stress to travelers who are visiting their family members after long duration. How can they ruin this? Now Air Canada is not ready to accept their mistake. This is very unfair on their part after giving so much trouble to a person where passengers are being stranded on airport with no help from Air Canada. This is my reference number for my complaint against Air Canada **.

Air Canada will not even consider a refund for the ticket even though he cannot use it. He found local employment and the camp is not calling him back. For someone to buy the ticket from him, they would have to pay him the original cost of the ticket plus another $200.00 fee to do a name and flight change. Is this not considered criminal? How can you pay for a service and not have any refund. To buy the refundable tickets is expensive and he had been flying into the camps before, no problem. I personally fly Delta Airlines whenever possible and have had no problems. I fly out to the Michigan in the USA to go to Calgary, Alberta rather than fly Air Canada. Does anyone have any suggestions? I called MasterCard but my card does not have travel protection.

After two hours' effort, our flight took off with four of us behind. I have to make another 2-hour call to reschedule the flights and pay an extra $630 per person for for a total of $2520!!! It's not our fault, and we are refused to board. We have to wait another 14 hours for our next flight while paying a huge amount of money. I even called Air Canada and they told me that we need transit visa because we are traveling on Air Canada rouge not Air Canada, while the CHINA TRANSIT Program includes both Air Canada, Air Canada rouge, China Southern.

It's totally not problematic to transit in Vancouver as long as the arrogant agent allow us to board. Our right was inferred for no reason and there is even no place to complain or ask for refund or compensation for all these trouble and money loss. The worst airline and worst airline agent! These people shouldn't be working on an airport without basic etiquette and respect, let alone their lack of knowledge which is mostly important to serve professionally!

Long story short, we ended up rebooking flights because all reps could tell us to do was "email customer relations and wait for an EMAIL!" Really? Absolutely ridiculous. They did not get back to us in a timely manner and my mother was approaching her 6 month time limit, therefore we had no choice but to rebook. We reached out to them for a refund but they refused, they also refused to allow a name change. All they offered was to keep the ticket for one year in my mother's name (even though she could not travel). After going back and forth they decreased the ticket amount an additional $94 to be used as a travel voucher for anyone.

I am very disappointed with the service of all Air Canada employees. This is such a shame since I am Canadian and I would love to support our country's airline. Unfortunately with this type of service, I will not be flying with Air Canada again! All staff have been extremely rude and unhelpful. I would also advise others to stay clear of them. They are unprofessional, rude and they do not know how to deal with customers, even when they have made numerous mistakes on their end.

After exiting the plane, I reached the Toronto passport control and saw that an Air Canada woman was telling passengers with connecting flights what they should do next. She told some people (who evidently had short connecting times) that they would not make their connecting flights and would instead have to cross the border into Canada and arrange alternative flights and accommodation with Air Canada. Other people (including myself) were advised to proceed through the connections hallway toward the US Customs area to prepare for regular boarding. The Air Canada woman at the passport control area was clearly overwhelmed by the big gathering of passengers (almost 100 by my count) who crowded around her (there was no formal line or queue) as they waited for information about their connecting flights.

I was shocked to see that Air Canada was relying on this one person to give instructions to so many people in a short space of time. It appeared totally unprofessional. When I managed to get the woman's attention, I told her that my connecting flight was leaving at 7:30pm, and she said to me: "you should be fine, go through" the connections area. And that is what I did. After clearing U.S. customs and the security check, I got to the gate for UA 3892 at 7pm. Boarding was under way. But as soon as the UA gate attendant scanned my boarding pass, she said I could not board because the plane was full & had been oversold. I was shocked again. Three other passengers - a young couple and their baby - who also had been on AC 85 from Tel Aviv and were expecting to fly to Dulles, were told the same thing as me, and were also upset.

The UA gate attendant and her supervisor were unhelpful and downright rude to all of us - refusing to say who had bumped us off the Dulles flight. They also told me that they could not locate my one item of checked baggage - a suitcase - which they said had not been loaded onto the plane. They offered to book me on another flight, but I could do nothing without knowing the location of my suitcase. Eventually, the couple and I were told to go to the Air Canada customer service desk in the departure area. There, a female Air Canada customer service agent told us that there were no seats available to any Washington-area airport later that night and that we would have to cross the border into Canada, collect our baggage, decide on an alternative flight for the next day and stay at a nearby hotel (paid for by the airline).

After crossing the border control, I went to the baggage claim area to attempt to find my bag. I went back and forth between the UA and Air Canada baggage desks after each desk told me that I should ask the other one to help me. Eventually, a UA baggage desk worker told me that my bag had last been scanned in a UA bag room, but could no longer be located. She told me to go up to level 3 and ask Air Canada to book me onto a new flight, and then come back down to check on my bags whereabouts. Upstairs in the check-in zone, an Air Canada ticketing agent booked me on a Toronto to Washington Reagan (DCA) flight AC 7354, departing at 10:50am the next day. She also handed me vouchers for accommodation (at the International Plaza Hotel) and said that I should take a shuttle bus to get there.

The ticketing agent also told me to go back down to the baggage claim area and speak to the Air Canada baggage desk so that I could collect my bag. It was now around 9:45pm. I went downstairs as instructed, and the Air Canada representative at the baggage desk said my bag was in a customs transfer area which was closed for the night, but I could check on the status of the bag once I returned to the airport the next morning. So I then went outside to try to catch my bus to the hotel. Unfortunately, I had difficulty in finding the bus. I had been waiting for around half an hour and had seen many buses stop at the S-5 bus pick-up area, with some of them displaying logos of several hotels - but I could not see anything saying International Plaza Hotel.

So I went back into the airport and called the information telephone line, which eventually transferred me to the hotel so that I could find out what was going on. The hotel told me that it shares the shuttle with several other hotels, that I should look for the bus that displays the "Traveloge" logo, and wait for it to arrive at the S-5 area at 11:15pm. The Air Canada ticketing agent who booked me the hotel room certainly should have informed me to look out for a bus shared by several hotels, or at least to call the hotel itself for info, so that I would not have wasted my time.

The "Traveloge" bus came, and I got on. It was now more than 5 hours since I had landed in Toronto, and I was exhausted and mentally drained after having been awake for almost 24 hours, and after receiving conflicting & incorrect information from both Air Canada and UA staff at the Toronto airport. In fact, I felt like I had been in a pinball machine, being bounced back and forth by airline staff who kept telling me that I was the others responsibility.

The International Plaza Hotel room was comfortable, but I had trouble sleeping because of the ordeal that I had just been through. When I got back to the airport in the morning, I returned to the Air Canada baggage desk in the baggage claim area, and was told by a man that my suitcase was now confirmed as being cleared to load onto my new flight to Washington DCA: AC 7354. After clearing U.S. customs and security, I reached the gate and asked again if my suitcase was on the plane. An Air Canada woman at the gate scanned my boarding pass and confirmed that my bag was on the plane.

After I arrived in DCA, I waited patiently at the baggage claim area, and to my utter dismay, my bag did not appear - adding insult to injury. After all the other passengers had claimed their bags, I asked the Air Canada baggage desk in DCA for help. The women who were on duty at the desk were unresponsive and unsympathetic. One lady took down my information and then quickly left her desk, saying it was the end of her shift. Another woman refused to talk to me as she attended to other passengers, even though I had been waiting in line to speak with her. She merely gave me a card with a number and said I should call it. I called the Air Canada Central Baggage Customer Care Center, and a representative named ** took down my information. After filing a report on my bag, he said it had been located at Washington Dulles airport, although he could not say when it had arrived there.

He later called me back and said that the bag was actually in Houston, not Dulles, and that it would be delivered to my home address in Washington DC probably the next day. Again, he could not explain how my bag had ended up so far off course. ** was courteous with me on the phone, but I ended the call in disbelief after learning that once again, I had been given erroneous information by airline staff. I then went back to my home in DC. I will summarize this narrative by saying that this really was the worst experience that I have ever had with an airline. I could not believe how many times airline staff shirked responsibility for helping me, gave me wrong information (i.e. lied to me) and treated me in a rude manner.

One of the Tel Aviv passengers who also got bumped from UA 3892 told me that airline staff told him that UA likely bumped all of us off the flight because they had oversold it, and they knew that we - the connecting passengers from Tel Aviv - were delayed in our arrival to Toronto. Apparently, rather than UA staff asking some passengers at the gate if they wanted to give up their seats in return for compensation, the UA staff believed it would be easier to just bump off myself and the other three Tel Aviv passengers by falsely claiming that we wouldn't make it in time to the gate (we actually did make it on time). If that was in fact the reason, it was a totally cynical airline move that created a nightmare for my return journey to Washington. I will avoid flying Air Canada again if at all possible. And I will tell others to do the same.

Finally, after another 45 minutes and pretty fed up at this point, I got a hold of a different representative who said that in order to use the voucher, I would have to pay $200 for whatever "terms and conditions" they never outlined to me when I purchased the ticket from them. This airline is bizarre and their policies ridiculous. Lesson learned: I will never fly this airline again nor will I trust them for flying any of my family or friends.

I not see it as my fault. We were ready to fly. I provide all information about my side and ask 1000 questions, but no one from Air Canada care to inform me about visa. In fact if I was informed I may have time to get it. Please review my situation and give me full refund without penalty. Thank you.

5. Upon arrival, she was very weak and had to be assisted by family to get out of her wheelchair as she didn't even recognize her own son and daughter in law.

She received HORRIBLE customer service. The main issue was that the plane was allowed to leave without any gas. Afterwards, the passengers once again had to wait for the pilot to receive the bill. This whole process took over 2.5 in intense heat with no ventilation. Needless to say, she or other members of my family will not recommend or fly with Air Canada again and would like to receive some type of compensation for the negligence that this caused.

I mean I do not like to complain but WTF? The staff was so clueless and rude it was embarrassing for Canada. I was coming from Florida and NEVER expected to leave the airport but was FORCED to go through customs and stay the night in Toronto during a power blackout and a blizzard. I almost froze to death I kid you not. Then there were the food vouchers. Couldn't of been more of a joke if it was written as one. I went to redeem them and was told due to the power blackout they (the Hotel) are not accepting them. I had no cash left on me because I had already spent it the night before on food and a winter coat (which I was never reimbursed for and was laughed at for asking about it.)

I was called a liar when I told the supervisor that I was told I had a seat on the plane and degraded. After being told I can get on a flight from the Philippine Airlines to get to Tokyo, I looked it up and I would of arrived 2 days later and been forced to stay in Manila, which is not really somewhere I want to be in the world, (no offense anyone). This destroyed my trip to Japan to see my fiancee (then girlfriend) and screwed up my proposal and my father in law almost died and I could not be there for my girl. I mean seriously? How is it even legal for an airline to be so rude and inconsiderate? I will not stop until I get a switched return flight and a full refund. PLEASE DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE!! DO NOT FLY AIR CANADA.

By this time, as the day progressed, my husband and I drove to Mt. Dora to meet a friend for lunch. Afterwards, my husband and I drove back to Daytona Beach at around 6:30 p.m. I never knew what had transpired until my mother phoned me at 6:45 p.m. I was already back in Daytona Beach at my condo. She was almost in tears, telling me she had missed her Air Canada flight #1865 -12:50 p.m. to Toronto, and no one would help her and she was still in Orlando. She couldn't explain what happened because she had to go buy another calling card because the one she had was running out of minutes, and the Air Canada ticket agents wouldn't be there until 7:30 p.m. to help her, so at this point, I didn't know what was going on.

Finally, my mother called me back after 7:45 p.m. She said she was booked for the Air Canada Flight #1869 - Departing at 9:30 p.m. flight out to Toronto and she would call me the next day when she got home. I worried about her all night, I couldn't sleep. There was no one who could pick her up in Toronto on this short notice. My father was upset, my daughter, other family members, and most of all the fact remains that my mother was left abandoned at Orlando International Airport with no one from Air Canada to advise or help her when she was in desperate need of the right answers after not being let on her scheduled flight.

When my mother called me the next day, she explained that there was another Air Canada flight at 1:00 p.m. to Toronto, and that's where she was waiting in the boarding area, instructed to do so, and had specifically been told to wait there, and she even showed her boarding pass to a few different Air Canada personnel. They assured her she was in the right boarding area for the Air Canada flight to Toronto. She waited there until the time she heard her name being called on the loud speaker, realizing that this was not her flight and they told her to proceed to another Zone.

My mother approached the Air Canada Representative and told her that they called her name for the Air Canada Flight 1865, but she was not at the proper boarding area. My mother showed her the boarding pass, and the A/C representative said "you're not at the right plane?" The Representative did not escort my mother to the proper area, nor did she call ahead to advise A/C flight 1865 staff that my mother was on her way. My mother asked, "are they going to wait for me?" and the A/C representative assured her they would. However, my mother inquired if she could go on the 1:00 p.m. flight, but the AC representative said, "No, you can't do that."

So my mother started running to the other boarding area, and when she got to the entry of AC flight 1865, the A/C representative said "you can't go on this plane, why weren't you here waiting," and my mother explained that she was misinformed on where to wait, which was the other Air Canada flight leaving at 1:00 p.m., flight 1867. My mother explained to him that they called her name, and he said, she pleaded and begged him that she needed to get on that flight, and she didn't know what to do, and he said the door was closed, but the plane hadn't taxied yet. His name is **. He was very unprofessional and disrespectful to my mother for no reason, and threatened to call the Police because she was upset.

**'s demeanor was as if he was proud of the fact of taking control and getting pleasure out of someone missing a flight. He stood there with a smirk on his face, something that I would like to slap if I ever met him. My mother doesn't have a mean bone in her body. There was another Air Canada representative named **, who also was present when this took place. She was on the phone, speaking to someone, but my mother wasn't sure what was going on at this point and time.

By this time, the flight A/C 1865 was still in its same position, hadn't moved yet. My mother left with ** to find out what could be done for a later flight, or what processes were necessary. ** was finished her shift, she advised my mother to come back at 5:30 to the Air Canada ticketing out into the main terminal. ** assured my mother that getting the later flight out wouldn't be a problem, but ** couldn't do anything at this point because the computers were shut down, and she couldn't check anything. My mother waited around all day by herself, no one to help her in this crisis and she does not have a cell phone. So by the time she was able to line up at the Air Canada ticket centre, it was now 7:30 p.m.

She advised the staff there what happened, and they explained to her that she would have to pay an additional $150.00U.S., to get on the 9:30 p.m. Flight #1869. My mother spoke up and stated that there was no way she was paying anything extra and that this was not her fault, she had been very inconvenienced for Air Canada's representatives giving her misleading information. The male Supervisor came out and asked my mother what had happened, so she explained the situation to him, and he said he'd be right back. He was gone for over 15 minutes, then proceeded to hand her another boarding pass for Flight #1869, departure 9:30 p.m. without additional costs.

May I remind you, that when I booked this flight for my mother, the 12:50 p.m. flight was more expensive than the 9:30 p.m. flight, in fact by $40.00, and yet they would even try to charge her $150.00 more after what she went through is totally absurd. My mother said "thank you", and had to go through security, yet again. By this time, she had been waiting at the airport for close to 9 hours, with another 1.5 hours to go before the 9:30 pm departure flight #1869 was scheduled to leave for Toronto. This experience and unfortunate circumstances that happened to my mother on February 10, 2015 was absolutely unnecessary, and couldn't have happened to a more patient, understanding, and easy going woman, who should not have had to deal with such unprofessional, untrained, miserable, Air Canada Representatives.

My mother has expressed how displeased she is with Air Canada. I have now filed a claim with my credit card company, and I am disputing the charge of $193.00 Cdn. Regardless of being compensated for this amount, does not make up for the distress, sleep deprivation, mental anguish, confusion and being all alone at an airport for 11 hours, caused by Air Canada. I can't even comprehend that your staff in Orlando cannot take the time to show an elderly person to the right place to board a plane, and not even as much as offer a cup of coffee, or some lunch, knowing that she was going to be there for hours and hours at a time.

I am actually disgusted in your lack of service and could even think that I booked with Air Canada because of the convenience of flying direct out of Orlando instead of using other Air Carriers with connecting flights at a lower cost. I was an avid Air Canada flyer and always booked flights when flying to Florida with my mother and daughter. I want an apology from ** who works for Air Canada in Orlando at your gate entry who should be reprimanded or terminated for poor customer service skills. This is a serious situation and I don't take it lightly when it comes to my mother, or for that matter, any Senior Citizen being treated like that.

We never used Air Canada in the past because of the terrible customer service other have experienced in the past. I reluctantly booked this flight (AC1888) because it accommodated her schedule. I understand that this will go into the Internet black hole and will never hear back from Air Canada. I needed to express the lack of concern these agents demonstrated and unfortunately no name tags were observed. Again this very bad and lack of customer care. Horrible Customer Service! What a disgrace to be associated to Canada.

Her sister was flying domestically from Vancouver and was able to fly onto PEI with no problem. Her and her sister were to fly together to see their sick grandfather. The weather was perfect on the 14th for flying but because of snowstorms ** never got there and we had to fly her back to Denver. Air Canada admitted total fault yet do not want to reimburse us for any of the $1200 we paid to get her there. Obviously they don't care about the security breach. I have contacted the mayor of Toronto and Air Canada. The mayor doesn't care anymore than anyone else. I was told by his office that the security problem was not his problem that it would be the airport's problem.

I know that this item will never ever be found and that is extremely disappointing. My brother left an item (quite large) on Air Canada last year and they never found it. Do they find anything that is left behind on the plane? I am very disappointed in Air Canada and their lack of service or response to the issue. This was the airline of choice but guess what..NO MORE!!

The only redeeming feature odd enough were the two meals. The crew was nice but seemed embarrassed by the level of service their airline was offering. Now that I know, I will not fly to Barcelona from Vancouver - it was the only way to go. As a Canadian I will fly to the U.S. first. I know the airlines don't care about service anymore; the bottom line is about the almighty dollar and how many persons they can cram on a plane - but Air Canada, how could you? I was once your champion.

The flight was supposed to be at 6pm from MTL. They delayed till Midnight. So I went into town, all is well, whatever - I don't have anywhere else to be really and I don't mind waiting. So I get back to the airport at 10 or whatnot, then the fun begins. At 1130 we board, all seems well. They tell us nothing for 30-40 minutes, until people begin to wonder. We get an announcement stating that they are working on "something" and shouldn't be long... Hasn't it already been a 6 hour delay?

After an hour, they repeat the same exact message in different words, sounding even more optimistic. After the second hour, they explain the computers are malfunctioning "SLIGHTLY" and they have the best technician in Canada working his best. They claim after 2 and a half hours that they are in "solution mode". 45 minutes thereafter, they finally tell us it is cancelled. It is almost 3 am. I had been begging to let us go back and sleep in the airport or anything like that, but they insisted everything was under control.

When we got out, there was only one customs agent to treat all of us. This is a pretty big ** plane. There are a lot of us. Once we finally get out of customs, there are no agents available (though promised) to tell us where we can stay for the night, and what other compensation there may be. They had to take care of the people who already had a flight at 6 am. Half of the people went home or to a hotel by this point. In the end, we had to pay for our own cabs, hotel, food (we hadn't been able to eat for 14 hours, everything in the airport was closed. I was literally cramping and starved. I couldn't get a granola bar from them). They said they would "refund", aka, we have to chase our money down.

I'M NOT DONE. The hotel made us check out early, so we had a great 2 hour sleep. Once in Paris, I called to change the date of my flight back. I wanted to come back home ASAP. Not having a good time and I'd missed what I'd planned on doing already. I call Air Canada. They did not agree to refund for the two nights lost in Paris which I had already paid for.

They gave me a 300$ cancellation fee. Now here's the best part: I booked my flight through AEROPLAN. So they transferred me there afterwards. They also gave me a cancellation fee and told me AIR CAN was not allowed to charge me. I call Air Canada back and only 2 of 6 representatives acknowledged this. The rest hung up on me. Literally. I have never been so astounded. I only called the LAST lady a **! I was allowed to be mad by that time! I was polite until then! She called me a liar. How insulting is that? I have proof on my credit card receipt - I mean it's pure negligence.

So now I must go to court. Great. Thanks Air Canada. It also cost me 40$ to stay on the phone with them. My girlfriend is coming to visit me here in Paris. She just got told there was no room for her on the flight. She is one of 8 people to be told this fact. I hate this company and am spreading the word. They should not be able to profit 500$ million a year. I can't wait to smile at their lawyer in court. I am a lawyer in training. It's gonna be tons of fun. I hate you, Air Canada, and I will make every effort to avoid your airline in the future. This is no way to run a business - the only reason they get away with it is by Oligopoly.

I showed the hotel my printed copy and they agreed that nothing in my documentation even mentioned it. When I demanded to talk to the manager, they called him and I told him that I refuse to pay these extra fees. In no uncertain terms he rudely said that I will be either be paying up or we will not be allowed to stay. As we were both tired and need of a room I was forced to agree to pay for these charges. They did tell me to take it up with Air Canada when I return to Canada. I complained to Air Canada and below is my response.

Summary: Air Canada clearly blamed me for this problem and sent along a copy of the hotels webpage as proof that it was my mistake. It clearly shows under important notes mention of these extra charges. My copy which I printed at time of booking in December also shows important notes but there is no mention of the hospitality fee. It is obvious that Air Canada received my complaint, updated their website to reflect these charges, printed it and used this falsified document in defense of my complaint. No doubt that Air Canada did not suspect that I printed the same document at time of booking which clearly shows the truth of this disclosure.

The extra charges amounted to $280.03 Canadian. The reason I chose Air Canada over competing Westjet was because of Air Canada's cheaper price which turned out to be false and misleading. Looks like Air Canada found a way to scam Westjet out of customers by scamming the customer to pay extra upon arrival. The fact that they did not accept any responsibility whatsoever and had to falsify a document to mislead me is totally unacceptable. They have caused me a lot of money, stress and inconvenience over this.

When we arrived at the airport we then look for the gate and went through US Customs without having enough time for the washroom. As soon as we came to the gate we have been advised that our connection flight had been gone. They then directed us to go to Air Canada Customer Services to either rebook the tickets or get the refund. After we followed all steps such as lining up, filling out forms to check out from US Custom, going up stairs… and going down stairs… and upstairs over and over again to get to Air Canada Custom Service. At Air Canada Customer Service, we had been offered either to flight to San Francisco or back to Windsor.

I refused to go to San Francisco after looking at my daughter‘s red eyes, I knew that she was very tired from the “running up and down, in and out and around…” but she could not understand or explain or question me about the incident (only tearing out), on the “Runs” I encouraged her by saying “hurry up we going to Disney Land” in order for her not to give up. My hotels and car rental had been booked in San Jose, Santa Ana…. Los Angeles. If I accepted the offer of the flight to San Francisco, what were we supposed to do in the middle of the night with my special need daughter and had no place to stay, and no transportation….. she would collapse and end up in the hospital and if it happened I cannot afford to pay for all the medical costs in US.

The agent at the Service Counter was kind enough letting me know that there were 3 seats left for us to go back to Windsor, if we were not hurry, they would be sold out. I then have to take the tickets to go back home. But before leaving the service counter, I did ask him what to do with my return tickets (Los Angeles-Windsor). He then asked me to provide him the booking reference no. (he did not see them, because they were booking separately) and said he would take care of them. The day after, I called Air Canada Service again and found out that the return tickets from Los Angeles to Windsor were used for the Toronto-Windsor tickets without letting me know.

My daughter was very upset, crying and talking to herself when she arrived back in Windsor - at that time she realized that she was sending back home. I could not understand what she was talking about except Disneyland. Mentally, I am in pain when look at my daughter getting weird like that. I am not sure what was in her head, I wish that she could yell at me.

After arriving at home, I tried to put my daughter to bed, and try to rest, but while laying down I recalled everything and started to cry and blame to myself not to do good job as a mother of a special-need. I destroyed my daughter's dream, I also wasted her life-saving money, time, energy but it was not my fault. If we had enough time for the connection flight, we would not missed the flight and by now we would be in those places, which I could see the sunshine on my daughter's face instead of tears.

I did not intend to spend $3972.59 ($2266.50 credit amount from Student Universe which belongs to the previous cancellation trip plus paying for extra charge $524.33 and $1181.76 for tickets from Windsor to San Jose) for the trip from Windsor to Toronto and Toronto back to Windsor and also injured myself at the airport by missing the escalator step. I also did not want to torture my daughter mentally or physically by encouraging her to run there and back, from up and down over and over again, almost five to six hours for nothing. What should I do? I really need your help. (I did send this explanation to Air Canada Customer Relation.)

Despite being first at the gate, plane filled and four of us with previously confirmed seats were hustled to OGG bound flight at neighboring gate with nearly same scheduled departure time. Agents at YVR gate said a connection OGG to HNL would occur on arrival. These agents are seriously misinformed on how Air Canada operates in Hawaii. The Maui Airport is locked down at midnight and our arrival at 11pm left us with no connecting flight. The overall problem got worse from there and was not resolved in any way by Air Canada, rather by local authorities and the assistance of Hawaiian Air.

I got home the next day and needed all my composure and intellect to locate my bag. Air Canada has no staff in Hawaii. Services are farmed out to temporary personnel who show up nightly to handle the two or three incoming flights, which are quickly boarded and turned around to Vancouver or Toronto. This bare bones contracted staff is as clueless about Air Canada as the greater Air Canada staff is clueless about its own void in Hawaii. The support personnel behind the Air Canada contact phone lines in India and Toronto are equally clueless about the void in Hawaii. The Air Canada customers waiting to board in Hawaii are mostly unassuming Canadians who tolerate this without complaint.

1. On November 26, 2014, Air Canada flight AC4743 (going east to west) almost struck another large jet travelling north to south at an estimated speed of 600 knots within approximately 150 feet in the air above, roughly north of Lake Superior and close to the Manitoba border, at or about 2:30 pm. This placed the lives of everyone on both planes in danger, when being so close what would have happened if that other plane hit a lower pressure zone, or the plane I was in encountered a stronger than normal aft gust of wind? I have reported this to the CTA and I will be willing to bet there will be some evidence despite their attempting to deny this occurred (I suspect they will try to destroy their records but hopefully there will be someone else that saw it, or some logged radar and electronic RF airship id data will be available through the privately operated airports that monitor that space in Canada or in USA).

2. As I was checking into Air Canada flight AC798 at LAX (see also other complaints in this system about this flight), I was told the departure and arrival time to YUM (Montreal, P. Quebec) had been changed to later so now I had to wait almost six hours. I probably don't have to reiterate how unfriendly it is to travel especially through the air in USA within their airport jail type systems of intrusive cargo/body searches, unsafe x-rays and security guards, searching old ladies and babies for drugs or bombs. I missed all my pre-arranged transit connections in Montreal due to the delayed arrival Sunday evening, so I had to pay a taxi to drive me an hour to get home. On top of that I had to put up with a plane full of French people for another 5 hours that were mostly sick, coughing, sneezing, a few vomiting (it was a very bumpy flight).

3. Air Canada refuses to give me flight point credit for flying from Montreal, P. de Quebec (via Vancouver, BC Canada) to Auckland, New Zealand and back because in their words "it was not a valid subclass". I don't really want their Aeroplan points as I cannot every recall using them nor do I plan to (especially now that they "expire" everyone's points if you don't pay them more money every year). However, their actions constitute unethical business policies and practices.

Here is why. They have applied disparate discriminatory treatment by classifying some flights differently on the same plane, or on the exact same route, as a class that will not be given Aeroplan points, yet other flights on the exact same route (same origin, same destination, same plane type) will be given Aeroplan points. Likewise, some Aeroplan members will be given points on the a flight while others on that flight will not be given points. Air Canada transaction records could be provided by them to verify this allegation. This is unethical discriminatory behavior. This is one flight (quite a long one over 12 hours) and there were others too. NZ Flight Number: 0083, Flight Date: 2014-11-26, Origin Airport: Vancouver International Apt - BC, CA (YVR), Destination Airport: Auckland International Apt, NZ (AKL), Booking Class: K.

4. In 2008 Air Canada refused to refund or change the overseas tickets my wife and I had purchased from them which amounted to approximately $5,000 since we were unable to travel due to the aviation flu issues at that time. In return for our money we received absolutely no service or products for $5,000 - zero, only bad service dealing with them to try to change it or get at least a partial refund. I rest my case. Please let airlines know that consumers have rights and feelings.

I then proceeded to go online process and it is 2 days now and I still can't get any information from Air Canada on the status of my baggage. While these airlines just pay out a value for your belongings, the personal losses are irreplaceable. I can't get even get a courtesy call from the airline that they are making any effort. My take on this is that the airline left our baggage intentionally in Houston to push back at the gate so that they did not have to pay the penalty for pushing back at the gate late.

Consequently my boyfriend headed into the plane without me and I was stuck in the airport until 3:00PM the next day. By the same token, I was given false hopes about a plane out that night, to which kept me waiting in angst for many hours at the customer service counter, only to be let down again. In view of all of this, I ended up at the airport from 3AM on Saturday morning to 3PM Sunday the next day, arriving back at 7:00PM. The agent would not give me compensation for new clothes, so I ended up wearing the same outfit for two days, as my baggage could not be found and was checked in. Furthermore, when I finally did board my flight I received the worst service I have experienced in years, and was also served one of the most unpalatable meals, a salmon salad, which made me sick the day after.

However, because the bookings were made all on the same day, there should be some consideration, plus the fact that my mind is not functioning as it once did. Is there no humanity with Air Canada Vacations? No reasoning? I will never fly with them or use Aeroplan credits again. I now have paid $230 of which Air Canada Vacations is not about to refund me because I made 2 mistakes. I have the emailed cancellation message for the hotel.

When I wrote to complain and asked for compensation, all they offered was $100 and useless vouchers, as I have no intention of ever travelling with them again. Have written umpteen times but they insist that this was a misconnection when I know full well it was an overbooked flight because they were going around checking seat numbers for various passengers and each seat was taken.

I tried to obtain a credit for the remaining flight (to take an earlier flight with Westjet) but was told by the rude lady at the check in desk that as I had a flight for seven hours later no refund/credit was possible. In the meantime, my wife and children had journeyed 90 minutes to Saskatoon to await my return at 19h30 but would now have to wait till 01h30 Sunday. To avoid travelling by road at this late hour, we opted to have them stay over at a hotel in Saskatoon, an added unnecessary expense occasioned by the maladministration at the Calgary check in counter.

I Have belabored the above description to illustrate the difficulties encountered by people from the prairies when making international flights. As these flights usually terminate at an airport in another province, the airline staff have little regard for the logistical difficulties encountered when having to travel an extra last leg into the prairie provinces especially Saskatchewan and Manitoba. I am certain people from the northern provinces also encounter similar difficulties.

I think that a civil aviation passenger bill of rights is necessary to protect the interests of the poor tired passenger who has to contend with rude and inattentive staff who no doubt are also pressured by the carriers into misdirecting passengers with respect to their rights. The bill of rights should be prominently displayed throughout airports and be available as a mandatory part of the downloads when booking tickets online.

Further I think passengers with onward connecting flights after a customs border post should be offered a priority lane at customs. Lastly, Air Canada bears a national symbol even though it is a privately managed company. I am of the opinion that they do not deserve to carry the national symbol on their livery when they behave in such a deplorable manner toward fare paying Canadian passengers.

Add to that - the washrooms are so small I couldn't even fit in. And, the toilet seats refuse to stay up! Come on, AC, adding a slow-release toilet seat, or even Velcro at the top, would cost you nothing! So, if you see an Air Canada Dreamliner on your flight itinerary, run away. They've turned it into a Nightmare Liner!!

I used the same carry on bag 5 weeks ago with Air Canada, at the same check in counter without any problems or concerns. When my husband changed planes to get on his connecting flight from Toronto to Vancouver, there were others traveling on the same Air Canada flight taking on carry on cases the same size and some larger than the bag he was forced to check in and pay an extra $25.00. Totaling $50.00 for the two pieces. The carry on is two years old, is a standard size, sold with sets of luggage in Canada and the States. Most luggage have front pockets that prevent them from fitting in to the prescribed metal holder found in all airports. No one else bothers you. The pockets of his carry on was not filled. Unfortunately, my husband has a return ticket with Air Canada.

This type of nickel and dime pettiness does not happen with their competitor West Jet. From here on in, I would rather drive to Toronto and take a West Jet flight where the staff are polite and helpful. Had it not been the fact that the time was short for boarding, I would have retracted the larger, checked suitcase (which was not overly filled and well under the 50 lb. allowance and placed the contents of the carry on case into it).

As I mentioned it is only 5 weeks ago I used Air Canada on the same connecting flight, using the same piece of luggage without a problem. I have traveled with this piece of carry on luggage on several US air carriers, Air Canada and West Jet for 5 return flights over a two year period. I assume, Air Canada is forcing their employees at the check counters to disallow standard sized carry on bags to make money, forcing customers to pay last minute for an added check in bag. Especially when in Toronto, a much larger airport, their check in counters are not harassing their customers. In Toronto, Air Canada is being more reasonable. I find this behavior reprehensible. It leaves me feeling angry at this type of treatment.

From now on I will go to the States when possible where it is much cheaper to fly to Seattle, rent a vehicle for a week and drive to Vancouver, all totaling considerably less than an Air Canada from both North Bay, and from Toronto. I will not longer consider traveling Air Canada. I will travel with West Jet or one of the US carriers instead where most of their staff are happy to help customers and value their patronage. No small wonder Canadians are going across the border to fly to their destinations. Many charge for a checked bag, but, do not hassle you with a carry on piece of luggage with wheels.

I believe I must have spoken to the same "lovely" agent that a previous person spoke to who insisted that she was the only person I could speak to and a supervisor could not speak to me and in speaking with me she could not, would not and would never help me. She hung up on me. I have been on hold for two hours and now am told that my tickets expired and that I had only three months -- in November 2013 -- to rebook the tickets, despite my husband's illness. I have been on hold for 25 minutes and the call just disconnected. Why am out $2,000? How can this airline have any pride when the only comments posted are negative? Hey folks -- take a Southwestern flight.

Following an invitation from admirers of my work, I spent 48 days in Canada, visiting different provinces such as Alberta (Edmonton), Toronto and Newfoundland. Many of my original works and paintings were sold in these provinces, for a total sum of 7200 Dollars. I also conducted an exhibition at Newfoundland. After the exhibition at Newfoundland, I removed all the frames from my paintings and packed them (a total number of 65 paintings) in a hard shell box for transporting back to India. I also packed my work file for the publication I am now working for in the said box. The said hard shell box, containing the items mentioned above, was booked as luggage, along with another box, for my return flight trip to Calicut (Kozhikode). Other than that, I had a hand luggage, wherein my expensive acrylic paints, brushes, laptop, camera, tablet and the money received from selling my paintings were kept.

I boarded a flight operated by Air Canada from Goose Bay Airport (YYR) at 7.10 PM on 19-6-2014. The said flight being delayed due to bad weather, I missed my connecting flight from St. John’s NL Airport. I was neither offered a delayed flight from St. John’s NL Airport by Air Canada nor given accommodation so as to catch the next flight from St. John’s. Instead, Air Canada transported me to Toronto, a journey which took more than 4 hours, to see if I could get a connecting flight from there on the same day. However, there being no such connecting flight, I was forced to stay that day in Toronto, after having unnecessarily travelled those extra hours. On 20-6-2014, during the security check at Toronto Airport, I was forced to surrender my hand luggage containing the items above mentioned. I was permitted to retain only a small amount of money for emergencies and was told that my hand luggage would be returned to me at Calicut (Kozhikode) Airport.

Thereafter, I was forced to undergo the most harrowing journey of my life, without adequate money, food, toiletries or clothing at London and Abu Dhabi Airports. I had to undergo hospitalization after I reached home as a result of my miserable travel. In the meantime, when I enquired with Etihad Airways at London Airport about my baggage, I was told that no information about the same had been received from Air Canada. After I reached Calicut (Kozhikode) Airport, I was shocked to learn that my luggage was missing. I had put in a claim with Etihad Airways on the said day itself. I listed out the articles contained in my luggage of a total value, amounting to 46,913 Dollars.

Ten days later, Etihad Airways informed me that one of my bags was traced from Air India and that the other bags had not been passed on by Air Canada to Etihad Airways. All my original work was in the luggage that is still untraced. My work file was also in the luggage and so I could not submit them to my employers, thereby putting my job at risk. The other valuables that were in there, my paints, money, equipment, etc. are all gone. I contacted Etihad Airways on a daily basis, but to no avail.

I had also contacted Goose Bay Airport (YYR) but Air Canada informed me that my loading chart could not be given to me as the equipment was broken and thus luggage could not be scanned at the relevant time. Subsequently, Etihad Airways informed me in writing that it could grant only 600 Dollars to me as compensation for each of my baggage. This sum is ridiculously low and cannot in any manner compensate me for the loss of my original paintings. The estimated value of my valuable works will come to 39,000/- Dollars on the basis of the sums received by me by sale of my paintings in Canada.

Subsequently, on 10-7-2014, I received from Etihad Airways at Calicut airport my hand luggage in a severely damaged condition. All items, including the 7200 Dollars received by me from sale of my paintings, laptop, iPad, etc. were missing from the said hand luggage. On 1-7-2014, I made a complaint (Ref. No.**) to Air Canada in this regard. I sent various reminders, including two to Air Canada on 12-7-2014 and 2-8-2014. In the last reminder mentioned above, I requested nothing but that Air Canada should take all efforts to trace out my missing baggage, as a commercial airline with a reputation for doing its best for its customers and pointing out how valuable the creative works and equipment are to an artist like me. All required documents, including photographs of the damaged hand luggage traced out, were forwarded to Air Canada. However, apart from a communication on 28-8-2014 offering an apology and an attempt to cast the responsibility solely on Etihad Airways, Air Canada has done absolutely nothing in the matter.

It is obvious that both the airlines are trying to evade responsibility for the sheer negligence that has occurred in the matter. A blatant deficiency in service has occurred on the part of both the airlines in handing over my luggage to me. I am entitled to be compensated for the loss of my valuable paintings and equipment and also for the mental agony and anxiety caused to me by their actions and omissions. In view of their totally indifferent attitude, (Etihad Ref: **) I had been waiting for the last three months to get a favorable reply from them, but they could not give me my luggage and even the compensation what I claimed.

After three months, I was forced to tell the media about it. And it became a hot news in all the media. I am left with no option but to take appropriate proceedings to get back my luggage or to obtain adequate compensation from the airlines. I request you, sir to help me to get back my lost luggage which is very much valuable to me or help me to get compensation what I claimed from the concerned airlines.

It's now a month later, and I needed to book a flight for business. After calling and speaking with the agent at Air Canada (Marie from the Toronto Call Centre, VERY unhelpful) I'm told that each flight costs me a cancellation fee of $210 and a transfer fee of $120 for a total of $330 (for EACH flight)!!! My original flight only cost $450 each - so basically Air Canada are the complete opposite of caring and compassionate but rather deceptive and shady business operators. Furthermore, when I asked Marie to speak with a manager (one three different occasions) she said that she's the only person to speak with and flat out said 'no' about speaking to anyone else. My only option was through their complaints department via email online. I merely want them to listen to that original conversation to see that there was no discussion by their agent about any cancellation or transfer fees, nor was that indicated within the email confirmation afterwards.

I can't tell you how disappointed I am that the supposed #1 airline in Canada (where I'm proudly from) would run such a shady business operation and, furthermore, not correct issues for their customers where there's been a clear mistake on their part. Will never travel on one of their planes again.

Basically, Air Canada has decided to shove more seats in every class onto this aircraft at the expense of comfort and space, and every passenger is short-changed as a result. The 777-300ER that normally takes 359 passengers is being converted to 458 passengers - mine was one of them. The passenger loses. I have read that it is a plan to reduce cost per seat by 15%. It is a total disgrace - avoid this aircraft at all costs. Air Canada used to be a great airline but it is heading downhill. I have sent two emails, two letters to the LHR office and two letters to Calin Rovinescu: the CEO of Air Canada. No reply of any kind has been received to date. Air Canada really doesn't care anymore. If this is the way Air Canada is going, then it's time to change airlines folks.

We were quite shocked as we were on time and still the agents said we were late! Ok we said and waited until 1900 hours. Upon reaching at the designated gate 48 we were told that 1900 hours is also fully booked so they again transferred us to 2000 hours to Toronto, waited again and as soon as the time striked - same story (2000 hours was also fully booked). This time we were getting angry and frustrated as were being transferred onto different flights. Agents told us that we'll definitely go on 2130 hours last flight to Toronto. So we waited again (bearing in mind we landed at Montreal airport at 1720 and it was already 4 hours delay). Our family and friends were waiting impatiently at Billy Bishop Airport.

At 2130 hours again we were told that flights are fully booked and that the confirmed seats will be given to us for the next day morning flight at 0630 hours. We also accepted that as we had no other choice; however, when the agents advised us that they cannot put us in any of the hotels for the night we just felt ignored. We waited patiently until 2130 hours only to be told that we have confirmed booking for the next day, no hotel for night and was only given CAD20 for our meals at the airport. What the hell??? Passengers were flown without any kind of priority basis. Your Agent Christina ** (supervisor) was there who is ever so rude and dealt with us in a very unprofessional way!!!!!!!!! We were left deserted at the airport. We were told to wait at the airport without lodging etc.

First time in Canada with world class Airline ruined our whole trip. We were then told that we can collect the bags at the baggage claim; however, upon our approach we were advised that our bags has already flown to Toronto Pearson (and not even to Billy Bishop). I had my medicine in my luggage as I suffer from joint pain being a thyroid patient. I would be also lodging the claim for that too. How can you fly a luggage on a passenger aircraft without the passengers??? Without advising us?? The whole system was in chaos. We were not prepared to sit at the airport overnight without my medication. So we decided to arrange a taxi from the airport to Toronto which costed us $600.00 (CAD) and took us 6 hours to reach YYZ airport.

Upon reaching at the airport we went towards to claim our baggage. I got my luggage straightaway; however, my friend's luggage was still missing. We then asked the agent who told us that his luggage is coming on the next flight to Toronto. What the heck?? Contradicting stories!! All the way. So we waited again for my friend luggage to arrive which co-incidentally did arrive on that flight. Soon after claiming our luggages I found out that my eyesight glasses (case) were missing which was attached to the luggage!!!! I was very furious at that time and requested to speak to the manager, however no avail. Nobody was able to comment on anything!!

I'm talking to my solicitors to take appropriate legal action Air Canada so that you know how to deal with customers. I've also recorded a video footage of your handling agents the way they dealt with the luggages! I will be showing that too in the court of law. I work as a logistics manager in reputable company in England and have never come across such a disaster in my life. Air Canada not only ruined our start of vacations but also added a cost burden upon us. I'm very very very disappointed the way you guys handled our situation. Flights overbooked, no adequate accommodation provided, discrepancy in giving out meal vouchers, (the fellow passengers who traveled with us were given $30 CAD and we were only given $20.00 CAD) not to mention that this is nothing against the cost we had to incur from our pockets just to get to destination.

Under IATA regulations your airline is obliged to provide us with Adequate accommodation, meals and transfer in case of any flight delays. Your agent Christina ** was one of the rudest person I ever met in my life. As I mentioned before, we work as professional in our trade and I understand sometimes the things doesn't go along, respecting that Air Canada should have consider our situation and dealt with it in a nice way. I demand your immediate response to my query and I look forward to hearing back from you within 24 hours.

After many complaints nothing was done to sort this. We boarded our Virgin flight, however our bags were lost for 1 week! When we arrived in Toronto we attempted to redeem our delayed boarding vouchers and were refused and dismissed! When we went to travel back to Dublin from Toronto we realized when we went to board the aircraft that we were flying with Air Canada Rouge. At no point in the booking process, ticket etc were we made aware of this. When I complained to the boarding staff, I was told "Oh you were expecting Air Canada, well prepare to be disappointed". After arriving back from our holiday I complained to Air Canada on 15/08/14. I am still waiting on a response! Also I posted my request for compensation to the UK address for compensation. I have still received no compensation or response. The amount due for 2 people is €1,200.

I could never know if I would be able to get a Visa before purchasing the ticket because an itinerary is required to apply for a Visa. The value of my ticket can be applied toward the purchase of another ticket for future travel before March 16, 2015. However, I don't have any future travel plan. In addition, all the flights operated by Air Canada is connected from Canada. Therefore, I will need a Visa in anyway. And to apply Visa again, I'll need an itinerary or ticket. It is also not guaranteed that I will be able to get the Visa. In this case, they should able to refund the ticket since it is not my fault. I properly applied for the Visa on time. Unfortunately, Air Canada Customer and Refund Service insist on not refunding the ticket. This really bother me and this is not fair.

We went to Delta and were pointed to WestJet. At WestJet we were booked in but could not go because the ticket was not paid for by either Delta or United. We were sent a 1/8 of a mile back to Delta and another 1/8 mile back to United. United told us that Delta would not accept the payment electronically because of some glitch, who would in turn pay WestJet. The issue was still not resolved at 7:50 AM and as United had badly over-booked all of their flights to Vancouver, it looked like we were looking at least a couple of days or more to get back to Vancouver, if we were lucky. And as we were both to be back at work Wednesday, July-02-14, we decided to go back a mile to WestJet and purchase a ticket back to Vancouver on their 8:45 flight that we were already booked on. We also thought our chances of getting to Vancouver would be diminished more because of the upcoming July 4th US holiday. The cost was $515.10 each for two tickets.

I realize that weather was an issue but the lack of a flight crew was not, as aircraft were going, after the flight was cancelled. The re-booking I can accept, but not the total incompetence of Air Canada's partner airline, United, in not arranging payment for a flight they booked us on. Surely, being in business for the length of time they have been, these situations would have been figured out long before this happened. I have received 24 emails from United, the last being Monday July 1 at 6:11 pm, after I had arrived home, advising of further flight delays to Vancouver. I want the $1030.20 we spent getting to Vancouver reimbursed.

It appears that you did not understand what the crux of the problem re our return flight from Chicago to Vancouver BC. We followed your partner airlines instructions to the T. United Airlines booked our return flight through Delta Airline, who in turn booked us with WestJet. Both Delta and WestJet confirmed our flight and WestJet had a ticket waiting for us at their check-in counter. The only problem was that YOUR PARTNER AIRLINE did not pay WestJet for the ticket. Again Your PARTNER AIRLINE arranged this flight and we did what they instructed us to do. As the flight was leaving before United could get THEIR payment problem sorted out, I PAID for the flight to avoid the obvious gong show that was unfolding. I will not let this issue slide away.

I fully expect Air Canada to reimburse me the full value of our return tickets. I can assure that this will cost Air Canada much more than the face value of the compensation we seek if this issue is not resolved to my satisfaction. I would like a cash refund not a travel coupon.

My husband sure was surprised when all he picked up from the airport that evening was my checked baggage. :-( Tell me, why is it illegal for me to fly without my checked baggage but it is legal for my checked baggage to fly without me!? Don't make my mistake. DON'T TRUST AIR CANADA WORKERS. They just assume and make split decisions based on nothing but their own ignorance!

I am PhD in Industrial Engineering and I worked on dynamic pricing. I do understand some seats can be more expensive than others for regular customers because they are buying a luxury. However, I do not believe that I am trying have more leg room for myself. I am just trying to keep the family together in such a long flight while making sure that the baby have a spot to sleep properly.

After writing this complaint, I was sent an email indicating that I should be talking to reservations to resolve the issue. I was contacted by a manager on this. She indicated that my email does not sound like a complaint. She made me feel as if I am trying to cheat the system. Her reasoning is Air Canada is a business and businesses exist to make profit. As a person who developed loyalty programs, I can assure you that losing a customer in the long run is much worse than making an additional $360 for the preferred seats. Anybody who knows a little about total customer value can attest to this. Unfortunately, the Manager that I talked to either does not know what total customer value is or choose to ignore this concept.

Long story short - In my opinion, allowing only one parent to sit in the preferred seat without extra charge is neither humane nor ethical!!! I will try my best to change this policy by taking this issue to media, my social network and public's attention.

I asked her if this was the line for domestic flights. She said yes, but that I couldn't go in line because I had liquor (which was in a sealed bag from the duty free shop bought at Dublin Airport). In her snarly tone she stated that it needed to go in my checked luggage. I advised her that Air Canada just lost my checked luggage, so had no luggage. I asked her what I should do. She looked at me and actually said "find something to put it in, that's your problem" and then told me to move to stop blocking the line.

Absolutely the worst airline to fly with! They were extremely rude to me and other passengers. I only flew Air Canada because I was going international. I have flown WestJet and Porter many times and never had such rude people. I believe WestJet is starting flights from Nfld to Dublin this summer, and I will definitely go that route before flying Air Canada again!!! Until then, holding out hope my luggage finds its way back to me!

Better Business Bureau (BBB) F Rating: While a number of airlines, such as WestJet, United and Southwest, are rated A+, the BBB gives Air Canada an F (the lowest possible BBB rating). This is because of its complaint history with the BBB.

Unresponsiveness to Customer Concerns: My experience has reflected that of the BBB. On a 21 December 2013 flight from Vancouver to Paris (costing over $2000), my checked suitcase was lost by Air Canada. Today, one month later, on 20 January 2014, the AC baggage tracking website shows Tracing continues; please check back later. This is despite my wife and I doing everything that was asked of us, including completing the required form at Paris immediately when the suitcase did not come through; keeping all our boarding passes and baggage tags; and snail-mailing (as required) a complete 10-page claim report with all documentation to AC central baggage in Montreal, five days after our return to Vancouver, and weeks before their 21-day deadline.

No Response in Writing: I have requested information using the e-mail form on the AC website, with no response. No Phone Response: We have made multiple calls. No Response In Person: We have made two trips to AC baggage services at YVR, and have been told that they can do nothing. No Phone Access to Canadian Customer Service Department: Other than the call center in India, AC has no customer service phone number. They appear to have a customer service department in Calgary, but it can be contacted only by e-mail or fax.

Our return flight, through the US with United, was longer than the outbound flight with AC, but was uneventful, and we and our remaining baggage reached the intended destination. Wherever possible, I strongly recommend using WestJet and/or a US carrier.

Original Review: Jan. 21, 2014

Flew Air Canada flight 722 from Toronto to LGA on January 5th. After our flight was delayed by many hours (including sitting on the tarmac for over an hour), we were told mid-flight that we were being rerouted to Boston. Upon landing in Boston, we had to wait again on the tarmac, and then when we finally reached the terminal, were asked to wait for over an hour while the Air Canada representatives tried to arrange bus transportation to NYC.

This wasn't possible, so then the reps handed out cards with the Customer Relations website link (there is no phone number for Customer Relations) and told us multiple times that all out-of-pocket expenses that we incur in order to get back to NYC will be fully reimbursed, as they weren't able to rebook all of us then because there were hundreds of us (at least three flights worth of people), they had to reschedule our flights and find new crew, and there were too many people to find accommodation for given the number of staff available.

They reiterated that we would be reimbursed every few minutes, and I had them confirm that overnight accommodation and a train ticket (there were no more trains or buses running that evening) would be fully compensated. The specific agent that I spoke with was a gentleman. As there were only four reps on the floor when we landed, you would think Air Canada could deduce which employee would have been working then, and could confirm my account of events.

I haven't been able to get help from Air Canada in receiving my reimbursement, but I am now out around $400 due to this. They gave a standard form response of 15% off of future flights, not that I would ever fly with them again, and the option of submitting receipts for a $100 refund 'consideration' - but stated that weather-related costs would not be refunded. I know that there are many other passengers that were in the same predicament since there were multiple flights rerouted to Boston, and we were all told the same thing. The service that I've been receiving has made me feel like Air Canada lied to us so that we would not hassle them, and are now dealing with this by hiding behind anonymous emails. This is taking advantage of customers at its best.

I wrote to Air Canada pointing out that had they fully disclosed in their offer the limitations of both these seats, I would not have paid a premium for either of them and I requested a refund of the Euro 132.00 which I had paid. A refund was refused by Air Canada. A second request to them was similarly rejected. It is my contention that Air Canada has deliberately withheld a full description of the seats and their limitations for which it has charged a premium. Accordingly I believe I am morally (and legally) due a refund from Air Canada. In its initial reply to my complaint, Air Canada offered me a 10% discount on my next flight with them (within the next 12 months) but this compensation is of no interest or use to me as I am unlikely to ever again want to give my business to this carrier after this bad experience.

For example, I went back to use the lavatory and throw something away. All of the flight attendants were congregating in the back behind a curtain. When I approached them to ask for the trash, one female flight attendant looked at me with such anger and said, “Just throw it in the washroom!” Since Air Canada decides to be careless and doesn't enforce the use of name tags, I never retrieved her name. Also when I went to use the lavatory, I noticed three empty seats in the last row where the entertainment systems seemed to be working, yet, again, there was nothing she could do? Later, I saw flight attendants sleeping in these seats. This made me truly realize that Air Canada puts their obviously incompetent crew above the service of its customers. Mind you, this is a NINE hour flight, and with no form of entertainment, originally promised by the airline, I thought I would go crazy and I almost reached that point!

The flight also ended up being delayed, which I understand happens, but the response by EVERY SINGLE employee was unhelpful! I even heard one say, “It just happens, what do you want!” Luckily, I made my connection only because the flight was boarding late and thanks to no help from any employee of Air Canada! The customer service was absent, and that severely hurt my flight!

One of their employees also accused my brother, whom I was traveling with on my reservation, of lying! In reality, he had just misplaced his boarding stub and wasn't sure if he had it because it had the baggage receipt attached to it. The need for this baggage receipt should have been brought to our attention BEFORE we got to Customs in Montreal by the agent who checked us in OR by the agent who was at the gate OR by any other employee. But no, no one advised us of the need for the baggage receipt which led to us having to waste time and energy finding it and having the employee go COMPLETELY beyond all boundaries by accusing my brother of lying about not having it and then finding it, yes FINDING is the key word there. Lying constitutes purposeful deceit which my brother was nowhere near! He didn't hide it and then change his mind about having it, he simply couldn't find it at first which should have been understandable because, again, NO ONE advised us that we would have needed it.

I did receive a response from Air Canada regarding these issues, and all they could offer me was five percent off of a future flight that had to be operated by Air Canada. Are they seriously assuming that I would fly with them again? Also, instead of focusing on the entire complaint, which was over a page in length, they decided to explain themselves on behalf of the broken entertainment system which, honestly, I could get over at some point. But in their response, they nowhere addressed the other, more enraging behavior that I outlined clearly throughout my complaint (the above parts are from my complaint)! I will even post their response below for you to see.

“Thank you for your email. I am pleased to respond on behalf of Air Canada. We make every effort to ensure our entertainment system is functioning on each flight. However these systems are not infallible, and although tested routinely, some malfunctions are not detected until after departure. This is simply beyond our control, much as we wish it were not. In response to the seats at the back of the aircraft, these are crew seats and Air Canada has a contractual agreement to designate a few seats per aircraft type as crew rest.

As a gesture of goodwill for the entertainment system, we are pleased to offer you a one time saving of 5% off of the base fare on your next booking at aircanada.com. To receive your discount, enter the one time use Promotion Code ** in the Promo Code box at www.aircanada.com when you make your booking. This offer is valid for one year from today. This means the booking and travel must be completed within the year. It is available on a new booking only and applies to a maximum of two passengers, provided both passengers are booked at the same time.

The discount applies exclusively on published fares for Air Canada, Air Canada Express and Air Canada rouge designated flights. Flight pass purchases are not eligible for the discount and promo codes cannot be combined with other discount codes. Please note the fare displayed on the Select Flights screen will reflect the discount rounded to the nearest dollar. Thank you for contacting our office and choosing Air Canada for your travel needs.”

Yes, although hard to believe, that was their shameful, offensive response. It just sickens me when airlines act this way and especially when they get away with it as they oftentimes do. I implore you not to choose Air Canada because they are certainly part of that group if not the highlight of it.

You have/had several issues at LAX and at VC airport. I will get into VC in a moment, but your front line staff at LAX are in dire need of not only customer service retraining, but one of your check-in clerks tried to assault me by throwing a green carrier back that I had left at the desk directly at me when I was in the women's room, desperately trying to redistribute the weight of my bags.

The middle-aged, dark-haired female baggage clerk at 5:20 a.m. on Tues., March 28 at LAX airport, was second from the last (L-R) at check-in. Because of the changes in baggage rules, stores across America have SHRUNK the sizes of bags to fit in overhead, so that people won't have to pay the extra fees. When I bought new bags on Monday, I had very little choice of sizes.

I did arrive with too many small bags and two suitcases. However, regardless of the number of passengers who arrive in this condition, no one should be treated like a 5-year-old, by the check-in agent who is the one acting like a 5-year-old with authority. Below is a verbatim conversation I had with the Air Canada check-in agent at LAX after putting two bags on the scale, the one who eventually threw the suitcase at me in the ladies room:

"Come back here to me because I have your baggage claim for the first bag."

I was in the ladies room with everything open and dumping everything out. While I was breaking out in a sweat after driving all night from Phoenix and stressing (this is 5:30 a.m.), the check-in woman came into the ladies room and THREW A GREEN CARRY ON BAG AT ME(!) saying, "And you had so many you forgot this one!" Your employee threw a bag at my head! I am seriously considering calling LAX because there was a cleaning lady in the room when the event happened and they may have video tape in the sink area.

When I got down to correct size and weight, an employee told me where to stand, and I kept trying to get the clerk's attention as she told me to come back to her and she completely ignored me.

I'm 56 years old, but 36 hours and no sleep and being treated like I was a five-year old, I just started sobbing into a Kleenex in the middle of a very crowded line. A supervisor came up to me, and when I explained, she arranged to weigh my bags and I paid for the $70 for the extra bag. However, she did not give me a boarding pass. She went to the agent who denied everything (I think she had second thoughts about throwing that bag at me in the bathroom). The supervisor had to reissue my boarding pass because the first one was lost.

We landed LATE in VC, everyone on the LAX flight had to catch the flight to Shanghai and we only had 40 minutes. We were following the signs when an airport/AC(?) (both denied misdirecting us) employee told me and several other passengers to BYPASS the Immigration line and go through another way, where we were promptly turned around and sent to the back of the Immigration Line. Now I was really getting upset. There is no way to clear customs and catch that flight.

Why on earth did you schedule the plane change on such a tight schedule at 9 a.m. on a Tues. morning?

A female Air Canada employee shouted, "Shanghai" and a group followed her who were given pink boarding passes and sent to the gate where we boarded right away. There were NO OTHER PEOPLE IN THE AIRPORT. I asked the woman what was going on and she said, "This isn't my job. I'm trying to help you." If that wasn't rude enough, when I was given my boarding pass, I mentioned to the gate agent that there were at least 50 passengers suck in Immigration who were on this flight. His exact words to me were, "AIR CANADA WAITS FOR NO ONE."

Well, you did wait for those passengers, and this complaint can be found on my travel blog.

I agreed to this and then I was told I cannot book my other son for this flight because it is non-transferable. I spoke to two different individuals, the last person being Charlene ** and she referred me to you saying that it is possible that you may be able to issue a proper refund or credit. I do not even need this. All I need is to transfer the name of Tristen ** to Hunter **. I understand policies but this whole situation is unacceptable to me. I have already lost ($300 on rebooking and $100 on extension) if booking can still happen but, at this point, it looks as if I will lose the whole $1446.96 (unearned revenue for Air Canada).

This issue needs to be dealt with immediately as I do not expect to have to pay the amount that the flights will surely go up with delay. I will add that both of your representatives were friendly but seemed unable to help with this .They also explained to me your policies regarding rebooking and non-transferable along with the year policy with the credit. I do not accept any of this. I have no interest in having to take care of this through social media but this is my next step. I feel as though I am being taken for fee after fee by these policies. I await your response.

Just a note: Any allergy can become life threatening at any time without prior notice. Any person who has even had a mild allergic reaction to nuts, milk, eggs etc. can go into fatal anaphylactic shock the next time they are exposed. New allergies can occur at any time as well. On your site, when you say people with "severe allergies", you are misinformed about allergies. If you have qualified medical doctors reviewing the information, then they are misinformed. Ask an allergist or allergy specialist. Although I have never had anaphylactic reactions to nuts on a plane, it does not mean that I can be complacent. The only thing I realized after this atrocious situation was that Air Canada is protecting its own hide and has no interest in customer service or basic human compassion.

Allergies are already a disability someone has to deal with daily. You can surely understand why someone would not want a reaction to food (that could have easily been replaced with something else) when they have no access to medical attention. And to address the response that it is an infringement to others' rights, it is an infringement to my rights not to be allowed to fly in a safe environment.

Like I mention in the blog, I have never asked for any extraordinary measures to be made. And to address the response that other people are free to bring their own bags of nuts on the plane, I say yes they are. And I am free to ask them to refrain from eating them. If they refuse to comply, I should have the opportunity to move seats, or they can be relocated. It is a matter of health, and I have to be able to advocate on my own behalf. The only concession I require is that nuts not be served near me. I usually bring along enough snacks for everyone in the adjacent rows as well. I have no problem letting people know that their very small sacrifice of going nut free on the plane is greatly appreciated. There are some excellent nut-free trail mixes, cookies, crackers and granola bars available. There is no reason the airlines could not use these products.

Air Canada has turned me off flying for good. Unfortunately, I am overseas and terrified to board a plane again after the horrible treatment of the Air Canada staff. I have a peanut allergy and have flown many times on many different airlines without incident. Sometimes the flight staff is helpful, sometimes not. I was appalled at the atrocious treatment we received on our flight from Calgary to Los Angeles. I was flying from Calgary to Brisbane with a plane/airline change in Los Angeles. I had my husband and 2 children with me as we were moving overseas. I had made all necessary precautions. I had called the airline twice prior to leaving to ensure a note was on my ticket about the allergy. I never ask for unreasonable actions to be taken, like making the entire flight nut free. I know that is not reasonable or possible. I don't even care if they make an announcement; I can inform people near me if I need to. All I need them to know is I have an allergy, where I am seated, and that I require they don't serve nuts near me. I will worry about the rest myself. I always have.

Upon entering the plane, I informed the first flight staff about the allergy and my seat number. She looked annoyed and asked me if I had an EpiPen with me. I always bring 2 on long flights, just in case. That is when things went sideways. Next thing I know, the plane is completely full and a very abrasive woman comes with a large manual to point very aggressively at a statement about their policies. She informs me and my family that we are to disembark the plane immediately as I never received medical clearance to fly. I was stunned. This had never happened before. We gathered our things and left the plane. I was visibly upset. I was trying to ask her questions as we proceeded back to the terminal. She informed my husband that he needed to "calm me down" or we would be escorted from the airport.

I was never told that I needed medical clearance to fly. I was trying to hold it together. My kids were getting upset as well. We explained that we had a connecting flight to Brisbane, and had just traveled from Halifax, and had nowhere to go. They were going to "try" and get me the medical clearance. They let us on the plane again, but then shortly after, we were told to leave again. Then they let us back on the plane again. I signed a waiver that if I died, it was not Air Canada's fault. Then they said we had to get off the plane again. They kept asking if I had ever had a reaction on a flight before. I kept repeating that I had not, three times! Everyone on the small flight is looking at us. Everyone is angry. The plane is very late already. They tell us we are delaying the plane too long and people will miss their connecting flights. I know, we are about to miss ours!

We are standing in the terminal in disbelief. By this time, my kids and I are all very unhappy. My husband is very angry. They have removed our luggage from the plane for the third time. When someone yells that I have clearance and can board. We are rushed on the plane, but not before we are inadvertently told that the note on my file that stated I had a nut allergy was in fact clearly written on my ticket. There should have been no confusion. If they required medical clearance, they did not tell me.

Here is the final kicker. As we are walking down to board the plane for the fourth time, my husband said something along the lines of "This is **". Not appropriate, but I think that was rather restrained considering. All of a sudden we are surrounded by security staff that insists we apologize to the Air Canada staff or we won't be allowed to fly. The flight attendant is bawling, like we have done her a great injustice. We are forced to apologize. She won't even look at me the entire flight.

When we finally get seated again, I can't even speak because I am so upset. I sit and stare straight ahead for 3 hours. I am appalled at the treatment we received. The announcement made by the pilot was equally disturbing. He said it was not Air Canada's fault; it was a policy they had to follow. If it is not their fault, whose fault could it possibly be? And of course there is always some ignorant person on the plane who very loudly states, "All this for a stupid nut allergy, just kick them off." As if I have any control over having an allergy. If I had the choice, I would obviously get rid of it. I was born with it and will die with it, hopefully not on a plane though.

As you can imagine, the delay in getting the bag has cost me about $600 at a very minimum and this does not include the things in the bag that I have not needed to replace yet. My basic questions that I asked through all communication formats were:

5. How will you pay me this compensation?

I am not kidding when I say that they have not answered a single one of these questions properly. Offering $100 compensation is a joke. I even wrote to their compensation department (which is ridiculous that in this century that is the only way of contacting someone) and still no answers. Absolutely appalling. I have told everyone I know to never fly Air Canada.

We missed two paid days at a Sandals Resort for which I had a very expensive upgraded room. Air Canada wouldn't offer 1 cent of compensation even though they had our money for a flight to Vancouver but just up and cancelled. How can they be permitted to treat customers in such a manner? Air Canada Vacations was even worse. They denied any and all responsibility, happy to take our money but not one bit interested in ensuring you get what you have paid for. Air Canada Vacations will never see a dime of my vacation money again. This was the third trip we had booked with them in the past 4 years but I can guarantee there won't be a 4th. No other business would be permitted to operate using such practices and I can't understand how this type of behavior is tolerated by authorities who should definitely force them to be accountable to paying customers. If they were held to task and had to answer for such travesties in customer service, that might instill some incentive for them to improve.

Yesterday, I called in at Air Canada's helpline again, but at this point, it's too late. I have to pay a fare difference of $700 just to get out by tomorrow or day after, for something that is clearly not even my fault. I have a deadline to meet and a job to join by the 1st of January 2013. All because of the mistake that agent made, this will cost me my job in Pakistan. My seat has now been booked for the 11th January (since that's the only date when there's no fare difference), but the damage has been done. Furthermore, I have nowhere to go at this point. My trip to Canada is over. I came here to do a short course at Durham College. It's done now. I left my accommodation and I don't have enough cash to stay at a hotel. I have nowhere to go for the next two weeks.

Please, if Air Canada claims to be the best Airline in North America, kindly tell me where I went wrong here and why am I liable to pay $700 for flight ticket difference? Can't someone even call in just to inquire about something or do you people just cancel their tickets right away without any prior notice, confirmation or anything? I'm extremely disappointed with your service. Kindly help me out here. I have clearly suffered enough. I can't go through this suffering for another two weeks.

Further information: I have called on the helpline of Air Canada, asking them to please waive my fare difference since I need to get out as early as possible. They bluntly said no to my request and said there's nothing that can be done. Also, the only choice I have now is to fly out on the 11th of January 2013, with a 9-hour stay at Dubai Airport, which I initially did not have in my flight that was mistakenly cancelled by Air Canada's agent. I would like compensation for the damage Air Canada has caused, the fare difference at this point, and the cost of my accommodation after the 28th until 11th January.

The YYC-IAH flight AC8106 left late by about 75 minutes and finally arrived at 11:47pm without my luggage. I waited for 15-20 minutes by the luggage belt to be re-assured by the Air Canada and its partner United Airlines staff that my bag had been already re-routed to SAT since it was its original destination. I finally arrived in SAT after a few hours of sleep via the UA4188 flight. To my horror, my luggage was not at the UA baggage claim counter but was traced still waiting at IAH. The AC/UA staff broke their promise that my luggage was going to be there for me when arriving in SAT.

At 10:00am, the UA baggage claim lady quickly found my lost bag at IAH and promised that it will be on the next plane leaving IAH to SAT. They are UA flights (AC partner) at 11:26am and 12:50pm. ** said to expect a call after lunch to confirm if we want this luggage delivered to our hotel or if we wanted to pick it up. We called the 1-800-335-2247 at 2:10pm to ascertain the status of this bag. The website showed useless info by saying "Tracing process continues, check back later!" The rep at the call center located in India indicated that another promise to us was broken. This suitcase was not going to be on a plane until the much later UA1223 flight arriving in SAT at 9:43pm.

This means that I lost a full vacation day mostly waiting in airports or on a tarmac to finally arrive without my luggage and get the runaround for tracing my luggage. My experience with AC is so disappointing and further confirms to me that whenever given the choice between AC and another carrier, I choose the latter. How will AC compensate me for this terrible and stressful experience in trying to regain my confidence in your company? I am a woman traveling in a foreign country with limited mobility and I am wearing a bed sheet sitting in my hotel room waiting for my bag to come ... not enough tears to express how I feel being treated by AC right now!

When we got to Edmonton International Airport that night, we found out that people had gotten bumped as the Montreal Alouettes were flying to Montreal and I'm sure they did not purchase tickets in March for this flight. All my complaining did pay off as my son and I got on the flight, but other people did not. I emailed Mr. Rovinescu in regard to this matter of basically stepping on the ordinary person to accommodate so-called celebrities yesterday, but never received an apology or any type of reasoning as to why when all 3 last names were the same and the tickets were all booked at the same place and time. Someone did not clue in and think family of 3 traveling together, maybe we'd better not split them up.

I just wanted to let the general public know so they can avoid Air Canada, where the ordinary customer does not come first. I've sent letters to the editors of the Edmonton Sun as well as The Guardian and Journal-Pioneer on PE. I also emailed the Alouettes to let them know what Air Canada attempted to do to us and what they did to other people, but have never received a response from anyone at the Alouettes.

Their solution was to to charge an additional $700 to put us on the next flight after we had already paid in full. My wife was not feeling well, was on chemo and terminally ill. They took none of these facts into consideration. These guys are jerks, do not have to compete or be good to their customers because they are owned by the Canadian government. I will never fly or recommend Air Canada to anyone ever again.

Once we boarded the plane, the delays continued. First, we were told that paperwork was not finished so we had to wait. Then when the paperwork got there, the flight plan had expired so they had to file a new one. We finally took off over two hours late. Of course, we were concerned about our connecting flight. When we got to Montreal, there was still time to make our flight, but here is where the really unacceptable delay occurred causing us to miss our connection. Air Canada agents came and found some people who were on an even earlier flight to Chicago and rushed them through security. I suggested to my group (still 7 at this point) that we follow them, but we played by the rules and stayed in line. Big mistake. Never play by the rules in Montreal!

Even though we never left the secure area, we had to go through two security checks, two customs checks, and countless other lines where all they did was scan our boarding pass and allow us to continue. At one point, we were in a long hallway and could see four more queues ahead of us. When we got through one queue, we would get immediately into the next one a few feet (meters) later. When we got to the gate, they had given away four of our seven seats. Two of our group did board and they waited until 7pm to take off on the scheduled 5:35pm flight. My wife was also asked to board but she refused to fly without her husband. Why did they scan our boarding passes so many times if not to see where we were in the airport? This was just plain ridiculous.

Next, we were assigned to fly on the plane from hell! That plane was to take off at 7:40pm and get us into Chicago Sunday night. Plus they gave us $100 each except for my wife as a consolation prize. We told them we were never flying Air Canada again, so credit was not going to cut it. We wanted cash. After eating on your dime, we boarded the plane and hoped we would get home by midnight, but this was not to be. The plane took off at 8:20pm (40 minutes late). Meanwhile, our son began his 90-minute drive to the airport in Chicago to pick us up. Somewhere before flying over Detroit (as shown on your monitor at each seat), we were told that the plane had a problem and we would have to divert to Toronto. You would not believe the screams of horror from the passengers including us. How many more things could go wrong? We were about to find out.

We landed in Toronto and waited at a gate to see if the problem could be fixed. After 20-30 minutes, we are told that the problem could not be fixed and we were going to taxi over to another gate. We waited another 20-30 minutes for a gate. We spent another 20-30 minutes driving over to the new gate. By this time, our son is sitting in the cell phone lot at O'Hare field in Chicago. More waiting and we finally are able to get off the plane at 11:30pm. We were told that Air Canada would put us up in a hotel and give us something to eat. None of this came to be. By 12:30am, it is now obvious that our other two bags (which you charged us a whopping 110 Euros, US$139.54, to carry) were not going to arrive in Toronto. We are told to check in the morning which we did, and they could not find the bags. Meanwhile, our other two pieces of luggage have been collected in Chicago by the two people who went ahead on flight 8657. Their names were originally on those bags. They had the bags locked in the baggage office in Chicago with our name clearly marked. We then had to collect their bag in Toronto, which we did do. Eventually, we had the Chicago office send this bag to the Wisconsin home of the other couple.

In Toronto, we waited for meal vouchers that would have been unusable anyway due to the late hour (now 12:45am), but they never came. We watched for 20 minutes as a line of 50-75 people wait for the so-called shuttle to take them to the hotel and make a very smart decision to skip the four queues (line for the shuttle, line to check into hotel, line to check out of hotel, and the line for the shuttle back to the airport) all of which had to happen in a 4-hour span plus we also had to sleep during that time. The five of us decided to sleep in the airport so we could be sure to be there in the morning when it was time to check in. The next day, we talked to people who had waited for the shuttle and found out that the wait was one hour. We were then happy with our decision to sleep at YYZ.

On Monday morning, my wife checked with baggage and was told they did not lose the bags, but they did not know where they were. Okay! We board flight 7859 and flew to Chicago. Meanwhile, our son had to drive 90 minutes home the night before, get a short sleep, and drive 90 minutes back to pick us up after getting permission to take off work. We arrived on time and filed for lost luggage. On Tuesday, we are told the bags have been found and will be shipped to Chicago. From the tags, it appears they were lost in Toronto somewhere. We hope to see them on Tuesday. Wrong! On Wednesday, we made several phone calls and sent several emails and all we hear is "Please wait!"

At 10:32pm CDT, Global Delivery called and said they have the bags and can bring them tonight. We are going to bed so we decided to wait until Thursday. He said they would arrive by 1pm. At 1:21pm, a man from the delivery service calls and has the bags and is in the vicinity, but needs directions. At 1:55pm, the man arrives with the bags. I verified that everything is in the bags and no damage has occurred. The nightmare was over after 107 hours. If you had not given away our seats on flight 8657, I would not be writing this letter. The trip would have been terrible for sure, but at least if we had gotten home the same day and if we had our luggage, we would have written this off as a horrible travel day.

After my January heart attack, it is impossible for me to fly. So I lose the entire $326.08. I cannot transfer that portion to my husband. The $326.08 is lost entirely! He has been informed that a proposed trip to the Maritimes will require a $ 150.00 re-booking fee. This means out of $652.16, we now have remaining $176.08, a loss of 73%!

Everyone in Canada hates Air Canada now. Yes, quite a few of their employees have become hard-nosed and difficult to deal with but that is the fault of the management. Employees however, are only the product of the company culture and the culture at Air Canada has become "beggar thy neighbour". It is appalling to see the arrogant executives walk away with their unearned millions while the airline herds its cattle class passengers around the country. They have destroyed a once great company by shifting all the profits into executive salaries, bonuses and shareholders pockets while the company is drained of resources.

I am also appalled at Aeroplan and the theft of frequent flyer miles by "obstacle corridor" tactics. Obstacle corridors are designed to make a reward, any reward or gift, so time-consuming and difficult to claim that customers abandon it out of frustration. This is a growing field of marketing for obvious reasons in spite of its inherent corruption. Anyone similarly upset should join the class action suit against Air Canada online and try as much as possible to boycott the airline. Aeroplan was hived off of Air Canada so they could pretend they were not the instigators of this. It is thoroughly outrageous and manipulative.

I would also caution people about WestJet which is pretty much the only other airline in Canada. It remains to be seen how they will behave if Air Canada crashes. Their philosophy also seems to be one of corporate entitlement and reward. So far however, they have had to cater to the customers but they may not care if they become in a monopoly situation.

Let us remember these airlines fly because the taxpayers built the airports, paid for the research into the science and business of aeronautics, subsidized these companies research and development, paid 2/3 of all costs of the university and college degrees held by the employees and management, built the highways and connecting transportation to the airports, pay still for the the regulatory structure to keep the airlines audited and safe and have no say in how these companies are governed.

Without some kind of change to the governance structure, management will continue to be able to raid these companies when they choose for their own enrichment and we the public will be forced to support them because they will be "too big to fail, or to few to fail". I do not look forward to the future of flying.

Then she tells me I have to ship via FedEx, so I find the FedEx office ans send bag. Then I call to find out about missing items. I was told to file online. I file online and wait 3 weeks, never hear anything or even get mail. I call, they now tell me I cannot file online and I have to fill in and send through PO. I said, "Where does it say that." He cannot tell me I go online to Air Canada and under baggage tab it says lost and found. This is form I filled out, I tell him. He says that is the wrong form. So I ask were is the right form, he cannot tell me.

So far, I have wasted 6 or 7 hours and paid for parking. No one returns calls. No one can give straight answer. I tried filing a complaint, but need to send fax, imagine that. Do not use this airline! It is a joke!

But AC (and the partner services they use) have a staggering, flat rate cancellation charge of $269.77. So on a hotel booking charge of $783 which I cancelled 5 minutes after making the reservation, I was charged $269! The explanation they gave was that they were just passing on the charge from the hotel chain (I have not experienced any hotel in the world that would do this). Beware! Never book a hotel or any other travel related services through Air Canada!

I spent three hours on the phone to file for delayed baggage and share my concern. The representative promised that I will be reimbursed for all the costs incurred due to the delay and additional costs if we do not get our baggage by morning. The baggage did not come the next morning as well. I left without the baggage (from Calgary at my brother's residence). The baggage arrived after more than two days at the Calgary address.

As advised by Air Canada, I submitted the claim with all the supporting documents, and it cost me more than US$11 to mail than to fax. After almost a month, I received a US$200 check that I refused to take and returned it back. After another two weeks, Air Canada sent again a US$200 check that was again returned back by me.

On October 11, 2011, I received a letter saying that they are sorry, but they regret that they are unable to offer any compensation after legal review.

I would like to bring this to the knowledge of appropriate organizations for Air Canada to respect the mental and financial distress they cause to passengers due to their staff's negligence and lack of competence or training.

Today is the first time in my 12 years of domestic travel that I have been denied the right to carry my guitar on board with me. The agent told me that this is the policy of the airport, not Air Canada, and that I had to check the guitar. I know this is not true as I traveled from Ottawa airport twice in the last 30 days with my guitar in a cloth case on board, both times. I told her this and she tried to tell me that was not possible. She would not even offer me a gate check tag, which I know is available to people with strollers much larger than my guitar so I protected my personal property, canceled my Air Canada flight and booked with WestJet. When I came back to the Air Canada lineup, my wife was still checking in and it was very clear to the agent, as I had Westjet ticket in hand and my guitar on my shoulder, that indeed I could carry on my guitar if I traveled with WestJet.

The fact that your agent and her supervisor insisted that I could not travel from Ottawa with my guitar as carry-on is untruthful, and the fact that they suggested I was not telling the truth is highly offensive. My wife and I travel for our separate businesses a great deal and we're looking forward to sharing a flight together. Your uncivil staff caused us much stress, financial loss and hassle and forced us to travel separately.

I also must say that I travel a fair amount internationally and have never been denied the right to carry my guitar on board even when carrying a guitar in a large flight case and quite prepared to check my guitar: in Madrid, Frankfurt, Havana, Puerto Vallarta, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Warsaw, Narita, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago. My guitar goes on board with me. No other airlines put people through what your agents did to me yesterday and you are considered our national airline!

You just lost a customer and I am beginning to believe what people are saying about Air Canada's unspoken but obvious mandate: We're not happy until you're not happy.

Helen Gaulin, helen.gaulin@aircanada.ca, Customer Service Minion, 403-440-3117

It's a shame that the top brass at Air Canada can't seem to run this company, because the people who work for you and listen to customer complaints seem very nice and able to do their job. I can't help but wonder how much taxpayer money goes into this company. I think it's going to waste if 5 out of 6 flights were screwed up. This summer, we are driving to Quebec. Less stress that way.