Air Canada Consumer Reviews - Page 6

VANCOUVER -- Mom lost her luggage (so much for the business class service) on the way from Vancouver to Toronto. My husband and I took care of her complaint to Air Canada. For those who lost the luggage: Lost baggage claim service is located in India. Make sure that you spelled everything clearly for them and ask them to repeat what you just spelled. Seriously, some of them type A for E or S for V... literally, I said "V as in Victor" and I saw an "S" instead! Don't forget to double check the file at the "Baggage Tracer" in their website. Ideally, you have your file status website in front of you as you speak with them, so that you can see the information as they see it simultaneously.

Some of them do not know Canadian geography... that Toronto is located in Ontario or Vancouver in British Columbia. Asked them for reimbursement for the inconvenience of losing your baggage. Ask for US$50 (maybe you can get US$100 if you can show them how upset you are!) per day per piece of your luggage. You have to do this every 24 hours after your flight arrival; otherwise, they would not add the US$50 to your file automatically. Magically, when I did this almost 20 hours after losing the luggage, they started sending a message to Vancouver airport to start searching there. Money does speak!

Double check what is the condition of the reimbursement; as of now, keep the original store receipts of any purchase incurred due to the lost luggage up to 21 days after the date of your arrival. Send them the original receipts along with a copy of your boarding pass and baggage receipt sticker, and your contact address to: Air Canada Baggage Claim, P.O. Box 8000 Station Airport Zip 1116, Dorval, Quebec H4Y 1C3, Canada. You can avoid losing your luggage in the future by traveling lightly - bring just a carry-on, if you can! Lots of resorts/hotels have coin laundry - ask them before traveling!

We cannot blame the airline entirely because the ground crew (belong to the airport) is also involved in transferring the suitcases. Although there is always a chance that even the greatest airline may lose your luggage, the airline should ensure that the search is rigorous and efficient from the start. Their computerized baggage tracer system should be able to locate it quickly... just like when you trace your FEDEX package: you know exactly the status of your package. Anyway, I hope that someday they'll improve. In the meantime, good luck! Hopefully, you can get either your suitcase ASAP or reimbursement from Air Canada!

Sometime in 2007 Air Canada decided it would only be allowing pets in cargo. Consumer outrage prompted the Canadian Transportation Agency to acknowledge this policy as unfair, in no way benefiting customers and only benefiting Air Canada. The CTA also said the pets in cargo policy ranked the importance of live animals behind baggage and mail, so they decided Air Canada could not implement this policy. After the ruling Air Canada had until May 5, 2008 to appeal the decision. They did not.

Instead, on May 4 Air Canada launched a Pet Embargo forcing passengers to ship their pets in cargo from June 20 until September, and banning pets completely during the winter months. It is now costing over $1000.00 CAD to fly our cat from Shanghai for something that previously cost less than $300.00, my ticket was around $800.00, we booked the tickets April 28, before this embargo. On top of this outrageous pricing I have been informed that it could take up to 4 hours for the cat to clear customs in Toronto, I am traveling with 15 month old. I have been given a list of excuses by Air Canada's wonderfully condescending customer service:

It's too hot, it's too cold, that's always been our policy, we need more baggage space. The truth is they don't want any more lawsuits after the Continental - Air Canada fiasco when they destroyed a crate and lost 4 cats. Anyway, I will never fly Air Canada again, and will strongly suggest the same to anyone else who might be considering flying this third-rate airline. To other pet owners I would say watch out for additional embargoes, April can be pretty wet and October sure has a lot of colorfully distracting leaves. I just want to sign off by saying, this is not the first time we have been taken advantage of by Air Canada, it will not happen again.

The following was sent to Air Canada through their, um, handy 'Customer Care' online interface, after getting nowhere with rude call centre staff. It is perhaps a new height in sheer nonsense emanating from our lowly national airline. I felt the need to share it here because other flight pass customers need to be aware of the games Air Canada is playing.

When trying to book a flight with my pass from YYZ to LAS, round-trip, (4 May, AC597; 10 May, AC594), I am told that this flight is SOLD OUT. Yet the same flights, when incorporated with YYZ-YXU flights AC7708 and AC7703, is available for booking. Thus you are suggesting that it is only OK for me to travel from YYZ to LAS if I *ADD* an unwanted trip through YXU. I contacted the 'Customer Care' centre (247.2262) and was bluntly and rudely told that I cannot simply travel via the direct flights, and that there are "no other options".

When I purchased this pass, I understood that Air Canada would limit my flight selection, but this is ridiculousness. It is completely unfair for you to pick and choose which customers may get on which flights, which is essentially what you are doing by saying YXU-YYZ-LAS is OK but YYZ-LAS is not. I feel ripped off, and furthermore, I feel that my attempts to seek service were met with disdain. Frankly, I will be surprised if I get a response to this message before the departure date has lapsed.

I am requesting that you allow me to book the YYZ-LAS/LAS-YYZ itinerary as soon as possible; alternatively, I am requesting a partial refund for being denied access to a flight that is clearly not full (and/or for being treated rudely by one of your call centre staff). I am not interested in the parlance of flights v. segments v. itineraries. There are K class seats available and you are not making them available to me. Fix this problem and restore my faith in your airline, before I join the national chorus of "Air Canada is just out to pull one over on its customers."

Air Canada remains the only company I can identify that treats its 'Prestige' loyalty-club members like garbage, which is how I felt when I hung up the phone after my contact with your 'Customer Care' centre. On what planet does it make sense to refuse immediate service and problem resolution over the telephone and instead refer customers to an online form to which a response is unlikely to be issued within a timely fashion? I look forward to and thank you in advance for your prompt and courteous response.

TORONTO -- We flew from Toronto to Jamaica Nov 16 2007 during the big Air Canada computer glitch. We arrived 3 hrs early for our flight. We found out the computers were down and were relieved we were early. After standing in line for an hour and a half we got to the gate to check in but the computers were down so they said "we can't assign a specific seat to you because the computers are not working," so they gave us tickets and said we would be given seats inside.

Also we were told our baggage had to be put against the wall to be hand carried because of the computer problem. We protested but were given no option. The rude people (Air Canada reps) just kept pushing us through. They assured us "no problem, you will be assigned a seat once inside."

Once inside the gate at the Air Canada desk they refused to give us a seat on the plane, they told us to sit down until we were called. We tried to explain but we kept being rudely told to go sit. After we had been inside for a while the computers started working again so now everyone who came in was assigned seats. We tried to protest but still were refused any help. Ultimately we did not make it on our flight! No apologies for this it was our fault in their eyes.

Now they want to send us to Kingston Jamaica instead of Montego Bay. They offer us $500.00 in travel voucher for bumping us off the original flight to Montego Bay. They guarantee that our luggage and an Air Canada rep will be in Kingston to takes us to our resort. When we arrived in Kingston Jamaica we had no luggage and the Air Canada reps had no idea we were coming. No one in Toronto had called ahead like they said they had done. They just lied to get us out of their hair!

Finally we end up at our resort on Friday night and our luggage did not show until Monday. We had to go and buy clothes to wear because we had no luggage. When our luggage finally arrived it had been rummaged through and our camera, perfume and cigarettes had been stolen.

Air Canada was no help at all, offered us an additional $50.00 for our trouble - what a joke! We are still waiting for reimbursement of camera and clothes. The customer service for Air Canada is the worst I haver ever seen. I can understand a computer glitch causing problems but Air Canada is at fault not the people who travel with them. The customer service was unbelievably bad!

EDMONTON, ALBERTA -- It is December 14th 2007. My father had a flight from Toronto Ont. Canada to St. John's Newfoundland Canada which departed Toronto at 11:00PM on December 12th 2007. My father is a SERIOUS diabetic with a sleeping disorder! He packed enough insulin for the flight in his carry-on. When the flight arrived to St. John's, it was re-directed to Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada because of runway conditions in St. John's!

While at the airport, my father was in need of more insulin! With a blood sugar rating of 30 and nearly into a diabetic coma, he asked an Air Canada supervisor to kindly go to his baggage and get his insulin! He refused to do it! After 5 hours of being stranded at Halifax International Airport with no medication and being lied to by the staff, he was just getting worst and worst. While on the telephone with me, he continued to ask the supervisor at the airport for the NEXT flight! He kept telling him there was nothing. But keep in mind, he was PROMISED the next flight out!!

After this, he then went to the waiting area next to the gates, where he saw the same supervisor preparing to board an Air Canada Flight to St. John's! Dad, after going to the gate and begging him to let him on, he was rude and told my father to leave him alone, then called 3 more standby waiters from the same flight my father had just got off 6 hours before, to board the flight! Right in front of my very sick father! He did this for the next 3 flights, which arrived every hour on the hour!!

Finally, a WestJet supervisor heard what was going on and heard how serious the situation was, and offered him a free flight to St. John's! He ended up staying with Air Canada, simply because it was 2 hours before the WestJet flight and he needed to get back on the ground again to get his insulin! Before he boarded, he asked the same man again to kindly get his insulin, he still denied! My father, not knowing if he would live to make it back to St. John's was very irritated! He got me to call the call centre. I did! They did nothing! They were so rude. It was ridiculous. NEVER AGAIN will my father and I and anybody we know fly Air Canada!

They didn't even want to help a VERY sick man! It's ridiculous! He is a very lucky man to still be alive today!!! It could have been very bad! That's the service you get with "The Number One Airline" HAHA. It's a big joke I think! WestJet wanted to help, and we and everybody else appreciate that very much! Now that's the customer service I would expect to receive, not the way Air Canada treated my father and hundreds of other people that day!

BANFF -- I was flying Air Canada from Calgary to Vancouver and then transfer to Cathay Pacific from Vancouver to Hong Kong and then to Bangkok. My bag apparently never left Vancouver and hence never arrived in Bangkok. Upon arrival Air Canada basically said it was the end airline that is responsible and it was not their problem.

Cathay Pacific was reasonably helpful and did their best to accommodate but they too never received communication from Air Canada in regards to the missing baggage. So, I went without my baggage on my 2 month holiday! No response to my emails from Air Canada, just the automated reply. Although I did receive a call from Cathay that they still had not located my baggage but were still trying to get a response from Air Canada in Vancouver. They never did get one.

On my way back to Canada after my holiday I checked the lost luggage rooms in Bangkok and Hong Kong but had no luck but was hoping that it might be in Vancouver or Calgary. The Vancouver Air Canada representative told me I could look but that the airport was, "way too busy and large to hold any quantity of lost luggage" and that it gets shipped to Montreal after 2 weeks. I still looked. No bag. Too big I thought? Bangkok and Hong Kong surely are comparable in size? Distraught, I thought I would have a last chance effort in Calgary; my original departure point. I was told by an Air Canada representative there that it goes to Montreal after 5 days!

Although I got a phone number for Air Canada baggage claims - hoping that this was the place in Montreal. No way. Recording. I called Air Canada baggage support from a number listed on the website and was told that it was an international call center and that they could only see what I see on my Tracer number of my baggage. Basically that my luggage was lost. Thanks, very helpful. Air Canada is terrible with response time to lost luggage, customer service and handling baggage.

I am frustrated and disgruntled by my experience with Air Canada and will make it a point of not flying with them and will pass this information along to every medium and person I can. Anyone doing research or looking to publish an article about lost luggage can contact me directly and I can give more detailed information.

We recently traveled on Air Canada from Calgary Alberta to LA and on to San Juan. At least that was the plan. We were to leave Calgary at 0715 pm and connect with our flight to San Juan in LA. Air Canada in its "wisdom" double booked the whole plane. They had booked every seat for LA and every seat for Vegas. So instead of sending the plane to LA where people had connections for other destinations they "wisely decided to send it to Vegas where people had no connections to anywhere. This little stroke of genius took off at 0815 pm, one hour late. The rest of the people had to wait for two more hours until Air Chance found another plane.

Arriving in LA three hours late caused us to miss our connections. Air Chance's answer to this was to leave us in the airport in LA for the night with the explanation of "It's not our fault that you missed your flight. You'll have to make arrangement in the morning." The Air Chance staff were rude and of no help whatsoever. If they had been my employees I would have fired them on the spot!

Because Air Chance caused us to miss our flight in LA, American Airlines consider us a no show and cancelled the rest of our tickets for the flight including our return tickets. I must say at this point that American airlines stepped up to the plate and made extra effort to get us to our destination and home again and I would fly with that airline anytime they were great!

Air Chance on the other hand will never get one red cent of my money again. I had one other ride with Air Chance a few years ago and said at that time that I would never fly with them again. My mistake I thought that they could not have gotten worse; stupid me they have! If anybody has a choice of flying Air Chance or walking to your destination, walk; you'll have a better chance of getting there and getting there on time!

Air Canada's customer service is a fiasco, and the claims process is a bad joke. Air Canada is giving Canada a bad name, and I hope they finally self destruct sometime soon. I paid $1230 to fly round trip Victoria/Prince Rupert in late August. When I arrived in Prince Rupert on August 20th, one of my bags was very badly damaged. The bag was ruined as (it looked like it was stuck in a conveyor) a huge hole was worn through the bag. Two items in the bag were also ruined and one item was lost due to this damage.

AC has no process to deal directly with airport staff to initiate a claim. I was given the run-around and eventually submitted a written claim. I spent a couple hours filling in AC forms and included original receipts to substantiate a claim for over $500 in damage. I received a partial payment of $130 and a letter that denied liability for damage that was entirely the airlines doing. They basically deny liability for 99.9% of items that are commonly packed in baggage and deemed "tariff restricted" by AC.

My goods were not fragile, in fact the destroyed items were ruggedly built and intended for rough use outdoors. This attempt to deny responsibility for damage AC obviously caused is heavy handed in my view. I spent several hours trying to deal directly with AC staff at both the Prince Rupert and Victoria airports. The agent in Victoria took my damaged bag and told me it would be replaced in "a couple of weeks".

It is 12 weeks later and still no replacement. I informed Ms. Lisa ** (customer advisory rep.) on Oct 20th of this oversight, and I informed her that it will cost me $62.15 in addition to my original claim. Just yesterday I received a letter from her asking for these detail again. I can only assume they want to deny liability for this too. Who knows what other options may be available to me to pursue a claim? Is small claims court an option? On principle, I will follow up this matter in small claims court if this is an option. I fly for business and will do anything possible to avoid using AC. Unfortunately we need more competition here to put pressure on this lousy excuse for an airline.

TORONTO, CALIFORNIA -- I recently had an extremely bad flight with Air Canada. However, the most disturbing aspect is the response of AC to my complaints, which exhibited corrupt business practices. Please see below for the organization with whom one should make formal complaints with the government of Canada.

My Story: My flight was slightly delayed by weather but after entering the lineup for takeoff it developed a mechanical problem which required that we be TOWED to a gate, undergo repairs, return to the de-icing lineup, be boarded by the repairmen for the logbook entry. We arrived at our destination five hours late. The airline was completely unprepared to deal with us and there was total chaos with no support from AC other than a slip of paper with two telephone numbers.

Eventually I managed to return home and made a complaint to AC with a request to have my expenses in Toronto (one hotel, 2 meals) reimbursed. AC has now turned this down because they are claiming that it was due to the weather. No reasonable business would blatantly lie to hundreds of their customers when the customers cannot possibly believe them. This sort of behavior is a classic example of a company abusing a monopolistic market position.

Recommendations: This response by AC is absolutely dishonest and I've now made a formal complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA). If you have similar problems, I recommend you go to the CTA website and make a formal complaint. There is a tool on their website which makes this very easy to do.

I suspect that AC will somehow avoid taking responsibility for their actions, but I hope to force them to pay attention to my situation and to raise awareness about a corrupt organization who is taking advantage of their monopoly position in the market.

CANADA -- In 2003 during the SARS outbreak, I was supposed to return from Kuala Lumpur to Canada via Hong Kong. (Around the end of March 2003) News was all over the place about SARS in Hong Kong. I contacted Air Canada in KL and was told they cannot make a decision on allowing me to change flight. I told them to contact Canada as they should make an exception because of SARS. They contacted Canada and was told I had to pay (and I cannot remember the exact amount) either $150 CAD or $200 CAD to change my return trip from KL to Canada via Hong Kong to KL to Canada via Korea.

I valued my life and paid the fees. It was very obvious Air Canada did not value my life nor care about me except their bottom line. The funny thing is while in Korea in Transit (a 10-12 hour wait), all flights was suspended to HK. AC never bother to contact me nor refund the fees they charged me nor apologize for their foolishness. On my returned, I complained and was told too bad by the customer service and I have nothing to complain about in so many words!!!

I have since stop flying AC and have always tell people this story. And many have stop flying AC because of my story. They now will fly on any airlines except Air Canada. This is one experience that I will never forget and forgive. I will continue my story until the day I die!

PS: I also flew Singapore airline in and around Asia during the same trip at that time and I requested to Singapore Airlines I didn't want to land in Singapore and then back to KL and asked if I can change to land in Thailand and to KL. They happily did that with no charge and two weeks after I returned to Canada Singapore Airlines thank me for my faith in them by flying with them during SARS and they gave me a voucher to anywhere in the world as appreciation! That is what you call customer service!