by Alfred K
I travel a lot. I am on a plane about once every other week, mostly for work sometimes for fun. I have not flown on Air Canada for a domestic flight for a couple years. I’ve avoided them like the plague and opt for the much friendlier WestJet.
I had the displeasure of flying Air Canada last week, and it was as painful as a root canal done by an infant with a rusty butter knife.
What airline makes you print your own baggage tag, and affix it to your own bags? Air Canada does. You would think this would lead to better efficiency and a quicker check-in since you’re now doing their baggage agent’s job. Of course with Air Canada you get no such luck.
Instead, there is a line-up of 20 people at Toronto Pearson in the middle of the day with only ONE baggage agent. ONE! Not only was one in every five passengers showing up without baggage tags, they decided to argue with the agent. The agent with their blank look and no desire to help, just slowed everyone down.
My return from Vancouver was made even more painful, as the Westjet counter is clearly visible. Where of course there were 4 agents, processing everyone quickly, with never more than 5 people in line. Over at the Air Canada line, again 20-30 people waiting, with TWO agents. Did I mention that Air Canada agents are useless?
I ask the agent, “Does your management know that there is a huge line of irrate customers here while your competitor is doing a much better job with more agents and a better experience - all clearly within sight of your customers that you choose to ignore?”
Her answer was that she’s certain management is aware of the complaints.
All I did was laugh and tell her that her management is making a very good effort and ensuring they go under.
I will try my best to continue to avoid flying Air Canada. They clearly have no intention of providing any level of customer service, and choose to ignore the needs of their customers. Kind of like the US auto industry, and where did they go? My biggest worry is that Canadian taxpayers will end up owning a piece of yet another useless company.
Kazimir Strassman says...
The very funny part is that the quality assurance firm that I worked for until last month have Air Canada as a client. They send anonymous quality inspectors on more than 150 flights per month to over 30 destinations. Can you imagine how much worse things could be if they didn’t do this? Bottom line: it’s much worse than you think!
mimo says...
i travel every year once to visit my parents abroad..this year unfortunately i booked for the first time with AC ..it was the most aweful experience ever..the hosts were negligible and rude and the funny part i was travelling with a baby!!!! i\m now in i-dont-want-to-talk-about-it state!!!
i\ll never ever travel with AC!!! have i mentioned EVER!!!
D says...
I stopped flying Air Canada several years ago because of poor service & higher air fares than other carriers.
I made the mistake of booking a flight with them last December 19th (cheapest fare) which was the day there was a severe snow storm that would most likely shut down air travel but by the time I left home, it hadn’t yet. I went to Pearson fully prepared to deal with my flight being cancelled but hoping that just maybe I would get out; it was cancelled which, again, was not unexpected by me. What I was totally unprepared for was the way A.C. disappeared & did nothing, absolutely not one thing, to help the hundreds of stranded passengers. There was not one A.C. employee who knew how to assist anyone. When asked where to go, what to do next I was first told to use one of the in-house phones (already had dozens of people waiting) & that would connect to customer service to reschedule. People waited on the phones for so long that they were trading off waiting on the phone & sitting down with family members. You know what the result was? No one ever answered at the other end. I waited on one of those lines for about 1/2 hour when I realized that the people already on the phones had been holding on for an hour or longer without any reply. I asked again my flight’s been cancelled, where do I go, what do I do? I was then pointed to a desk that had about 10 computer stations & two people manning it, that line was already 40 or so people deep. I stood on that line for a couple hours, behind me (aparantly people kept getting directed to this desk) the line was a good 100 people long. After standing there for at least 2 hours an A.C. employee came & shouted over the 100s of voices that “if your flight was cancelled, this was not the line to be on”, there was a counter downstairs where you could rebook. Absolutely furious I went down the escalator, no desk. There was an information desk so I asked the person about this counter, he had no idea. I was livid. I went back upstairs & there was another employee someone had stopped to ask a question & this guy was suddenly surrounded by a dozen frustrated people who were trying to get help. He was handing out a slip of paper (as were all A.C. employees) that had a discount for a nearby hotel & … wait for it … the same number to call that people had been calling from in-house where nobody was picking up at the other end. He also told me about that same counter, I said I went downstairs and there was nothing, he insisted it was down there. I took my mom and all our luggage & went down again, no counter, no signs, no direction, nothing. While I was blowing off some steam on the phone with a family member I saw another AC employee & motioned for my mom to ask her, she didn’t really know but thought it might be the basement level. We went down, walking …. walking … no counter, no sign, no indication of anything but hallway. Happened to see another AC employee she pointed down the hallway & said it was a long way down. Got to counter, line was maybe 20 deep by then … ONE employee.
When eventually it was my turn, rebooked flight for two days later, but not before he tried to get people in line to take that same slip of paper instead of trying to rebook right then because there were hardly any seats available.
On my return flight, they bumped us to first class … ask me if I care. I didn’t & don’t give a damn that they bumped us to first class on the way home, I wanted service when I needed it.
I will never again fly A.C. no matter how low the airfare. I have to say, the employees gave us the only answers they had. The invisibility of A.C. employees (they were so far and few between)& the inability of any of them to truely assist anyone in my opinion is not their fault, it is reflective of the top corporate philosophy … which apparantly is “service to customers is a waste of time, & by the way A.C. employee, you deal with hordes of frustrated people however, management ain’t gonna help”.
This airline needs to go out of business & all it’s corporate decision makers need to be banned from contaminating any other airline with their pathetic excuse for leadership. All I wanted was for someone to tell me what do I do next. I assumed that the airline would have a response plan in place to help their customers as effectively & efficiently as possible when a flight or dozens of flights are cancelled.
By the way, I too looked on with total envy at the other airlines that were fully manned & cheerfully assisting people … they even gladly tried to help me when I asked one of them a question because I couldn’t get near one of the very few A.C. employees who were buried behind a wall of people. They must be some of the unhappiest employees in the world of air travel.
Adela says...
I’m sorry that you did not have a good experience but I have zero complaints with Air Canada and I’ve flown it on number of occasions - not even one hassle.
I have gone to Barbados for only $250 back in January for 2 weeks and this is a good deal for a round trip but only because my friend is an employee for the airline.
c11a7 says...
Went on a trip to visit family in winnipeg with my kids last week. On the way back, from Winnipeg we did as everyone else and arrived one and a half hour early at the airport, printed our own boarding passes and luggage tags and then, waited more then one hour to drop our luggage at the counter. Ended up being pulled out of the line up by an agent Because our flight was boarding. Had to cut thru security line and ended up almost missing our plane. With getting ther 1 1/2 hour early… Of course our luggage met us home the next day, like it very often does with air canada…
faithn says...
Hmm.. guess it’s the luck of the straw. I’ve flown with A.C. plenty of times and I’ve had no issues. We even did a flight pass a couple of years back ($800 a month for two months, unlimited flying North America on Tues and Sat). This was in Jan-Feb and it was such a sweet deal because we would fly for day trips every Saturday to Vegas, San Franciso, Miami, Orlando, etc. First flight out, last flight back (sometimes that would be the red-eye). Or we’d take a few days off and go to Whistler from Sat-Tues.
Anyhow, I’ve got to say, if you think A.C. is bad, try flying United! Their planes are ancient, seats are tiny, and food is horrible!
TooTrue says...
I must admit I avoid AC as much as possible. On rare occasions, I’ve had good service, but most times its poor to abysmal. At least Westjet is consistent with their customer service. As a result, I fly Westjet where possible. AND yes…I agree United is horrid too!
trinity991 says...
We flew Air Canada (in 2003 I think) to Maui and back. On the way back we had to catch a connecting flight in Winnipeg. There was a storm and the flight was cancelled. There was a WestJet flight out that wasn’t cancelled due to the weather but it was, unfortunately, already booked up. AC didn’t offer us anything- not even a hotel discount. Most of us had to work the next day so my inlaws ended up renting a car and driving back.
I work front desk at a hotel. We used to have WestJet flight crews stay with us (4 crews of 6 everyday). They also used our hotel to send guests whose flights were cancelled or delayed and they would foot the bill. WestJet employees are so friendly and a lot of AC employees seem to not care a whole lot.
I try my absolute hardest to avoid flying AC at all costs!
Mardi61 says...
I’ve flown with many airlines and frequently with Air Canada. They’re no different than any other airline. There are rude employees and delays wherever you go.
saleandiscount.appspot.com says...
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2010 says...
I flew AC a few months back on the way to T.O. for a connected flight to Lufthansa/ Germany, and I thought the service was pretty good… It might have been because I was traveling through the Group travel plan, but they affixed the tags for us, and gave us pop etc ( I usually fly the cheap airlines, so no pop on those;)) I think it was delayed, but so was our Lufthansaa flight… I don’t think I’ve been on a plane that departed when it was supposed to!
Laura28 says...
Every time I fly with them my luggage is either lost or my flight is delayed. EVERY TIME! I have gotten a free flight though, from their aeroplan program, so I guess it’s balanced out a little bit. WestJet is much friendlier. From having a friend that works for them, I can agree with the lack of employees on hand….he says they’re super cheap in that department.
CentrallyCalm says...
If you want to make a difference, or at least have a really fair say; go to: http://www.sqm.ca It is a Canadian company, I have been with them for a since 2008 and I mystery shop as an independent contractor whenever I choose an assignment. Assignments INCLUDE: Air Canada! (Also many hotels, VIA rail, restaurants, stores, etc). It is legitimate and I have the bank statements to prove that the company does pay, on time and right to my bank account.
Help companies improve, by giving a real report about their customer service and more. PM me if you have a question about the site; everything is on their site and it is really easy to complete a report, get paid (Air Canada and Via Rail assignments, as well as hotels PAY YOU BACK… 50% of your cost of the ticket! (or hotel costs)… you pay “upfront” because you are boarding like a “typical customer” then, complete the straight forward report, ONLINE! And get paid!
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