Air Canada
Reviews and Complaints

I was recently informed by Expedia.ca of a significant change to my flight itinerary that would change my direct flight to a flight with a stop over. When I contacted Air Canada to inquire about a refund for my $3727 round trip ticket due to the breach in contract that they caused, they told me that they would offer me a voucher without an expiry date. I told them that this was unacceptable and that a full refund of my ticket price was warranted due to the change, because this was not what I paid for. They continue to argue that policy dictates what they can and can't offer. Funny thing is that the Canadian Government just released a statement that any COVID funding was contingent upon airlines offering a full refund to customers affected by cancellations or significant changes in their itinerary. I am still in communication with Air Canada customer service regarding this issue, but have filed a complaint with the CTA to investigate the breach of contract complaint. I am hoping in the end to get a full refund and book with another carrier. Otherwise my vacation plans will be flushed down the toilet.

I booked a ticket with Air Canada on Oct 28, 2020, to leave from YYZ to BOM on the Dec 25, 2020.

About a week after I booked this ticket, I received a notification that this flight had been changed due to Mandatory Government Regulations and my destination was moved to DEL, without any options provided to me. After a couple of more weeks, they have changed my return flight, originally scheduled from BOM, to start from DEL too.

After a couple of calls with Air Canada Executives, I have recently become aware that the reason the change was made from BOM to DEL for my destination was because Air Canada does not have approval to land in BOM as yet, at least for all of Dec, and potentially until January or February 2021. There are other airlines that have approval to land in BOM (like Emirates), but Air Canada does not.

I booked a direct flight from YYZ to BOM, and paid a higher price for Premium Economy because I wanted to reduce all sorts of contact with anyone through the journey until I reach my destination in BOM. Now, with having to travel through DEL, that choice is lost. DEL is nowhere close to my destination town in India and it would never have been my preference, had I known it was the only destination in India that Air Canada can land in.

Air Canada was not fair in allowing me to book a direct flight from YYZ to BOM, knowing that they did not have approval to land in BOM. I have ~$3200 blocked because of an unfair decision on their end. They should have never allowed me to complete the booking.

Their customer support is now offering me a voucher (which I do not want) or that I must accept a cancelation fee of $300. I booked a non-refundable ticket, with a false sense of assurance that I will land directly in Bombay, when Air Canada did not have the needed approvals to allow such a booking. It is only fair that it is rectified and I'm refunded the complete value of my ticket and not charge me for an error that is not mine.

Phone customer support declined to be able to address my concern and asked that I write to their email customer support. Email support is expected to take 30 days before they will even respond, never mind the resolution. I just got off a call with the phone support and while they have canceled my itinerary (to avoid showing it as a no-show during the travel dates), I don't have any timeline of when I can expect a resolution.

Tried attaching emails - it did not allow for anything else apart from images.

I am a us recently I got the ticket from kayak.com to cheaptickets. Hk. Suddenly air canada changed the flights and it's humanly impossible to make the connection. Try to contact cheaptickets. Hk (+[protected]) and no one takes the call nor can wait for support, try to call air canada and they keep telling me is brought from the agency should call them can't help.

If no refund and have to confirm this itinerary which means I have to surrender the ticket. Take a lose, if this is not a scam and I don't know what is?

What is the role of agencies and airlines? Am I flight with the airline or agencies?

Hello,
On the date of the flight attached the plane was on its way from Calgary to Toronto, just above Winnipeg, when the captain announced we were turning around and heading back to Calgary to remove two bags that weren't supposed to be on the plane (?) and to refuel. Why not land in Winnipeg? This excuse seemed suspect to everyone aboard and completely ruined the whole flight pattern that day. What should have taken me 24 hours took 48 hours of travel time. I missed my connecting one way flight to Lima and my other connection to Pucallpa. There was no one way to Lima the next day so had to fly to Cartagena and then Lima and then Pucallpa. Not to mention the whole first flight there ware no screens working for any entertainment. The hotel i was put up in had cold warming air blasting out very noisily so had to turn it off and sleep in the cold, there were no thick blankets in the room. Needless to say it was an awful experience and i was late for the month retreat i just came out of, the reason i am only typing this now. I was off grid the whole time. I hope this can be compensated for some how, and i don't think a 15% coupon would cut it. It was just awful i will say again. Thank you for listening.
Monique Janes

ac 791 WB 12, 2020 2 TICKETS
Arrived at airport 5:30 am proceeded to get the bag tags I could not print from home when tried at airport it would not let me print them
approached rep from AC she could not do it either sent us down to gate 14 to get bag tags waited in line got to counter asked for the tags she said too late the flight left looking at my watch it was 6:45 am sent to another line they could not help me sent me to united airline to get new flight and they did for the next day
had friends on the flight and told me people were in our seats and when asked they said they bought them last minute
looking for compensation for selling my seats also hotel had to stay in was $185 lost an excursion to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii at a cost of $400 USD I don't think I'm asking a lot when my trip was almost ruined my wife an I only travel Air Canada our whole life and debating on traveling with you again
Lawrence and Deborah Lunan
65-8 Arcadian Circle
Etobicoke On M8W2Z5

This is not a complaint. Do you have a lost and found service?

We flew from Toronto to Honolulu on Feb 13, Flt 589. We believe we may have lost a charging cable for a smart phone on that flight. The cable is black, about 8 inches long with a USB on one end and a clamping device on the other end The clamp has 2 pins which are held against the back of the watch for charging.

We have checked with the manufacturer, and they will not sell the charging cable separate from the watch, so that is why we are pursuing this loss.

Can you advise if there is a way to get it back, if this is the case.

Thanks, Jim Wray

After an itinerary change of my flight from San Diego to Halifax, I was not able to make any changes online anymore. In the meantime, my travel from China to San Diego has been canceled due to the coronavirus. So I have to cancel this flight too. I have been calling the reservation office in China and it never got through. I submitted a few cancellation and refund requests online since Feb 1st and never received any responses. I even asked a friend in Canada to call the reservation office there for me but they refused to process my cancellation. My flight is now happening in 3 days and I kept receiving reminder emails but I could not find any ways to simply cancel it. The customer services are terrible. The only option to cancel a flight is through the online booking system or call center, NEITHER OF WHICH WORKS AT ALL. I understand Air Canada is receiving a higher volume of requests at the moment due to the outbreak but you should at least make sure one of the cancellation mechanisms works. I don't even expect to receive my refund immediately - just want my flight to be canceled before it departs, OK? PLEASE CANCEL MY FLIGHT NOW. Thank you.

I book flights for our engineering company. I am at my wits end trying to get through to Air Canada to cancel bookings under 24 hours so I'm not charged, or to change bookings that it won't allow me to do online, or to use a previous credit. At least 3X a day I am not able to get through... I know as soon as the Head honcho Jean Paul comes online that they're not taking any calls. The rest of the time I spend AT LEAST 1 hour and 45 minutes online.
Yesterday, when, after 1 hour and 46 minutes online, I was talking to a fellow who was helping me use a credit, he put me on hold to check it out and I hung up after another 50 minutes on hold. I was trying to persevere, but this is TOTALLY ridiculous... where do they get the balls to call themselves #1.
Who voted for that... Air Canada itself.

Air Canada Case #: CAS-2326941-S6C6G6

--FLIGHT INFORMATION--
Flight Number: 808
Flight Date: 2020/01/12
Departure City: Montreal
Arrival City: CMN Casablanca
Ticket Number: [protected]

Horrible Pre-flight Experience

No way to contact Customer Service. Lousy phone system. Disconnected after 20 minutes. User unfriendly website. Asked for wheelchair. Most of the time, it's no show. Requested for seats close to aircraft door (before & @ the airport). Rep's answer "nothing available". It was assigned all the way back & not together! A group of 25, some of us lost connecting flight, luggage (for no reason). Everybody complained about the worst customer service & promised not to fly "Air Canada" again.

Absolutely ridiculous - they changed my reservation so that I can no longer make a connecting flight (all booked through Air Canada / Aeroplan, on the same ticket).

It took over an hour on hold before reaching a real person, only to be disconnected when they attempt to transfer the call.

On the Aeroplan line, there's a recording from some clown called Jean-François Gagnon indicating that he's in charge of this [censored]show. In the recording, he apologizes for not being able to put the call on hold, then the system simply hangs up.

Apparently they've got a new reservation system and higher than usual call volumes, yada, yada. Guess what, not our problem.

The executives at Air Canada should be cleared out and the feds should appoint a caretaker ombudsperson. Totally unacceptable for a national carrier to have such poor customer service.

Claim Id: 482834
Confirmation Number: 33fd5e200a4a
Ticket No: [protected]
I was a medical volunteer on a humanitarian mission to Haiti that was cancelled at the last minute due to it being too dangerous, I asked for a refund of my ticket due to extenuating circumstances. I sent more emails and finally received a negative reply 2 months later. I have been offered a voucher but have to pay a rebooking fee that will be approx 300 dollars.

I also asked how I could change my remaining flights for this year to ensure I had enough AQMs to make 50k. The loss of the flight to Miami made me short. The delay in their reply has meant that it was too late to alter my flights and I have missed the 50K statute for 2020 by 3000 miles.

The hotel in Miami and American Airlines both refunded me the total amount within 48 hours - both bookings were 100% non-refundable and I have no history whatsoever with either. I am an incredibly loyal AC customer w >700, 000 miles. Every other member of the humanitarian team has been fully refunded.

I also contacted AC via Twitter and after a delay received this apology written in very poor English: " Our Social Media not having the authority to override decision take by our Customer Relations and Refund department, we will defer to them going forward. /Kenji"

How can a company take over 2 months to reply to a proven extremely loyal customer? I am disgusted and disappointed by their response. American Airlines sent me a beautiful letter thanking me for my humanitarian work. AC should be ashamed.

December 19th, Air Canada claims they cancelled a flight due to weather but other flights came in/out of Toronto and Winnipeg and conditions looked fine. They refused to grant hotel and food vouchers. They rebooked for 3 days later despite the passenger being in mid-voyage. They advised us to seek another airline to fly earlier. We incurred more than $850 additional costs in rebooking with another carrier and paying for our own hotel. There is no address to mail our claim and nothing on their website to input our costs.

Recently my wife's round trip tickets from Halifax, N.S. to Tampa Florida were severely altered, making them untenable for her to travel. I attempted to cancel or at least change the flight online, but was not allowed to. These flights, I believe, were partially or fully with Air Canada Rouge. I was informed that I had to call Customer Service which promptly put me on hold for over an hour. I am seeking a full refund and sincerely hope that I will have no trouble receiving it, under the circumstances. This level of service from any company nowadyas is unacceptable. I am sorry to say that, over the past several years, with about 40 flights under my belt, all of my issues with the exemption of one other time, have been with Air Canada. Also, unfortunately the support staff at the airport were not accomodating in trying to help me in the past. To be candid, Air Canada's customer service especially at the airports themselves, really has to up their game.

Corston Lane
[protected]
[protected]@hotmail.com

November 23, 2019. Flight Number AC1665. Ticket #[protected]. Flight from RSW to YYZ. The passenger in the Window Seat 21A was very overnight and did not fit into his own seat. He was 1/4 of the way into my seat 21B. The arm rest could NOT come down because he was into my seat. Became claustrophobic. Stood for an hour at back of plane. Even when the seat belt sign was on for turbulence. Advised all flight attendants of problem. They offered me free food and drinks. Plane was completely booked, although there was a passenger sleeping in the 2 seats at the back. The attendants would not disturb him.

The Passenger in 21A was last to board the plane. When I complained, I was told to wait because we were taking off. I did not take pictures as I did not want to embarrass the passenger.

I feel that the fault is Air Canada's as they should have asked this passenger to purchase 2 seats. I have also learned that a plane should not takeoff unless all safety measures are met. The arm rest did not come down at any point - not at take-off nor at landing.

I expect to get a full refund for this flight and further compensation due to both the dangerous situation I was put into and the fact that I had to stand for one hour and then was crowded into a seat that was partially taken over by the passenger in 21A

Hi my tkt ref no ABKJKR my parents came from India by ac047 they can't get wheelchair services on Toronto airport and they're suffering troubles for connecting flights they can't get any help from air Canada or airport authority,
Now I want to change his ticket for return to back, so for that I called many times but air Canada customer service are not picking up call so what is the option to contact to air Canada [protected]

Hello,

Yesterday, my husband ans I were travelling on a direct flight from Los Angeles to Montreal (flight 798), when we were told by the pilot that for technical difficulties we had to make an unscheduled landing in Toronto and that this is a precaution. We were told soon after that we were likely going to deplane and take another plane to Montreal at gate D34. Up to now all is well. Soon after, we get another announcement that immigration will not allow us to deplane until the plane is cleared so we sit on the tarmak for about 45 minutes. During this time we are getting messages from the Air Canada app, that the reason for this landing in Toronto is due to availability of cabin personnel. The conflicting information begins and this irritates passengers.

Meanwhile, we are hungry as we were hoping to eat something when landing in Montreal. We live about an hour and 15 minutes away from the Airport and we had driven our car to a friends in St-Clet who was supposed to pick us up and drive us to her house where we would pick up our car and drive the other 50 minutes home. Because we didn't know what time we would get in and that this person works in the morning, we told her to leave the keys in the car and that we would Uber to our car.

Before deplaning, we are told that we will be escorted through immigration to gate D34 to take a new flight to Montreal. Once we got off the plane we got a panoply of conflicting information. First we were told we would be escorted through immigration but that we would actually go through customs in Montreal, then we were told we needed to fill the customs document but that we would be escorted, when we asked if we needed to pick up our luggage my husband was answered yes, while was answered no. You could imagine how the conflicting information between a tired hungry couple can soon escalate the level of irritability.

Finally, customs agents just told us to go downstairs and follow the connection signs... lovely. We get to customs, we are still wondering wether we should have our luggage with us or not and Air Canada employees continue to give us and other passengers conflicting information. We choose to forget about our luggage and try and make the 10pm flight, which we received a text about.

It took us a little longer to get through customs as our document was not ready or completed, the level of stress (and the hunger) was not helping matters. When we finally got through customs we still didn't know where to go. When asking Air Canada employees they were not sure either and they would send us further down a hallway. We finally get to the end of a hallway where an Air Canada gentlemen is standing there and tells us to wait in line. We ask whether we should have had our luggage he says no...ok great. We ask him what happens next he says to wait in line. So we wait, and wait, and wait. Meanwhile we are getting information by the app that we are booked on the 10pm flight, but we are told by an Air Canada agent that we need to have our boarding passes re-printed. So we wait, and wait and wait in line. During this time I ask the agent whether there will be food on board, as we are very hungry and it lloks like we will not have time to grab food. She responds that we will likely have time to buy something before we board or Air Canada may have things for purchase on board but there is no guaranty. Lovely! Once we get to 1 person ahead of us, the agent informs us that if we have duty free we will not be able to get through security (which by the way we were told we would not have to go through security again if we followed the instructions provided). So the agent tells us to go upstairs to the 3rd floor, to check in our duty free, free of charge. Really? Why could we have been told this before? This is certainly not the first Air Canada flight that is rerouted. So we rush off to the third floor. Once we get there we realize the information that was provided to us (go to the third floor) is quite incomplete. The third floor is quite big. We see an Air Canada counter, we speak to the agent. She says we are not in the right place, she directs us to another counter. When we get to the other counter, there is only 20 minutes left to our flight, we still have no boarding pass and we have not gone through security.

When we get to the counter, the agent asked why we are there? Who told us to go there to get our boarding pass? There will be np time for you to check your duty free. I very irritably answered that I was sent there, was told that my duty free would be checked so we could make it through security. The agent makes a few calls. They print our boarding passes, we put our duty free in our carry-on suitcase and check it to Montreal. We run to security with 10 minutes to spare. There is no time or place to get something to eat.

We get on the plane. We wait, we wait we wait for others to board. Finally it turns out some passengers do not board and now you need to remove their luggage. So we wait, we wait we wait. Around 10:45 pm we take off. We are more than hungry at this point, I have a mega headache, and we are both very irritable. When we finally get service on the plane (which is late because we are in row 28) all we get is pretzels, that's all they have. Really?

Finally we land in Montreal, what else could go wrong? Well, the suitcase that we had to check in with our duty free (2 bottles of scotch), did not make the trip. Funny, how you can delay a plane to get luggage off, but can't get it to follow the passengers. This means we waited longer to make sure our luggage really didn't make it, it means we are hungrier than hungry. We file a lost baggage with the Air Canada Agent, he tells us our bag is still in Toronto. Frustrating! It is now past midnight, there is no food to be found in the Airport. We order an Uber to take us to St-Clet. The cost $83.78, which I expect you will pay. We then drive home. By the time we got home it was 2:20 am. This morning, I got a call, my bag should be delivered today between 3pm and 6pm.

I am trying to give you a play by play so you can appreciate the frustration. I fail to understand how a rerouting (which is something that likely occurs often) is not better orchestrated. Why don't you have standard procedures for these instances? Why are your agents not aware of crucial pieces of information (pick up luggage or not, security or not)? Why can't you anticipate that some passengers are likely going to have duty free, are going to be hungry, are tired?

As an FYI, I've travelled all over the world and unfortunately, not withstanding Air China, my wort experiences have been with Air Canada.

Dear Air Canada, my wife, Maria Ferrari, and myself, Cosimo Garofalo, we had the tickets (PNA5NM and PMR7BR, respectively) for the AC710 of 2019.10.18, which have been cancelled (reasons: "airport limitations"). My wife's flight re-scheduled for 16.45 of 18th (>4 hrs delay) and mine for 12.55 of 19th (>24 hrs delay) . Both flights were unacceptable to us, because I, firstly, planned a job meeting in LGA airport and, secondly, at 20.25 of the 18th, we had an Alitalia flight (from JFK) to come back to Italy. We lined at your Customer Service of Pearson Airport and we did not receive alternative solutions. We lost our JFK flight and we had to buy new tickets (departure the same 18th) from Toronto to Italy. You informed my wife of a refunding of 7.35 CAD (and nothing for myself). We cannot accept this. I kindly ask you to refund us at least for the cost of the additional tickets: 1402.00 Euro.
Many thanks; kind regards,
Cosimo Garofalo (e-mail: [protected]@gmail.com; phone: +[protected])