During my recent experience flying the friendly skies, I was “lucky” enough to be on Air Canada. If you haven’t ever flown Air Canada, you aren’t really missing much. Prior to this experience, I’d flown Air Canada once to Vancouver but that was some years ago before the advent of personal video screens and deluxe economy.
Since Air Canada was the cheapest way to get to London, I decided it was time to try the airline again. I can’t say they are the worst airline I’ve ever flown but they are certainly not the best. My trip didn’t get off to a good start by getting stuck on the runway for an extra hour out of Boston. Connecting via Montreal, I encountered some pretty rude Quebec officials at the airport. None of these things are really the fault of Air Canada but set the tone for the whole journey.
When I boarded the plane, I asked the woman what the food was and she screamed she didn’t know and she was busy so she’d have to tell me later. Whoah! I know that you are busy but you don’t have to scream. I figured it would be something she might know off he top of her head. Guess not. Later in the flight, she walked past me and gave me a scowl but still did not know the dinner meal.
Then I was struck with the most absolute horror one can experience on a long haul flight: no personal video monitor. That’s right! Air Canada is operating planes that don’t have personal video monitors and only play movies on a big screen that’s too far away for you to see anyways. Luckily, it was a night flight, and I was going to sleep anyways but it still annoyed me. And as for that dinner- it was some chicken dish that didn’t really taste like chicken. I never expect airline food to be good but this was like a bad microwaveable meal.
The flight home was not any better. The airplane still had no personal video monitor, they only played 2 movies on an 8 hour flight (and they cut the last one 30 minutes short!), and the mystery chicken was back, except this time with mystery rice pilaf. The stewardesses, though, were slightly friendlier than the previous flight.
To me though, the deal breaker is the video monitor. If I can’t choose between movies and TV on my flight, I’d rather not fly, especially on those long haul flights, especially if they movies they are going to play are cut down. It’s now expected that long haul overseas flights have a personal video monitor. The lack of one is the big reason why I wouldn’t fly Air Canada again. A stewardess did say they were upgrading a lot of their planes and by mid-summer most airplanes would have the personal monitor.
It makes me wonder though about the rational of Air Canada execs. I don’t totally dislike Air Canada but I won’t consider them when flying overseas. There are too many other, better options out there. Next time, I’ll probably fly Virgin. I’ve heard good things about them.
awesome site!
That’s why I won’t fly any North American or European based airlines – rude stewardess, lousy ground customer service, poor in-flight service, lousy food and more or less bottom barrel everything
I only fly with Middle Eastern and Asian based Airlines
Asian Airlines tend to have much better service – Sinagapore , Thai etc! – American airlines in general suck! – Europe not much better!
I got one of the new planes when I flew Air Canada back from Calgary last year and I have to say the personal entertainment seemed state of the art – high quality screen, choice of news, films, music etc. The service and the vegetarian food were good and there were no flight delays. The flight out on one of the old planes was fine too except for the old-style ents. Perhaps I was lucky!
I’m from Montreal and we are usually pretty nice
But I must say that the the customs people (airport or road boarder crossing) can be somewhat rude in this province. Must be the language thing. If you speak French to them, they should be nicer 
I have always flown with Air Canada, I don’t like the hassle of transiting in the US.
Last September, I flew from Montreal to Tokyo (transit via Toronto) and back. The 4 planes we took all had the new personal state of the art entertainment system. The Toronto-Tokyo plane was a Boeing 777. One of those new ones with the pod like seats in first class. (http://www.aircanada.com/shared/en/common/fleet/pop_fleet77W.html). When you book your tickets online, you always get the plane configuration and info, it will tell you if you have personal screen are not.
For Europe, Air Transat is usually a bit cheaper than Air Canada if you depart from Montreal.
Ok, I have to come to Air Canada’s defense. Since we moved to California more than 10 years ago I’ve gone back and forth countless times. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken off or landed in the middle of a major storm but despite the snow the flight’s been on time and I’ve never felt nervous. You obviously had the misfortune to run into a flight attendant who was having a bad day. However I have been treated with respect and well-cared for on countless flights. To me, the comfort of knowing how competent Air Canada pilots are when dealing with Canada’s weather more than compensates for any failings of the entertainment system.
We have flown Virgin on other routes, by the way. The bar area was way cool – for the 2 seconds we got to see it as we walked by on our way to “cattle class”. Otherwise, my back-of-the seat monitor was broken and Ian’s wouldn’t play any games… Hopefully you’ll have better luck!
I had a similar experience in flying on United from Vancouver to Singapore recently, via LA and Tokyo. Same kinds of things… cold reception from the flight attendants even with polite inquiries, no personal TV, poor food… Having flown on Air Canada lots of times, and more recently on United (and ANA) lots of times, I think you kind of have to expect a less-than-spectacular flying experience every so often, one of those “keeping the world in balance” kinds of things. Too bad, but you can’t win ‘em all, right?
That being said, Air Canada has been notorious for poor service, overbookings, poor communication during delays (ie. 8 hour waits, no water/bathroom breaks/etc. on a runway, with no explanation to passengers) in recent years and especially around the holiday times. WestJet, however, has for the most part received stellar reports in terms of customer satisfaction in that same time; when they did screw up, or there were uncontrollable delays, they were sure to communicate what exactly was going on to the travelers affected.
Oh no ! I just booked a flight with Air Canada to NYC, changing in Toronto ! Never flown with them before, but the price was just too good to pass up. Luckily it’s only the outbound flight (return is with Continental), should it be as unpleasant as you say. Fingers are crossed ! But my airline of choice is always SWISS – superior for sure, and I don’t say that only because they serve Mövenpick ice cream and Toblerone bars !