Air CanadaReviews 86

NEVER FLY CANADA AIR. My family and I vacationed in Italy and had flights booked home (New Jersey) for Sunday July 2nd. One flight (rome to Canada 9hr flight) and a connecting flight (Canada to Newark 1 and a half hr flight). We finished our first flight that was 9hr long and as we got off we were herded to a line just for connecting flights, then another line for security, and then another line for customs. We were worried we would not make our flight to Newark but then the flight got delayed by an hour and was scheduled to takeoff at 8pm. We got to our gate at 7pm and not one announcement was made. One lady asked if we were boarding soon and they said yes but time just kept going by still with no updates/announcements. Finally at 8:45pm they announce our flight has been cancelled due to bad weather, which was not true it was because they had no crew/pilot. Of course we ask what are we suppose to do we are 8hr away from home. They tell us we can book a hotel nearby. Of course they said there are no vouchers for hotel rooms, rent a car, taxis, trains, nothing it all has to come out of our pockets. Our next question is when is our next flight, their response Tuesday July 4th (2 days from Sunday). The flight they rebooked us for was not even in the same airport. They also said everyone must grab their luggage and exit the airport, so they kicked us out and left us with nowhere to go. We spent 1,000 just on hotels and stranded in Canada for 2 days. I am appalled they would treat their customers like this and scam us out of our money. They are con artists. NEVER FLY WITH THEM WORST AIRLINE EVER!

If you have stock with this company, sell it. Constant operational issues that corporate seems incapable of fixing

Not sure 100 words is enough. Thanks to Air Canada my 89 year old mother in law will not be able to see her last grand child graduate from high school. This is the second time they rescheduled her. The first they wanted to change her to a red eye so she would arrive in Toronto for 6am leaving Victoria at midnight. Not impressed. Since the pandemic airlines are getting worse but they want more money. Tired of it. Thanks Air Canada

My mother and my aunt (sisters) met up in Seoul to tackle legal matters at hand and stayed there for over a month.

By the time they went their separate ways back to their homes, my aunt made it back home just fine and all other flights in Incheon were flying to their destinations pretty okay.

My mother's flight back here in London, Ontario, on the other hand, got singled out.

She's stuck in Incheon for another two whole days before she finally arrives home.

Air Canada's claim? Some form of equipment malfunction. Now let's keep that in the back of our heads as we go along.

Another thing to note, the flight back home involves two flights under the same reference number. One goes from ICN to YYZ, delayed by OVER SIX HOURS (Let's keep that in mind, shall we?), and then the next one goes from YYZ to YXU. Total delay time? OVER TEN HOURS.

My mum wouldn't stop nagging me to file a delay compensation request and the site only allows us to put in the reference and flight numbers with no description. This is red flag number one. Obviously we don't get a chance to explain everything, and they claim that the delay was out of their control due to "bad weather". Hrmm, let's see which plane it was that fulfilled that flight. Okay, it went from Pearson to Incheon and was meant to take her back to Pearson the next day. Let's look at what the weather was like back then, and, NOPE! There was no "bad weather" to be had. They don't give us any opportunity to file a counter-response and immediately shut the case. Red flag number two.

I end up having to escalate this to the CTA Air Travel Complaint, but as it turns out, any and all complaints with them lasts over 18 months to process. The CTA "notes" that the wait time "will not affect the outcome of the case review," which, that "assuring" tone is all too familiar because this is exactly how we get shafted every dang time, and "Opps, too much time has passed and we have too many cases you'll just have to leave empty handed!" is all that's bound to come up, so nice work, Air Canada, for coming up with ways to cheat the system. Red flag number three.

We pretty much lose all hope at this point so my mum starts nagging me to file another complaint with new evidence, which I'm forced to oblige. The evidence, for obvious reasons, gets shoved aside, red flag number four by the way, and now they have the nerve to claim that the delay was under three hours. Remember we just told you that one flight alone had a 6+ hour delay?! You see how blatant they are about their lies?! Red flag number five. I end up contacting CTA yet again to let them know about their blatant behaviour, and I even filed a counter-response this time. Ghosted on both fronts. Of course. Red flag number six.

This leads us to having to put up this review as retaliation, and I should also note that I actually have a number of shares in Air Canada's stock exchange, and, er, yea, I'm starting to question why I even bothered to buy their stocks, given that I was only told to buy those stocks because the stock gurus on YouTube said so.

We booked tickets to fly from the US to Spain and Air Canada cancelled or changed legs of the trip repeatedly leading up to the flight itself. After calling their customer support repeatedly (and sitting on hold for eons) we got to an agent who confirmed our eligibility for a full refund (also had that in writing) and the agent advised us to cancel our tickets online for the "full refund". After cancelling the tickets as instructed we find out that the tickets had only been partially refunded and the Customer Support agent had instructed us to follow a process that according to Air Canada is "self-cancelled" despite the fact that they had changed the flights and acknowledged our right to a full refund. We contact their customer support 5 times to explain the situation only to be told, nope sorry we are going to fraudulently keep your refund because you followed the wrong process.

Long story short do not ever fly or book tickets with this airline. Horrific customer support, poor communication, training, website functionality - a terrible experience from the moment I regrettably pushed the "purchase tickets" button.

Fraudulent crooks. They will end in bankruptcy soon enough.

Flight got cancelled and rescheduled after having spent 4 hours in the airplane, parked...with no updates on flight status and if or when we'd take off.
More than 28 hours of so called 'delay'. Very little communication or ways for them to compensate and make your journey less painful.
Air Canada...they pay their staff poorly and treat them also poorly...hence why to call this company pathetic is a compliment. Next time I might as well walk.

Really upset because they send a message "we cancelled" your flight, then an hour later no, the flight number changed. BUT also change my arrival time which is really inconvenient. No explanation, just change it. You as a customer is of no importance to Air Canada.

Pls avoid it like a plague, at any cost avoid air canada. They have no respect for any body and they will cancel your flight for no reason and duck you up.

I had booked a trip in Oct 2021. I spent weeks trying to get a hold of an agent to change my flight due to a medical emergency without success. Even American Express could not reach the Airline, they subsequently credited my account after. Lengthy disputed investigation. Over a year later, I received a notice that a collection agency opened account for an amount of $900. I never once received a bill or notification from Air Canada or the collection agency that I owed anything for a service I did not receive. Absolutely pathetic service. The Federal Trade Commission has been made aware of the poor service by Air Canada, Cedars Businesses and TransUnion Credit agency.

Just arrived home from newark New Jersey it was a 5 hr flight
The guy across the isle from me was coughing and snorting and was not using even a Kleenex, I spoke to a flight attendant and suggested they provide him with a box of Kleenex and a mask, she blew me off said Covids is over and there was nothing she could do.
The very small wash rooms were awash in urine and were never cleaned up during the flight, never thought I would have to wear rubber boots on an air Canada flight. The ceo just got a big fat raise and I will bet his washrooms are not like this.
As a side note our daughter met us in Newark they had flown in from dubai on emeritus air, they had a washroom attendant on the flight to keep washrooms suitable for humans

This AIR Canada is a scam.
Few years back I brought tickets for my parents from Toronto to Los Angeles include 1 main luggage each.
My parents from abroad visiting Toronto and Los Angeles and NY. I wanted to provide them hassel free flights.
But, at the check time they demand extra fees to check in single main luggage each. ** luggages was under weight even**. We spoke and show them tickets it's says clearly 1 main luggage included for each tickets.
They check in crew of AIR CANADA demanded 35$ each for tickets, parents were travelers. So, they look benefits out it. Totally scam and disrespectful services provided to my travelers.
My questions now is Canadian government doest see this kind of scam and the way this AIR CANADA represting their country to the outside world?

Summary
- never enough carry-on luggage space
- boarding is a free for all, just a general gong show.
- flight entertainment - good (standard stuff)
- food...expensive. Generally you don't even get a small snack...if only one could eat water.

AC621 ended in an horrific crash at Toronto Airport on July 5th 1970. 50 years later there remained pieces of the aircraft and human bones in the debris field. Finally the families of the victims and the Developers were able to come together to have the site designated as a cemetery and is now a beautiful memorial park. After that terrible disaster you would think that Air Canada would have permanently retired that flight number out of respect for the victims and their families. Flight AC621 still flys today.

They forced us to check our carry on with a sby boarding pass.
Very aggressive the agent at the gate

I travel a lot for my work. Air Canada lost my bag between Montreal and Winnipeg. I spoke to them at lost luggage in Winnipeg and the person told me that my luggage would be at Red Lake airport the next day. I called the airport the next day and it wasn't there. I called Air Canada three days in a row and they kept telling me the same lie. I got a call from the wrong airport telling me my luggage was there. Called Air Canada and they were not helpful at all. Finally, getting fed up, I called the airport where the luggage was at and arranged for them to fly it to the Red Lake airport. No thanks to Air Canada for anything. Actually I'm in Montreal Air Canada plane right now that they turned back because two of their employees needed a ride to Halifax. Air Canada sucks big time. Wishe we had more options for flights. I'm going to be about an hour late because of Air Canada turning back their plane to pick up their employees. Think they would have done that if it was you or I? Don't think so.

My spouse and I were bumped from business to the worst seats in economy, the ones next to the bathroom that are usually reserved for the flight crew because they stink by flights end. We paid premium prices for the business seats, seats 3a and 3c. We received a text at the 11th hour telling us that we were moved to economy 32a and 32c with no explanation or apology. Notably we are two women, one disabled and we are a mixed race queer couple. We called air canada and were put on hold initially for 1,5 hours while "wan from Toronto" (they will not give employee numbers or any other identifying information so we cannot hold anyone accountable - great deflection strategy air canada)- once again wan from Toronto tried to find out why we were bumped. IF YOU CARE AT ALL AIR CANADA WHICH WE NOW SERIOUSLY DOUBT, YOU WILL ADMONISH WAN FROM TORONTO AND HIS SUPERVISOR AS HE HUNG UP ON MY SPOUSE. SHE WAS NOT RUDE, SHE WAS INSISTING THAT HE TELL US WHY WE WERE BUMPED. HE HAD NO EXPLANATION, NONE. THERE ARE NO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS IN MIAMI OR TORONTO ON OUR FLIGHT DATE MARCH 6 2023, and therefore no reason to bump us without explanation. We downloaded the fine print around bumping and seat assignments that were written by air canada itself and found that air canada, ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN RULES, can only bump if they ask for volunteers first. They did not. IN ADDITION, THEY OUTLINE IN THEIR OWN GUIDELINES THAT THEY WILL TRY TO ENSURE DISABLED PEOPLE WILL NOT BE FORCED TO "volunteer" to be bumped. I am a disabled woman. And we told them that, but our communication had less than zero purchase - they could care less. We are really worried that when we get on the plane tomorrow we will see two white men sitting in our seats. And actually that's been pretty much confirmed as you will find out if you continue reading. AIR CANADA YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED. Ableism, racism, queer phobia and garden variety sexism alive and well in canada and certainly on air canada. Honestly makes us wonder whether we will ever get on an air canada flight again. I will try my best to avoid. Certainly will not travel in near future, until we get some governmental regulatory teeth in canada that holds the airline industry accountable for these abuses. And they are abuses. Paying over $ 2000 each for DOWNGRADED $400-500 seats and then spending our whole evening ( from around 830pm until 1230 am and counting) ON THE PHONE TRYING TO GET AN EXPLANATION. After WAN FROM TORONTO hung up on us, I waited another 1.5 hours to speak with Marco who told us that air canada pilots can bump paying customers from business class; this is a term in their contract apparently. My next question to Marco was: why us? Why a queer disabled and racialized couple? Why not a heteronormative white couple? Why us? I have less than zero confidence that this was random. Rather we were selected because we were easiest to bump-least social and political power. MARCO TRIED TO HELP US BUT OUR LINE DROPPED AT 1215am. HE DID NOT TRY TO CALL ME BACK Have no idea why the line dropped. What a —— show. Air canada - you are the absolute worst, bottem of the barrrel company. BEFORE MARCO GOT DROPPED HE TOLD US THAT THE REASON WE WERE BUMPED FIRST WAS BECAUSE WE ARENT FREQUENT FLYERS. WHY SHOULD THEY BE PRIVILAGED? AND WHY SHOULDET WE BE COMPENSATED FOR THESE ABUSES? SO I ASKED HIM IF WE WERE GOING TO HAVE TO CONFRONT ALL WHITE MALE FACES (with some of their wives) as we walked through first class on the way to our Uber expensive crappy seats. He said "I can't comment on that." He couldn't even get us on another flight. The phone call also seemed to drop from his end. Makes us even more suspicious. The first agent hung up on us. The second one was dropped. Approximately 3 hours of OUR night and counting. In a cue again FOR ANOTHER HOUR waiting to speak with another agent.

My husband was given a code to apply for booking a flight from Costa Rica to Toronto Canada for his fathers funeral. When he called to book he was told that they do not offer any discount based on location and dates (to which he was flexible by two to three days). He spend 50 minutes on hold on an international call to be told ' too bad'. This is the last straw with air Canada and their nonexistent customer service. We are done with them for good.

Tried to change departure time of last leg a round trip. The price difference on line is $45 more per person but this company tried to charge me $986 per person to make the change. I asked why and was told they had to rebook the entire flight at new costs. The increase in cost was only $250 when I tried to book it. Be aware of the scam that this company runs and avoid flying with them if possible.