The people were awesome, my only complaint is the lack of business lounges
Warning- Air Canada makes it almost impossible to get a refund if a flight is cancelled. My flight was cancelled due to a damaged plane. This airline then rebooked me for a later flight. I went on line and tried to navigate their site to rebook to another within my original itinerary and I had thought I had changed it the first time, but since their site is nothing like our sites here in the states, you had to closely look for the links to complete the process. Then came the other problem. Trying to get a $45 refund on check in baggage, that I had paid for one day in advance. I tried calling the airline's customer service. They stated they are unable to process refunds for this. They then referred me to an on line site. This site required you to answer a multitude of drop down questions that are not applicable to a simple flight cancelation. Then right when I think I am done, it asks for an "incident number". I then eventually fly into Vancouver BC International Airport and speak to 3 Air Canada employees. They then tell me they cannot refund me my check in bagge fee. Once again, they refer me to this ridiculous site . They then give me a code to list and tell me to use the airport code, plus the letters AC followed by the flight # to list as an incident #. I tried this and guess what, it failed. Kayak, if you're listening. Something is very ethically wrong with Air Canada's refund process, especially when one of their planes is damaged and a flight is canceled. I have flown for many years, every week for a long time period with many airlines. Please post this so the public can see this accurate assessment of their airline customer service failure.
Great flight attendants, great luggage tracking, pretty good trans-pacific business class setup, food was modest. Only paid WiFi in business class unless you enter an Air Canada member number at the time of booking (e.g., no Star Alliance member number). Vegetarian food was tasty but had no protein. Overall, a good mainstream North American carrier flight experience. Acceptable if the price is right. Otherwise, I might choose an Asian carrier for elevated experience.
We had an unfortunate incident in the Maple Lounge. After five hours between flights including a delay to our return flight to Brisbane. I had two glasses of wine over four hours and when I asked for a cocktail the serving person refused (Saturday 15th August, 2200 hours), she refused me. She claimed to have counted my drinks, and said that 'as a senior person (me)' I could have a medical incident on the flight if I had any more to drink. This was an extremely confrunting experience which I have never had before. Quite literally, I had two medium glasses of (quite average) wine between about 6 pm and 10 pm. I had poured one other, very early on our arrival, for my wife.
The code sharing reservation with United was messed up requiring extra trip to airport to fix. Air Canada customer service 2.5 hours on hold and resolved nothing.
The flight attendants went out of their way to help me align everything so I can catch my connection as soon as we landed
One small cup of warm soda for a 4 hour flight. Disinterested, unfriendly flight attendants
Food options were ok but the actual meal was terrible. On my way back, they simply said that there was no vegetarian option; somehow they struggled to get one meal and did not give me any breakfast at all which in my opinion was terrible. Never had such an experience in the recent years.
It was pretty straight forward, no glitches or hidden costs
Flight was delayed over an hour. Most likely not the airline’s fault. But it made catching the next flight rushed.
