Just Back ... An Air Canada Report

[disneymath]

Starting October 1st, Air Canada will no longer distribute free headsets - you may bring your own or purchase them onboard! If you fly before October 1st, you will be allowed to keep your free headset for future flights. If you choose not to keep your headset, it will be discarded as AC is no longer recycling them. Yet another cost saving measure I suppose.

As for the flights ... we left home August 10th and probably had the best Air Canada Jazz flight ever. The flight attendant was super friendly and efficient. Our flight attendant on our return flight on August 19th was good too. (This was a welcome contrast to the attendant during our December flight home who treated the passengers like dirt and then had a meltdown when turbulence was encountered.)

The Air Canada flights between Pearson and MCO were good too - in our experience they always have been. The remodelled interiors with personal seatback TVs are a welcome addition!

Our only complaint was checking in at MCO for the return home ... the line was very much backed up and the AC agents seemed to be totally confused! Now this was Tuesday morning when Fay was still on course for Orlando, but still ... come on people! When we joined the line it was already pass the queueing ropes and there were no agents on duty!!

PS The Disney part of the trip was FANTASTIC as always!!

 

[edit1]

Thanks for sharing, glad you had a good trip! Good to know about the headsets. I also enjoy the seatback tv's...it makes a huge difference for the kids too.

 

[disneynuts777]

Just curious but what time was your flight back from MCO. We are flying home Air Canada on a 8a.m flight on Aug. 31st. MCO is notorious for there security lines but I have never had a terrible wait to check my bags. I do not want to get to the airport any sooner than I need to but maybe I should be there earlier than I had planned.

 

[Susan2771]

Nice to read you had a good trip with Air Canada. We are leaving in 11 days and flying with Air Canada and I had a knot in my stomach when I saw your thread title thinking maybe it might have been a bad experience. Welcome back!

 

[DCA_MillionaireFreak]

Air Canada is a total crap shoot. I had good flights with them in 2003.

 

[yoplit]

Its nice to hear that you had pleasent flight attendants. I have to say that DH and I as of late have been having AWEFUL service with AC. the flight attendants in general treat you like crap, make you feel aweful for asking for a glass of water!! anyone else feel this way!?!?
But the remodelled cabins are a welcome site aren't they? makes the trip go by that much quicker!

 

[disneymath]

Thanks for sharing, glad you had a good trip! Good to know about the headsets. I also enjoy the seatback tv's...it makes a huge difference for the kids too.

Yup, those TVs definitely do get a big !

Just curious but what time was your flight back from MCO. We are flying home Air Canada on a 8a.m flight on Aug. 31st. MCO is notorious for there security lines but I have never had a terrible wait to check my bags. I do not want to get to the airport any sooner than I need to but maybe I should be there earlier than I had planned.

Our flight left at 1:35PM ... our DME pickup was for 9:30AM ... we were in line waiting to check in at the AC desk by around 10:30PM. There were easily 75 ppl in front of us and only two AC flights on the board (including ours). Now, when the group of AC agents finally came on duty, it appeared that there were supervisors too who were trying to speed things along, but it was definitely chaotic for a while ... we got through security faster than we got checked in at the AC desk! We've flown home on the 8 AM flight before and faced long lines but none like this.

Nice to read you had a good trip with Air Canada. We are leaving in 11 days and flying with Air Canada and I had a knot in my stomach when I saw your thread title thinking maybe it might have been a bad experience. Welcome back!

Sorry to cause you any anxiety ... as I mentioned before, we've always had good experiences on the Air Canada flights to/from Toronto/Orlando ... the same can't always be said of the Air Canada Jazz flights we take to/from Toronto - this trip both were great though.

Air Canada is a total crap shoot. I had good flights with them in 2003.

Air Canada hasn't been bad in our experience (we only fly Toronto to Orlando though) ... the regional AC Jazz on the other hand --- total crap shoot!

Its nice to hear that you had pleasent flight attendants. I have to say that DH and I as of late have been having AWEFUL service with AC. the flight attendants in general treat you like crap, make you feel aweful for asking for a glass of water!! anyone else feel this way!?!?
But the remodelled cabins are a welcome site aren't they? makes the trip go by that much quicker!

I hear you ... we ran into some trouble with AC Jazz during our return home from our first December WDW trip in 2007. Apparently our flight from Toronto home was cancelled - neither our TA nor any of us were notifiied. This led to a huge layover at Pearson ... with a six-month old who didn't have a stroller b/c AC had implemented some new stroller policy (that has since magically disappeared) that required it to be checked. The desk agents were totally condescending and unhelpful. When we finally got on a flight home (9 hours later than expected), we experienced the flight attendant from hell. She was rude and snippy to everyone on the plane and then ended up having a total freak out when we encountered turbulence - she caused a lot of anxiety for us passengers let me tell you!

The whole experience was so terrible I wrote a letter of complaint to AC and AC Jazz ... we ended up getting compensated $100 each to use on future flights (this was about the cost of adding a one-way Jazz connection to our Toronto-Orlando flight).

We were so much happy with our experience this trip!!!

 

[SandraC]

paperless tickets

 

[Beechnut]

Are you able to do online check in for international flights?

The last time we flew we did this within 24 hr and we were able to choose our seats. At the airport we breezed thru the long lines of people.

May be different as last flight was domestic.

 

[damo]

Our only complaint was checking in at MCO for the return home ... the line was very much backed up and the AC agents seemed to be totally confused! Now this was Tuesday morning when Fay was still on course for Orlando, but still ... come on people! When we joined the line it was already pass the queueing ropes and there were no agents on duty!!

PS The Disney part of the trip was FANTASTIC as always!!

We had a horrific line up flying back with West Jet in early March. We were actually lined up right out the doors. It was just stupid. Then the line to clear through the scanners was lined up all the way to the food court. Not a fun time.

 

[disneymath]

paperless tickets

Not sure if you were asking if we had paperless tickets (we had e-tickets but still needed to get boarding passes) or if you were suggesting this as the reason for the long line at the check-in desk.

Are you able to do online check in for international flights?

The last time we flew we did this within 24 hr and we were able to choose our seats. At the airport we breezed thru the long lines of people.

May be different as last flight was domestic.

I don't think you can do online check-in with international flights ... then again, we didn't have a computer or internet access, so that wasn't an option anyhow. We've done online check-in before on domestic flights tho and I agree that it saves time.

 

[hcortesis]

For the past couple of years we have been checking in online. We simply go to the lobby at the Beach Club, ask a cast member at the desk to check us in for our flight (within 24 hours of departure), choose our seats, print our boarding passes and then bypass the check-in at the airport. It has been quite simple.

 

[disneymath]

For the past couple of years we have been checking in online. We simply go to the lobby at the Beach Club, ask a cast member at the desk to check us in for our flight (within 24 hours of departure), choose our seats, print our boarding passes and then bypass the check-in at the airport. It has been quite simple.

Wow ... I didn't know the WDW Resorts would do this for you - I thought it only applied to the domestic flights on US Carriers that belong to WDW's AIrline CheckIn program! Will definitely keep this in mind for future trips to the World! (Gotta love the DIS ... learn something new each time you log on! )