Air Canada

[WDWJonasGirl]

I have never flown Air Canada before and I will be flying on it next weekend. What's it like?

 

[KeroKero]

I personally really like flying with Air Canada. They don't give you any snacks, everything has to be paid for with a credit card on flight, but I find the planes clean, modern and roomy even for coach (I'm pretty short though). I've also never had a problem with delays, baggage or staff. Flying with Air Transat this trip though, Air Canada was too pricey!!

I'm sure you'll have a very enjoyable trip

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I personally really like flying with Air Canada. They don't give you any snacks, everything has to be paid for with a credit card on flight, but I find the planes clean, modern and roomy even for coach (I'm pretty short though). I've also never had a problem with delays, baggage or staff. Flying with Air Transat this trip though, Air Canada was too pricey!!

I'm sure you'll have a very enjoyable trip

Thank you!! I leave next weekend.

 

[GrtWtNorth]

I have never flown Air Canada before and I will be flying on it next weekend. What's it like?

If you're flying to Canada from Southern California, you should be treated to great service on Air Canada. If you're flying across Canada, it's another story...

Air Canada is an old-school airline, with lots of unions and seniority issues. Staff with the most years experience get the best-paying routes (international, long haul). Junior staff cover most of the domestic and short-haul flights, and they are the ones always sweating over whether their jobs/pensions/benefits will get slashed in the next round of cut-backs. Flying with these basket cases is frustrating.

Bring a good set of earphones. The in-seat entertainment system is free and is one of the best in the air (very new movies plus several classics, and a few pre-recorded TV shows). But Air Canada's headphones are poor quality and overpriced.

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

sorry...have to ask GrtWtNorth...where did you make that Simpsons avatar?
also...AC is really free for inflight movies? cool!

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

If you're flying to Canada from Southern California, you should be treated to great service on Air Canada. If you're flying across Canada, it's another story...

Air Canada is an old-school airline, with lots of unions and seniority issues. Staff with the most years experience get the best-paying routes (international, long haul). Junior staff cover most of the domestic and short-haul flights, and they are the ones always sweating over whether their jobs/pensions/benefits will get slashed in the next round of cut-backs. Flying with these basket cases is frustrating.

Yes I am flying to Vancouver from Southern California.

 

[mbb]

........Bring a good set of earphones. The in-seat entertainment system is free and is one of the best in the air (very new movies plus several classics, and a few pre-recorded TV shows). But Air Canada's headphones are poor quality and overpriced.

AC and JetBlue are our favs...for that very reason, easy, free, enjoyable and APPROPRIATE entertainment for all ages

Nothing worse than an overhead movie I don't want the kiddoes to see.

Bring your earbuds, ACs are $3.

Have a great trip!

 

[GrtWtNorth]

sorry...have to ask GrtWtNorth...where did you make that Simpsons avatar?

Check out the Simpsons Movie web site. The "create your Simpsons avatar" link appears at the top of the main page.

also...AC is really free for inflight movies? cool!

Yes, it's free. And surprisingly current. You can check what's playing on the EnRoute (Air Canada magazine) web site. Kung Fu Panda 2 is playing, and it's not even available on DVD yet.

 

[glenpreece]

i have flown AC many times (to Orlando and Paris) and most of the time I enjoy it, I prefer Westjet just because of the no class seating. The food when served is good and yes the entertainment is great. Watched The Blindside on the way to Paris. Flying them to LAX next month.

 

[lizabu]

I flew Air Canada from Toronto to London England. They were pretty good. The life saver is the in seat movies. I watched 3 back to back movies on my flight. They were all movies you will find on Pay per view. They provided 2 meals and free ear phones but that may be because it was such a long flight. We flew coach and it was kind of tight but a 2-3 hour flight should be a cake walk.

 

[MedicGoofy]

My brother uses them to fly across Canada every month for work, he wont fly with anyone else.....the odd time he has used WestJet. Yet he prefers AC. He does get feed and like everyone else, finds there movies to be great.

 

[Dan1]

You get what you pay for applied to Air Canada.

I travel for work, have for numerous years, and always try my best to fly AC when I can per my company policy.

It can be / usually is more expensive than other air lines.

However, I have yet to fly any US air line that can match it for newness of the air craft, comfortableness and roominess (it is all relative ) of the seats (I only fly coach unless I get an upgrade which is rare), and usually the select of free movies.

If you are into movies (I am) that can be a very good way to having the time fly by (sorry, bad pun ) on long flights.

I don't like that once you select your movie (current or classic) or TV program you have to wait for about 5 minutes of commercials (yet, that's what makes it free so I can deal with that). Do be careful not to put your ear bud into your ear until the movie / tv episode actually starts as the commercials at the start always seem to be extremely loud and you can't reduce the volume as you can on the actual movie / tv episode.

You should enjoy the flight!
Dan

 

[corster]

I'm a WestJet/Porter guy myself, but even I have to admit AC is a decent hard product that blows away anything the US domestic carriers can offer. Their customer service is their weak point, but nothing worse that you'd experience flying United or American or Delta...

 

[Habfan888]

I am more of a Westjet fan myself.
Westjet bases its model after southwest. AC is more like the bigger airlines in the states.

I've found that WJ has better customer service compared to AC, but that's personal preference. AC does provide a good service but i just find WJ a bit more friendly. again some people like the AC ways of things

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I like Air Canada too. I have found the flight attendants to be very friendly and attentive, they are friendly and make jokes. I flew two weeks ago from Regina to PEI, on three different little planes, and the flight attendants were great. That woman that took us home to PEI was exhausted, but still attentive and hilarious.

If you're flying in the little planes, you may not get any tvs though, just as an FYI. We never do flying into PEI, but we do from Montreal-Orlando/Toronto-Orlando etc. I would take a look at the airplane information for your flight to be sure. You wouldn't want to expect it and then not get it. I'm sure from Southern California to Canada there would be, but if you're on a connecting flight somewhere in Canada, you may not.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

The last time my family and I flew Air Canada from Toronto - Orlando in December 2008 it wasn't the best experience and this is why. Now this was our fault for not seeing this right away but we had no confirmed seats, we only had seats for our return flight from Tampa - Toronto and had to go stand by. We had made the reservations using my Dad's Aeroplan points way back in Janurary 2008 and assumed everything was ok. I mean why would Aeroplan let us continue making the reservation if they had no Aeroplan seats left? So basically we had agreed to go stand by and we known that we would have never have made that reservation. Now in the end things worked out because we got seats on the 10:15 AM flight to Orlando and got 3 seats in Business Class and it's where all the other stand by passengers were seated, since no one had purchased those seats.

Since that time we have flown with WestJet and one reason is paying a bit extra for specifc seats on their flights. I am not saying we won't ever fly with Air Canada again, however I would be very carefull when actually making the reservations with them.

 

[michelle1]

Someone else mentioned that not all planes have the inflight entertainment which is correct..you can go on their website and check to see if yours does and also their website shows which movies, tv shows etc are playing for your flight. I'm not sure if it's just us having really bad luck but I have never flown with A/C and departed on time...once we were in the air, though, always had nice flights.

 

[FanniesDisney]

LA to Vancouver is a hop skip and a jump. Less than 3 hours from gate to gate.
I prefer to fly AC and in general I've never had a problem with customer service. Booked our flights to Florida using my avion points and picked our seats.
Enjoy your trip!

 

[michelle1]

Okay...I previously posted that every time we fly with AC our plane is late leaving, well, we just returned from a cruise last night and our AC flight was late each way by at least 45 minutes...

 

[minnie56]

I like AC...can't say I have ever had any problems that are of monumental proportions. Flew with them last week to NYC and twice the month prior without incidence. Flights on time, good service, decent movies..alll good.
Flew business with them in May to Zurich and back from Munich...bliss....

I like Westjet too..just prefer AC.