Make sure you have enough transfer time in TO from Calgary - another bad AC story...

[Calgary DISHeads]

We were held up in Calgary due to a connecting flight, which made us late into Toronto - despite repeated requests, not only from us but from other people who were late for connections they would not allow to disembark first. We raced to get our bags, waited for 15 minutes then went and asked at the counter how long they would be. We were told at least another 20 minutes but if we wanted we could go ahead without our bags (why weren't we told this on the plane??? - I asked several times what we could do to make our connection) She called ahead to the plane and said that they were holding the flight for us. We literally ran with another family (felt like we were in Amazing Race) only to get there to be told the gate had closed and we had been booked on the next available flight which would get us into Orlando at 2am instead of the original time of 7pm. Oh, and let's not forget the storm of the century was headed into Toronto. We are lucky I have Elite status so were able to wait in the lounge - and did make it out just ahead of the storm - although it was the rockiest ride I have ever had. It did not make for a good start to our vacation, We were told by AC staff in the lounge that this happens regularly - Calgary holds flights, Toronto doesn't so Calgary passengers are regularly missing connections. Anyway, heads up to all....

 

[ChisJo]

we had to run to our connecting flight in Chicago because of a delay - because we were coming from Canada, we were in a completely different part of the airport. We were flying with United that day. It took us 5 minutes to RUN a normal 20 minute walk...it was ridiculous. We got there just as they finished bording, but they let us on. Another family wasn't so lucky. We were on the same flight to begin with and I knew they were bording this flight....they didn't make it. And then to make it worse, they stopped bording, only to have to sit on the Chicago tarmack and wait to be de-iced! We ended up waiting for an hour - those poor people who were not allowed on the plane...I would have been very angry!

 

[drag n' fly]

We also got tired of the missed Toronto connections. We only fly direct now and with Westjet....nuff said~

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Just another reason we refuse to fly A/C. We prefer to fly on a US carrier when travelling to Orlando which is great because you clear customs here in Edmonton.

 

[LoveDopey]

I'm with all of you -- I hate flying AC and trying to transfer in Calgary. It is a hassel. Two years ago we had a 35 minute stop in Calgary on our way to Houston and we had to clear customs. To say the least they held the plane for a group of us.

Does anyone know about AC and transferring in Vancouver. Is it the same? We fly through there in February.

 

[OntFamily]

There is a simple solution to this problem. Don't book flights with show connection times.

While I am not an apologist for Air Canada (haven't flown them in over a year) some of the problems people have stated are not AC issues. It's Canada, in winter. Flights will be late, and connections will be missed.

If you can't book a direct flight (always a preference), ensure your connection time is always greater than one hour (make sure this is so, before you book -- once you book the ticket, there may be a cost to change the flight times). For me, I'm flying to Orlando through JFK in March. I picked a connection with a two hour connection time (as oppsed to the 45 minute connection time I could have picked). I get to WDW later, but with a lot less stress.

You can't count on the airline to hold a plane for you (as this throws off connections for everyone else on the plane). If they do this, consider it a bonus.

 

[BraMax]

We just flew from Calgary to Lax via Vancouver on AC. If your connection is tight under 2 hours I wouldn't chance it. On the way down the plane that we were schedualed to fly out on was deamed not flyable so a 2 hour and 15 minute layover turned into a 4 1/2 hour layover. We did not leave until our original plane was to land in LA. Then coming home we had an hour and 15 minute layover and after you clear customs you have to go from one end of the airport to another. It took us 15 minutes of very fast walking to make it just as they were about to start preboarding. Then when we landed in Calgary our bags had not made it. Apperantly this happens often from Vancouver on connecting flights. There was about 8 sets of passengers who didn't receive their bags. This sucked because we still had an 2 1/2 hour drive home. AC did fly our bags to Edmonton and delivered them to our house the next morning at 9:30. Which thankfully everything was in there from our trip to Disneyland. I will only fly direct from now on. I don't care about the deals anymore.

 

[NeverlandPixie]

Ok, you guys have scared the daylights out of me now! I'm flying out of Winnipeg at 5:10 am and have a 70 minute window to connect to the flight to MCO at 8:35 am. I'm hoping since it's a Sunday morning, it won't be too bad. Plus, I'm going to try to go carry on only.

 

[damo]

We just got back from a flight from a major connection hub in the US. You wouldn't believe the number of delayed flights/missed connections and none of them were AC. All I kept hearing was, so and so would not be responsible for paying for hotels because of weather issues and heavy air traffic. I really don't think that this is just an Air Canada issue.

 

[Calgary DISHeads]

Ok, you guys have scared the daylights out of me now! I'm flying out of Winnipeg at 5:10 am and have a 70 minute window to connect to the flight to MCO at 8:35 am. I'm hoping since it's a Sunday morning, it won't be too bad. Plus, I'm going to try to go carry on only.

Our connection time was 1 hr 20 minutes. What we know now is that you can go without your bags - although you won't get them for 24 to 48 hrs. If we had known that earlier we would not have missed the flight. I value my time on vacation more than my bags. Don't worry though, if it happens it happens - at least it's early in the day so you won't be arriving in the middle of the night if you do miss one connection - you''ll still have a fabulous vacation just like us! I was very worried about the connection time too, and worrying never helped me! I have been travelling extensively for work this year with several trips to the Middle East - I was warned that I would be held up at US customs, potentially for extensive questioning and had aready planned to send the rest of the family ahead of me if that happened and he didn't even glance at my passport twice. You just never know....

 

[bev r.]

Air Canada will wait for people, or at least they used to. We had an experience on one of our trips to Maui. Our flight from Edmonton was delayed leaving due to bad weather in Winnipeg. Our plane was coming from there. When we arrived in Vancouver, we ran through the airport, got through customs and ran to the gate. When we arrived at the gate the attendant called us by name. It was an experience running through the airport with 5 kids aged 5-10. The kids thought it was fun running like crazy people through the airport, meanwhile, the adults were sweating bullets. I think there was another family also running with us.

Like others have said, this is not an Air Canada problem. I read somewhere that bad weather in New York, has an impact on 30% of all flights within the US.