In my recent vacation to Japan, I flew with Air Canada and experienced severe inadequacies in their staff training and unprofessional conduct, particularly during the return journey.

My itinerary included a smooth outbound flight from Miami to Montreal and then onto Tokyo. However, the return journey from Narita to Montreal was marred by a series of unpleasant incidents.

Upon landing in Montreal, the airport's disorganization and chaos immediately became apparent. It took us an excruciating hour just to leave the airport. Given our extended 13-hour layover in Montreal, we decided to book a hotel near the airport to prepare for our final flight AC1650, scheduled to depart from gate C77 on September 15th at 8:35 AM.

As we arrived at the gate, announcements were made informing passengers that the Airbus 319 was fully booked and requesting volunteers to check their carry-ons. My wife, parents, and I had two essential carry-ons, so we did not volunteer.

When it was our turn to board (Group 4), an inexperienced Air Canada employee, a young woman no older than 25, approached me and asked me to place my bag in the size checker. I complied, and to my surprise, the bag, which I had used on numerous trips without issue, fit perfectly. However, the employee insisted that my bag was oversized and demanded that we must check both luggages or face being denied boarding. She even claimed that this was federal law and that we were in violation.

Her unfounded claims and unprofessional demeanor left us standing there while everyone else boarded the aircraft. After a considerable wait, she finally returned and asked, "Are you going to check your bags or do you want to speak to my manager?" Confident that I was within my rights, I requested to see her manager.

Shortly after, a more senior employee, a woman in her forties, arrived and asked, "What's going on? Why aren't you boarding?" I explained the situation, and she immediately asked me to place my bag in the size checker again. Upon seeing that it fit perfectly, she acknowledged, "Yes, you can board." However, the younger employee, clearly unwilling to admit her mistake, insisted, "No, I've already called my manager." The senior employee, visibly frustrated, replied firmly, "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, I AM YOUR SUPERIOR, AND I'M TELLING YOU, THEY CAN BOARD."

After enduring unnecessary stress and waiting, my wife and I were finally allowed to board. Unsurprisingly, our bags fit perfectly in the overhead compartments, further highlighting the absurdity of the situation. This incident added to the exhaustion of a 26-hour journey and marred what should have been a routine boarding process.

This experience exposed serious gaps in Air Canada's staff training and professionalism. I urge the airline to address these issues promptly and thoroughly to prevent future passengers from enduring similar frustrations. It is essential that Air Canada invests in comprehensive training programs that emphasize customer service, empathy, and adherence to company policies to ensure a seamless and positive travel experience for all passengers.

The two ladies holding up the check-in process didn’t help, by wanting their luggage returned to them, the airline attendant forced to leave her post to go and retrieve all their belongings.
While this was happening other staff also went awol, a young manager seemed completely overwhelmed, unable to find any kind of support,
This left us in limbo for some time with angry voices being raised around us.
When we eventually got to the check-in it was explained that the ladies needed medication that they had checked in, why couldn’t the ladies be temporarily moved to free up the queue.
After many hours we were called to board the Dash 8 transfer to Montreal, after we were seated and secured, it was only then the announcement was made that there was a problem with a wheel bearing and spare parts and technicians were in Montreal, why we were embarked and strapped onto an aircraft with a serious fault, god only knows.
After disembarking back into the terminal and waiting a very long time, we were finally told that the flight had been cancelled and we should collect our baggage from the carousel, they’d even managed to lose a suitcase with the unloading of the aircraft, no small feat considering we hadn’t gone anywhere yet, and to find a hotel or stay in the terminal for the night and report back the next evening, all through this we had no help from air Canada what so ever.
A notice board appeared by the desk with some kind of Q code for finding hotels, which was a useless act for those who were not savvy with modern technology or its systems.
Apart from the so called manager who was still uselessly talking to no body on his radio, a complete lack of staff to help or guide their customers was grossly apparent,
The situation was so dire there were older passengers in tears, being helped by fellow passengers, not what I need to see with a modern day airline in any country.
Fortunately some of the passengers were issued with food vouchers so we could get some food and drink.
24 hours after finding our own transportation and a hotel we finally got our Montreal to Heathrow flight, a personal opinion but cabin crew especially female with tattoos up their arms is not a good look, additionally the flight meals were inedible and the seats very cramped.
So no I don’t think we will be recommending air Canada to anyone.

I am writing this email in absolute frustration and anger over the appalling service I’ve received during my recent travels with Air Canada.

On my flight from London to Vancouver, I had pre-booked halal meals, which were completely ignored. I was left hungry for the entire duration of the flight, with nothing but two pieces of bread offered. This is beyond unacceptable. Is this seriously how you treat your customers? I repeatedly asked for some form of snacks since I do not drink tea or coffee and am allergic to cheese, and still, nothing was done. This is some of the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced.

To make matters worse, today I had a connecting flight from Vancouver to Toronto and then to London, and to my disbelief, my flight was canceled without any notice or explanation. I had to wait for 90 minutes just to get my flight rebooked, and now I’m stuck in the airport waiting for a flight that’s not until 7 PM! I have received no satisfactory answers as to why this happened, and I’ve been left stranded without any support. Also, on my flight from Vancouver to London I was left with the same food problem as before I wasn’t provided what I asked for and I was left with a small piece of bread as the flight on my way to Vancouver.

I work in the airport industry myself, and I’ve never seen service as bad as this. This whole ordeal has been a stressful, infuriating nightmare, and I am furious at how I’ve been treated. I expect immediate and fair compensation for the inconvenience, hunger, and stress that your company has caused me. I never expected such disgraceful service from Air Canada, but this experience has left me absolutely disgusted.

I got the exit rows seats. They are awful. No usb port in sight to charge your phone, no TV screen, no small table to put stuff on. Yet every SINGLE other economy seat has all of those. I can't even eat food the offer because I have nowhere to bloody eat it!!!
The problem is, why is it more expensive and why say that it's better when in reality it's basically the worst seat on the entire plane?

I was very disappointed with my flights to and from Newfoundland. I paid for Business Class seats because I need the lie back seats. Due to my disability, the Zone 1 boarding line in not applicable. We don't drink, so the lounge is not as desirable. The seats are the sole reason that I book business. AC decided to change planes, and I suddenly realized that I was on a plane that had no business class. My seat was comparable to the Premium Economy. I don't understand how AC can put you in the premium economy seat and charge you the fee of business class. On one of the planes, I didn't even have a seat screen. Even with the extras business class offers, they do not provide free wifi. It seems to me that if they don't provide a seat screen, they should provide free wifi. Although, the downgraded plane and seat is my biggest complaint, I also had to suffer the other typical complaints - the threat of a pilot strike, delayed flights that ended up costing me extra fees in transportation, and their precious business class lounge being closed while we waited the two hours for our flight. There is no direct flight to NL and I was surprised and discouraged to find that the same meal was offered on both flights. All in all, it was a very disappointing experience. It is not fair that they charge business class prices and provide economy priced seats.