Air Canada Rouge

[JoS]

Hi,my name is Jo and I'm from beautiful PEI. Just wondered if anyone can answer this question about the Rouge A319 airbus. We have no choice but to use these flights now, and have read some bad reports about this new flight. I gather we will get 3" less seat pitch, but I hope the same seat width as previously. My main concern is do the arm rests all lift up? I ask this because being disabled I need to sit on the end seat and scoot across the seats to get to the window. I cant do this if the armrests are not raised. I choose a window seat so that in flight if anyone needs to be out of the row I don't need to move. This is really worrying me as I could not do the flight without them being raised. I would appreciate and advice on these flights/planes either good or bad and thank you for your help

 

[hcortesis]

Hi JoS

We are flying these new Rouge flights this winter also. There is a great forum here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-...ouge-new-leisure-airline.html?highlight=rouge

My feelings are that I might have read that the armrests do not lift. Hope I am wrong. An option could be to pay a premium (about $40 each way from Toronto) for a bulkhead seat so that other passengers could get around you if you were in an aisle seat. Personally, we have chosen 1C/D for our flights.

Good luck.

 

[JoS]

I hope you are wrong too. I would gladly pay for the preferred seats, but how would I scoot across the aisle, if the arm rests don't lift up? Thank you , I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. AC say the arm rests do lift up....I hope they are right.

 

[hcortesis]

I hope you are wrong too. I would gladly pay for the preferred seats, but how would I scoot across the aisle, if the arm rests don't lift up? Thank you , I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. AC say the arm rests do lift up....I hope they are right.

If you choose either the C or D seat, you are on an aisle. (A & F are windows). Other people could easily move around you if they need to get out of their seat without you having to move.

We have seats 1C/D, both aisle seats, easy for us to use the washrooms and easy for people in 1A/B or 1E/F to get around us.

 

[JoS]

Thanks for the reply. I have just changed to row 2 seats.....don't know if being disabled we can have row 1, can we?

 

[hcortesis]

Thanks for the reply. I have just changed to row 2 seats.....don't know if being disabled we can have row 1, can we?

There is no door there for you to assist with in case of emergency so I don't see why not.

 

[JoS]

Oh ok then I don't see why I cant have those seats do you? Will try phoning again. Thank you.

 

[KittyKat1978]

I just have to vent. THis is the first time I have flown with Air Canada from Vancouver to Orlando (usually fly with an American carrier) as I booked through Airmiles.

They have change my flight time 3 times!!!! I have never had this happen to me with any other carrier. I seem to be constantly on the phone trying to figure out what is going on. Also, Airmiles never notifys me, I find out on my own!!!

Thanks for letting me vent.

To stay on topic, so far I don't have an Rouge flights, but who knows with all these changes

 

[tgropp]

I just have to vent. THis is the first time I have flown with Air Canada from Vancouver to Orlando (usually fly with an American carrier) as I booked through Airmiles.

They have change my flight time 3 times!!!! I have never had this happen to me with any other carrier. I seem to be constantly on the phone trying to figure out what is going on. Also, Airmiles never notifys me, I find out on my own!!!

Thanks for letting me vent.

To stay on topic, so far I don't have an Rouge flights, but who knows with all these changes

Mine has changed once from 8 a.m. To 9 a.m. ..."and no, airmiles did not tell me either. I am sure that Rouge will be fine. I already downloaded the apps on the iPad for the inflight entertainment.

 

[JoS]

I hope you are right. We don't even have an ipad.

 

[tgropp]

I hope you are right. We don't even have an ipad.

I recall reading that they have a limited amount of ipads for rent...$10.00 per flight segment

 

[JoS]

I recall reading that they have a limited amount of ipads for rent...$10.00 per flight segment

Oh that's good. Would we be able to see to share one? Don't even know how big the screens are. Thanks for posting.

 

[C&B Young]

I just have to vent. THis is the first time I have flown with Air Canada from Vancouver to Orlando (usually fly with an American carrier) as I booked through Airmiles. They have change my flight time 3 times!!!! I have never had this happen to me with any other carrier.

We had the same thing happen the last time we flew with AC to Disneyland. Multiple changes, no notification, pre-booked seat assignments thrown out the window each time. They lost our business forever that trip with their lack of regard for paying customers.

 

[sayhello]

We had the same thing happen the last time we flew with AC to Disneyland. Multiple changes, no notification, pre-booked seat assignments thrown out the window each time. They lost our business forever that trip with their lack of regard for paying customers.

Seems like AC is catching up with the US's airlines. They do this all the time, especially Delta.

Sayhello

 

[Limmer]

We were just on a rouge flight. The seats seemed the same width, though I did not actually measure them. And all the arm seats did lift. Enjoy.

 

[samsteele]

I just flew on Air Canada Rouge from Toronto to Orlando return in the past week. The armrests on the airbus I was on DO lift up so this should be of some help to you. Sadly, most other criticisms of Air Canada Rouge are true. The seat pitch is poor as they have squeezed 7 more rows onto the plane. The seats themselves have less padding and are narrower than standard Air Canada seats. The leg room has been dramatically reduced. I am 5'5 and as long as I sat up straight I still had some leg room . . . approx 2 1/2 inches free. But anyone over 5'8 will have to splay their knees out to fit. The knees of the passenger behind you will dig into your back. You can pay an extra $40 to get regular Air Canada leg room and will be seated in the first 6 aisles as preferred status. This might be your best bet if you are already booked. Overhead compartments also seemed smaller. As there is a $25 charge for first checked bag, most passengers are overloading the bins with bigger carry-ons. No entertainment system. You can download the Rouge app for your ipad/itouch before your flight. I did this and it worked on my device. The movies are not recent . . . think Casablanca, Flight of the Phoenix, old TV shows like Family Ties, etc. Flight stewards are very, very young and inexperienced. On the bright side, the flights were on time and the cabin crew seem professional and competent ie appear to be regular Air Canada pilots. Bottom line: expensive and uncomfortable but safe and prompt. Rouge now appears to be "it" for Air Canada flights to Florida. I wouldn't fly Air Canada Rouge again if I had a choice. I was using up Aeroplan miles and so Rouge was it. Westjet is much more comfortable. I also prefer to drive from Eastern Ontario and over the Thousand Islands Bridge through the border to Syracuse & take JetBlue to Orlando. JetBlue is vastly superior to Rouge and very similar to Westjet. Significantly lower airport taxes at Syracuse so the same basic flight costs approx 50% less & you can avoid the big airport snarl & Hwy 401 traffic at Toronto International. Syracuse Airport is also much smaller and faster to get through. Hoping your flight works out. Best wishes.

 

[JoS]

Thank you so much for your very detailed and helpful reply. I am disappointed that seat pitch is so little but at least I know for definite that arm rests raise up, which helps. I think the way forward after this will be to fly West Jet. I am sorry your flight was not so good, but you have answered a lot of questions for me. Thank you, and I hope you have better future flights with Jet Blue, or Westjet.

 

[tgropp]

Good review samsteele. It was exactly how I remembered. I don't think I have ever been on a plane with so little room. I will avoid flying Rouge at all costs.

 

[tiggerrr]

Thank you so much for your very detailed and helpful reply. I am disappointed that seat pitch is so little but at least I know for definite that arm rests raise up, which helps. I think the way forward after this will be to fly West Jet. I am sorry your flight was not so good, but you have answered a lot of questions for me. Thank you, and I hope you have better future flights with Jet Blue, or Westjet.

The problem with WestJet now is that they spent last year putting in a larger seat pitch for the first few rows, taking away seat pitch from the rows in the back (31" now). Still not as bad as Rouge (29"), but their seats are 1" narrower than Rouge.

JetBlue is still nice. 18" wide seats, and 33-34" seat pitch. I wonder how long that will last with (what seems like) everyone else cramming more people in.

Rouge is only going to grow. Air Canada is eventually giving them their entire Airbus 319 fleet, which likely means all AC flights to Florida, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego will eventually be Rouge.