RSSOh, Air Canada
Aug 18
Seems like Mr. Kinsella and I are in agreement on this front: I HATE, HATE, HATE AIR CANADA
Well, maybe not to that degree. But, it sure felt that way a few Fridays ago when I made my way to Newark, NJ, from NYC, for a flight home only to find out Air Canada canceled it. NJ and Toronto both had beautiful weather, but of course the reason was “bad weather”. Further, they couldn’t find a seat on another airline, or any of their own flights later that night. And, especially “of course”, they wouldn’t pay for the hotel they were forcing me to find since they couldn’t book me on anything until the next morning and the reason was “weather”.
It had been a long time since I had flown Air Canada. I fly Continental whenever possible and have never been disappointed. I picked AC this last time, with hesitation, because it was very last-minute and there were no reasonably-priced seats left on Continental.
I will not fly AC again. This is especially disappointing because I travel to Austin, TX periodically and had been looking forward to a new direct AC flight there from Toronto, as opposed to my one-connection flight on Continental. However, I will now gladly take the extra connection because spending an extra hour or two traveling is better than not making it home at all.
And, if that were not enough, this was my first trip away from my newborn daughter, and they kept me away from her and my wife for an extra night.
Aug 19, 2008 @ 09:26:22
Air travel in general is getting more and more painful. Beyond the lack of comfort of being jammed into overbooked flights, and the fees for food and carry-ons, the sheer unpredictability of air travel is the worst part. You sit for hours in airports, only to be told to go back to your hotel. I’ve been there a few times myself. But Air Canada isn’t the only offender, or even the worst. American Airlines is pretty bad too, and most aggressive with random fees.
Continental has been a rare exception. They’ve been pretty good about getting me where I need to go in relative comfort. But it could have just been luck of the draw. All the airlines are feeling the pinch one way or another. How they handle it, which corners they cut, makes all the difference.
Aug 19, 2008 @ 14:40:53
I agree the whole industry is messed up. I don’t think your experience with Continental was luck, as I’ve talked to very few people who were unhappy with them.
Aug 27, 2008 @ 04:29:21
If I have to go from A to B in Canada, I do my best to fly WestJet – I’ve flown them a handful of times in the last five years or so, and there’s nothing to complain about. The live TV by Bell ExpressVu in the seatbacks is a nice touch, too.
Continental is going from good to better – they’re rolling out live TV as well, and on-board WiFi, starting in January 2009. So in that extra hour or two travelling, you’ll at least be in touch. I sound like a shill, I’m sure, but they really are the best – I fly over 100 flights a year and there’s a reason they’re almost all on Continental.
Within about a year, Continental will be partners with Air Canada, once the move to Star Alliance from Skyteam is complete. This is probably good for you – you can keep flying Continental whenever possible, but not worry about putting all your frequent-flyer eggs in one basket. When you begrudgingly need to travel on Air Canada for personal reasons, you’ll be able to redeem miles there. And when you need to travel Air Canada for business reasons, you’ll have all of your frequent-flyer benefits from Continental working for you. You can buy Continental Presidents Club lounge membership, and you’ll be able to use the Maple Leaf Lounges, which are from what I’ve heard are about the only redeeming artifact of Air Canada.
Aug 27, 2008 @ 06:33:24
On-board Wifi will be cool, although I cringe to think how much the airlines will charge for it.
Do you know why Continental is changing alliances? A lot of my bookings through Continental ended up being an actual Northwest flight, so I’m curious which new partner I’ll end up getting routed on in the future.
Aug 27, 2008 @ 11:06:57
It’s all rumours at this point, but the Live TV is going to be free in first, and $6 or so in economy. The WiFi is going to be, unbelievably, free – it’s just an incentive to get you to fly Continental. I think they’re going to limit it, though, to e-mail and IM, but I’m not sure how they’re technically implementing it (port filtering, maybe – I guess I’ll be setting up a VPN server on whatever port MSN uses)
So main reason for Continental switching to Star Alliance is the ensuing Delta and Northwest merger. Northwest has for a long time been tight with KLM, which is now merged with Air France, and all of those airlines are SkyTeam, which leaves Continental the odd man out. Star Alliance consists of United and US Airways in the states (both brutal, in my experience), but the international carriers are a good deal better – Singapore, Lufthansa, Royal Thai, South African, etc. I’m going to miss Northwest being a Continental partner – like you, I had a whole lot of Continental flights that were actually operated by Northwest, and this also means I can’t take Northwest to get to Thunder Bay anymore.
Aug 27, 2008 @ 11:23:59
Free WiFi would be great. I wonder how that would work for BlackBerries though because I have no idea what port they would connect to BES/BIS on, since it’s a custom push email service.
And, maybe I could still do web surfing using a service like http://www.web2mail.com that fetches webpages for you when you send them an email.
Aug 29, 2008 @ 14:40:51
Your entire complaint is complete crap! Hmmm…The real problem here isn’t Air Canada…it’s that you chose to originate from the most congested triangle in the world ATC system. The day in question – in fact – almost every day this summer, EWR, JFK, LGA, PHL, BOS all implement RGDPS (rolling ground delays) This is because they have scheduled far too many aircraft for their ATC slots, and then, when bad weather (read=enroute) affects arrivals and departures, the FAA dictates who keeps their sked and who doesn’t. Air Canada, being a foreign carrier to the US, gets kicked constantly before US carriers do…so if you were AC, would you really operate a flight down there knowing they aren’t going to able to get you out of there…hence the cancellation. It’s not AC’s choice dumbass!!! And no, I don’t work for any airline – I work in ATC. Next time you complain, try and think about the reason why…do you think the airlines enjoy cancelling flights? It costs them tons! I really resent the internet era…everyone has become a whiny, bitchy, self proclaimed genius about everyhting under the sun and think people actually gice a shit…GET OFF YOUR SOAPBOX!!! GET A LIFE!!! USE THAT ENERGY TO DO SOMETHING POSITIVE IN THE WORLD!!!
Aug 29, 2008 @ 15:58:59
Hah. Saniuk: I appreciate, for the sake of humour, the many self-contradictions in your post. Thank you.
Next, I do of course appreciate the difficulties of the situation. My problem is not that the flight was canceled, although that’s expected with AC. My beef is with how they handled it.
a) Did they manage to get me on another flight that evening, either on AC or a partner? No.
b) After failing on a), did they pay for the hotel I was forced to stay in? No.
c) Did they offer any form of compensation at all, or even a genuine apology? No.
So, after all the above, and knowing that I, as a consumer, have the choice of which airlines to fly with, why would it be at all surprising that I would want to choose someone else next time?
Further, I am also pretty sure that my normal carrier, Continental, would have managed to get me home. Not through any magic, but possibly by having more partner airlines and, as you mention, having priority since Newark is their hub.