Remarkably poor customer service... Our initial flight was delayed out of Boston for a "safety" reason, what I have gathered is that this is what they tell you so that it can not be their fault. We landed in Montreal and when we got off the plane, were handed ticket changes to give us a 3 hour delay in Montreal, send us to Portugal and give us another layover there before heading to Milan (adding roughly 7 hours to our travel and making us miss everything we had planned and already paid for in Milan). We got to the gate of our initial flight on time and tried to get our seats, but they had been sold to someone else as we were removed from the flight. We waited for the new connection and got to Portugal. In Portugal we were told by Air Canada that we could not get on the flight as we did not have boarding passes and they could not give us boarding passes because we had not paid for our baggage. I showed them the receipts and was told that there was nothing they could do and they could not even open it up for us to pay a second time. The Air Canada people had me take all of our passports and go out through the exit, find the check in area for Air Canada and get help there since we were short on time as it took an hour just to get this far in trying to get our boarding passes. I ran the 20 minutes to get to check in only to be told that they could also not help me and it was not their problem so I needed to call Air Canada, they did not give me a number or anything just told me it was not their problem and that I needed to call and was pushed aside for the next person. I called the number I found online, only to be told that there was nothing they could do either. So here I am, stuck outside of security with no boarding passes to get back to my family and my family's passports. I was so frustrated that I cried. Finally some nice lady with a different airline helped me and took maybe 10 minutes to fix the issue and get me my boarding passes. By this time I had 40 minutes to get through security and to the gate. We made it, 0 thanks to Air Canada who was apparently content to leave us stranded in a country we shouldn't have been in to begin with as we made it to the gate of our initial connection to begin with.

When I complained to Air Canada, explaining that we do not travel often (this was 4 years of saving) and just asked for the money back from what I had prepaid and missed, they told me that it was not their problem or responsibility but here is a $200 Air Canada voucher that you will never use. Their response to my rebuttal asking that they make this right and just refund me the roughly $500 in missed activities as they mishandled our flight from beginning to end, they told me "While I am sorry and understand your disappointment with our decision, our response is in line with the Air Passenger Protection Regulations. Although this may not be the answer you are looking for, I thank you for your understanding and appreciate this final opportunity to reply to your concerns." AKA it's okay for us to re-route you, make you miss everything you had planned, and not even bother to make sure you could get on the extra 7 hours of travel we put you on.

NEVER EVER EVER EVER AGAIN WILL I BOARD THIS AIRLINE!\

HORRIBLE crappy evey minute of the flight was not worth 3000,00 dollarsr

Air Canada should be embarrassed for their truly terrible experience. Every single interaction I experienced with them was absolutely the worst, most unprofessional service I have ever received. We were to fly from Seattle to Montreal then to Barcelona. We arrived to the airport at 5AM for our flight and it was to leave at 7:50AM. At 7:30AM they started boarding and then promptly stopped due to a "mechanical issue" They delayed the flight by 30minutes, then an hour, then another hour, then 4 hours, finally at 1:30PM they announced cancellation. Through out the delay process, the AC employees would abandon their gate instead of helping answer questions or help us rebook our connecting flights that we were missing. When they were there they would say "we can't talk about that flight until X time"

Everytime they announced a new delay, we waited in long lines to get service and rebook our connectings over and over again. We spent 30 minutes waiting in a line, only for everyone to find out this was just a line for food vouchers! The manager said "i made an announcement about what line to stand in" but no one heard it. People were crying and fighting in line! The AC customers were actually doing more of the communication than the AC employees were. Further more, the food vouchers we were provided would not be accepted by any of the airport resteruants because there was no number to enter into a POS system to close out the sale (...duh air canada).

Once the flight was cancelled we were told by the gate manager, Nicole that we would receive $700 in compensation per ticket for the delay. AC rebooked us on a flight with an 8 hour lay over in Dublin. In total, our delay was 15 hours to our final destination in Europe. This delay could have been much shorter had AC cancelled the flight hours earlier and rebooked us all appropriately.

When I got home, I filled out a claim for this compensation that Nicole promised us. It said AC would take 30 days to review it. Less than 24 hours later, I'm already denied. So, I called the customer service line and a rep named Chad told me he would escalate to management and I would receive a supervisor call by 9/1. I kid you not, 1 HOUR later I get an email saying that my claim is still denied but they would offer me a $300 credit. Furthermore they did not address my issue about the fact that I had not received my $200 refund for seat selections on the cancelled flight that never occurred. I replied to the email and asked them to please call me, as Chad had promised. I call again a few days later and a rep tells me that it's protocol to email first and that they will still call. She said to reply to the email and I'll get a supervisor call soon. Finally after 3 weeks and no replies, I call again and speak with a customer service rep who now tells me that customer relations doesn't take phone calls and that both of the other reps have misspoken. I asked how I can speak to a manager about this and she said that I can't because they consider my claim closed. She said she was the highest rep I could talk to even though she claimed she was a "reservation agent" (that did not make any sense to me but she claimed she had no way of escalating me to anyone further...how bizarre!) I told her this was unethical customer service and totally unreasonable. She ACTUALLY said she agreed with me and wouldn't want to be treated this way as a customer either.

She told me I should submit a claim with a government agency to file this complaint. I had to argue with her on the phone that compensation for the delay may be governement issues but the REFUND for seat selections on the flight that never occurred was a customer service issue, not the government's problem to handle! She eventually understood and helped me with that portion.

It's not just the exorbidant delay that blows my mind about this experience but every single interaction with mulitple different customer service agents is really tarnishing my opinion of Air Canada. It truly could not be more ametuer, unprofessional, and unethical. I don't trust companies that provide conflicting information. Literally every employee we spoke with had a different story to tell. At the gate, one of the reps answered a FACETIME call while trying to continue to answer my questions. He was talking to two people at once.

You can see online they have a strong reputation for cancellations and delays. They don't have to compensate their customers if they claim it was due to "unscheduled maintenance or safety issues" But who is holding them accountable for delay reasons they claim? An airline shouldn't have this happening regularly and it makes me believe that this can be prevented.

I have a hunch that this was actually due to a staffing issue or a part they were waiting to have flown in and never did (again could be due to staffing or their poor planning of what should have been scheduled maintenance). One woman waiting to get on this flight told us this is the THIRD time this has happened to her with Air Canada and she doesn't know why she booked with them, she said that she felt like an idiot for booking again.

I've flown so many times in my life, including on SPIRIT AIRLINES and I've never experienced such an awful amount of delay and miscommunication.
DONOT FLY WITH THEM.

Hi,

This is Matt, My daughter is 12 and over 24 times international travels, no other airline made an issue of this (read this again plz); but after check-in, in the gate Air Canada (AC) agent refused to board us because my daughter last name in her Canadian and US passport (Noble) is different with that in Iranian passport (Asghari) because in Iran they force us to put father family name for the child and we chose a better family name in Canada where she will be living. As usual we bought the ticket based on the spelling in her Canadian passport (Noble). I wish you could imagine how much this turned to a nightmare for us as we had planned to attend her cousin's wedding... All my child trauma and crying and my begging to the gate agent did not work... we were in panic mode... My wife and daughter are still in shock and my wife OCD and anxiety/depression is suddenly back and she is just lying in the bed. The gate agent instead of the smallest sympathy told us "I can show you the exit!"...then we asked... so, what we should do now... he says go do a rebooking and put both names as family name (Asghari Noble). In panic mode I Google AC customer service no and call 1-800 number and they say don't worry we will make a new booking with name change and get all our info and credit card no and they say they would get back to us... I call them back several times... they say they are working on it but it might take till one day later (they send me an email of new booking details but need to be confirmed)... we take a taxi and get back home in Kitchener at midnight. Then I realized that the AC number that google gave me and I called it in panic mode, was a fake no. It was from flyvaultdeals.com... So until 3 am, I called the credit card co and blocked my account, then I called the travel agency where we got our ticket. After 1h they answer and say I have to call AC. I call AC and no one answers after 1.5h... I just leave the phone on and sleep! In the morning I called AC again and this time someone called me back. The lady is very sympathetic and helpful. She says the agent's advice (using both family names) was wrong and won't work; so we won't be able to travel until we fix the passport issue but she assures me that we will get a full refund. She says the refund will be processed by the travel agency (although our credit card shows AC)…I contacted the travel agency. After 1h they told me they would talk to AC and get back to me… today I received an email from them and I contacted them right way… it takes another 2h; they say AC will issue a refund if we do another booking. I say we are too late for the wedding (which was today) and the AC customer service told us we could not do booking until passport issue is resolved (against what the AC agent advised us in the gate)… so the travel agency now asks me "ask AC to send us to process a refund without new bookings" or upload AC reply showing that AC is OK with full refund (I said the AC customer service lady already told me this …. However, the travel agency asks for proof)…

….In 2019, AC made another nightmare for us, I asked the flight attendant in Berlin coming back to Toronto "do you have a Tylenol so my 8 yo can fly better as she has ear pain … she made a big deal of it and after talking to the captain, they throw us from airplane LIKE A PIECE OF TRASH… without telling us what to do… and then Lufthansa booked us a flight back the next day (without talking about the cost or anything)… unbelievable, how pathetic is AC, …Can you imagine how my child (a proud Canadian) feels about AC (who throws out Canadian Citizens like a piece of trash in another country for asking whether they have a Tylenol?!) she just hates the name Air Canada…. Now instead of feeling sympathy and offering us compensation (we will talk about this in the court), AC is torturing us by making the refund process painful?… really?! REALLY?! Read again (over 24 times international travels, no other airline made an issue of this) … How disgusting a company can be?

No… this time I will take this to media, news, court, everywhere, and already making a website "aircanadanightmares" … I have now severe stomach pain from the hatred while I am writing these

After 6 days we have not heard anything back from AC and our multiple calls were useless... they just say 'file a complaint in AC website'

Ticket:

Toronto to Vienna – AC 886
Aug 9,6:15 PM–Aug 10,8:30 AM
Take-off
Wed, Aug 9,6:15 PM
Landing
Thu, Aug 10,8:30 AM
Flight duration
8 hr, 15 min
Passenger name

Seat
-
Confirmation number

Vienna to Tehran – OS 871
Aug 10,2:20 PM–9:05 PM
Take-off
Thu, Aug 10,2:20 PM
Landing
Thu, Aug 10,9:05 PM
Flight duration
5 hr, 15 min
Passenger name
Mehdi Asghari Khiavi
Seat
-
Confirmation number
223-275-342
Tehran to İstanbul – TK 873
Sep 7,4:45 AM–6:45 AM
Take-off
Sep 7,4:45 AM
Landing
Sep 7,6:45 AM
Flight duration
2 hr, 30 min
Passenger name
Mehdi Asghari Khiavi
Seat
-
Confirmation number
URYU5Z
İstanbul to London – TK 1979
Sep 7,7:50 AM–9:50 AM
Take-off
Sep 7,7:50 AM
Landing
Sep 7,9:50 AM
Flight duration
4 hr, 0 min
Passenger name
Mehdi Asghari Khiavi
Seat
-
Confirmation number
URYU5Z
London to Toronto – AC 855
Sep 7,12:05 PM–2:55 PM

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.

Please don't try don't fly xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxx

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.

Most terrible, unprofessional and expensive airline, as Canadian we don't have choice to avoid this airline because the regulatory regime of Canadian Government, the regulation of the Canadian air industry is supposed to ensure that the public has access to safe, reliable flights at the lowest cost. This mandate has been perverted.

The Government now subsidizes the employees and owner of Air Canada at the expense of the taxpayer and travelling public. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the air sector has already received over $2.5 billion in support through the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy.

I just paid more than C$******* for two persons for trip to India, is it a joke? Whereas you will get tickets through other airlines at C$1600-1800. Is it a healthy business model of a company who use our tax paying money to subsidies their inefficiency, I would say it is a ripping of money model, rip the people anyway.

For India: Canadian Govt. COVID regulation is as below which has no sense.

"Travellers arriving from India must have a negative COVID-19 molecular test from the approved Genestrings Laboratory at the Delhi airport.( Why this particular test laboratory?, and why Delhi, India has 1.2 billion population and having several Metro Cities?) The test must be taken a maximum of 18 hours before the scheduled departure of their direct flight to Canada.

Travellers who depart India to Canada via an indirect route need to obtain a negative COVID-19 molecular test result in the country from which their flight to Canada will depart. The test must be taken a maximum of 72 hours before departure. ( why we need to test again in Transit?)"

Not sure who are those smartest people in the Government took that decision and what is the basis of that regulation, this is a cash cow arrangement with some private Covid testing company at New Delhi airport ( I have huge doubt with their testing results). I will request those intellectuals' law makers to visit that place and try to understand the harassments people are facing as well monetary loss.
This Lab is charging Rs. 2900 for rapid PCR test, whereas all over India RT PCR cost is Rs. 300-900. Very well arrangement to give a particular company to make money.

Can someone law maker provides me the explanation behind this regulation, most of the countries all over the world accepting Covid test report from your home city certified lab before 24/72 hrs whereas Canada chose to the above peculiar arrangement…. Why … is Canada doing much better in Covid … Statistics not showing that.
Moreover, Service of this Airline is pathetic compared to any other big airline… quality of food, business class amenities bag. Everything very cheap. They put more money to prepare the menu card instead passenger comfort/services.
My humble request, please avoid this Airline as much as possible. We should encourage other airlines who provide travel accessible and affordable for all Canadians as I believe the fares have historically been too high compared to other countries.

Those considering using Air Canada(AC) for travel may wish to be aware of my recent experience flying the airline to Corfu (Greece) and back with two hiking buddies

After Air Canada resumed international service in May of 2021 it made five schedule changes before our June 18th departure for a 10 day hiking trip, including most remarkably a change in day of travel which resulted in the loss of a day hiking on the island, and necessitated rebooking of lodging for a number of the nights on Corfu.

Not easy to rebook on the fly for that remote Greek island.

But that is not the worst of it. Because of Canadian government and AC rules, Americans could not cross the border to begin the flight from Montreal until about two weeks before departure when AC allowed transit within the airport for connecting flights. This change enabled Vermont travelers to travel to Boston, book a flight from there to Montreal and connect in the aIrport with the flight to Athens.

Doing this, though, cost an additional $149 USD on a trip that originally cost about $900 USD and added almost two days to the trip.

Note, our residence in Burlington Vermont is only one hour 15 minutes to Trudeau airport in Montreal.

But the coup de grâce occurred while boarding the return flight from Athens on June 28th. At that point less than an hour before flight departure, we learned of a Covid test requirement to return to the US before we could leave Athens.

Air Canada obviously long knew of this requirement but did not alert us to it in the weeks run-up to departure from Montreal nor at any point on the three leg outbound trip nor on the first leg of the return trip despite multiple check-ins for boarding passes and multiple passport checks along the way.

Because of this negligent oversight by Air Canada and the need to get the test we missed our flight by hours, had to scramble to find a hotel in Athens for the night of June 28th and spend an hour on the phone to rebook a new flight on a different multiple city routing (only one available) for the next day at an additional cost of $70 per person.

Unforgiveable in my opinion.

By the way, AC charges about $11 per hour for onboard WiFi which is free in the airports it uses.

This review is about how poorly Air Canada manage the delayed luggage. I flew from Montreal to Phoenix via Toronto. Toronto-Phoenix is a line highly demanded but we flew on a very small plane: there was no room for cabin luggage that were sent to luggage bay. And my checked luggage did not make it to Phoenix.The Air Canada employees (Erin and Tarpan) in Phoenix were very reassuring. It was monday 11:30pm and they told me that the luggage was still in Toronto and will be delivered at home tomorrow morning. On tuesday morning, no bag was delivered and I phone to customer service: they told me the luggage was not even located and the employees of AC at airport told me this just to see me disappear. LESSON 1: Never trust an employee from Air Canada.On wenesday, 48h after the lost of my luggage, I phone back to customer service and the status of luggage was still "lost". I took the name and number of the employee and asked to speak to his supervisor. The supervisor called me back 5 minutes later to tell me that the bagage was found in the meantime. LESSON 2: Never think that Air Canada is doing its best to find your luggage. Call and call back and take employee numbers and names and ask a supervisor, and THEN they are doing their best. I spent 500USD that day to replace some sporting goods in the luggage, but the supervisor gave me only 200USD of compensation given that the bag will be delivered on flight AC1837 the next day, on Thursday, at 12:13pm. The delivery at home could take 24h, so I said I will come to the airport. The worst of the story starts here.At 12pm, the status of my luggage on "world tracker" website (that gives you the status of your bag) was still indicating that the bag was on flight 1837 that left toronto at 8am. I came to the airport and surprisingly (or not), the bag was not there. An employee (I took his name and number) told me that the status of the bag changed 15 minutes after landing of flight 1837: the status is now that the bag will arrive at midnight, via flight 1835. LESSON 3: Never trust world tracker website: even if the bag is not on the plane, the status indicates the opposite even after landing of the plane 4 hours later! The incompetence of the employees makes this website useless.At this point it was impossible to trust anyone from Air Canada as it was the second lie about the arrival of my luggage. I asked explanation to the employee and he showed me on his computer that my bag was a rush bag (a bag delayed due to no space in the plane, remember the plane is very small). QUESTION: Why Air Canada did not tagged my delayed bag as urgent (72h delay at this time) as they are supposed to do with delayed bag? I finally got my luggage on friday at 1am after coming 12h later at the airport. I deeply regret to have already booked my next trip to Australia with Air Canada. I will have 2 bags, and it looks like that 1) some planes are clearly too small on some lines and 2) they poorly manage the lost bags and they are far from doing their best to forward them to you, and sometimes use lies to get rid of you. Need another proof of incompetence? On the way back, same line (Phoenix - Toronto), same ridiculously small plane, there was not surprisingly no room for my cabin luggage, and it was sent to luggage bay. But they put the WRONG name on the luggage tag! I saw the name of another passenger on the tag and had to quickly ask to put the RIGHT tag on my luggage unless it would be lost somewhere. LESSON 4: Always double check what employees are doing, and ask proof when they said they did the things well.