Originally Posted by go_around

So last month I took my first trip on AC. There were two incidents which made me complain on 2nd July - still waiting to hear back but thought I would share it here.

First incident was on AC6 HND-YYZ. I've never encountered such rudeness from flight crew in all my travels. It didn't start well with the two male attendants at the aircraft door just chatting to each other, taking boarding passes before returning them without even looking at passengers, and ignoring any "hellos" from passengers boarding. But of course you can overlook this.

During the flight, something happened which I couldn't overlook. It was about 10am local time after the night segment of the flight, and I wanted to do some work. I was at a window seat in the economy cabin. My window shade was open about 1/3. A flight attendant approached me and made a "close the window shade" gesture with her hand, without any please of course. I told her I didn't want to close the window shade. Her reply: "You have to close it". No, I don't have to close it. I'm trying to do some work, and I get claustrophobic on long-haul flights if I can't see out of the window. Then she started claiming that other passengers were "complaining" about it. That's funny, because no one closeby has been talking to flight attendants at all.

I told her that, and said that even if it was true, I thought the window shade being just 1/3 open was a reasonable compromise. But no, she persisted: "You have to close the window shade". I pointed out that during the night segment a member of cabin crew already asked me to do this and I complied with it. But the night segment was over. Then she said to me: "don't start". Don't start? I've never been spoken to like that by cabin crew. I was completely taken aback by this and simply said "I'm not closing it", and put earphones in. At which point she made a peeved facial expression and left.

For a start, cabin crew have no right to demand that window shades are closed. Second, the tone of her "request" was completely inappropriate. Third, she has no right to stand there repeating the same demand over and over again - I reckon about 6 times. And all of this over the middle seat and aisle passengers so it becomes somewhat embarrassing. And "don't start"? I'm not going to let that go. I was annoyed by that for a good part of the rest of the flight.

Now to the second incident: transferring at YYZ. We arrived a little late into YYZ and had to wait for approx 15 minutes at a remote position for our gate to be free. An announcement was made that if passengers were concerned about onward connections they should approach ground staff at the gate.

Of course, there were no ground staff at the gate. I followed the transfer signs, went through customs etc, only to go down a corridor at the end of which was another rude woman:

Rude: "Where are you going?" (barked)
Me: "Montreal"
Rude: "Where is your bag?"
Me: "It's checked through to Montreal"
Rude: "No, you have to pick it up before customs, go and stand there" (pointing to a queue)

How pleasant. I discovered that this queue was a missed connections desk. 20 minutes in that queue. Then when I get to the front I discover more rude staff - the women on the desk are waving their hands and making derogatory jokes / remarks when calling people forward. Are all Air Canada staff like this, I wondered?

The woman at the desk was not particularly helpful. I discovered that despite the fact my bag was checked through to YUL, I had to pick it up before customs. As a first time visitor to North America (despite extensive travels elsewhere), I had never heard of this, and certainly had no reason to think of it if my bag was checked to YUL. I pointed out that they could have announced on AC6 that connecting passengers would have to pick up their bags before customs, though she claimed "maybe not all Air Canada staff know about this system". Okay...

Next, I'm told I have to go through a no-return set of double doors, turn right and "go past the blue clock at the end". Off I go past the blue clock at the end. No idea where to go next, it's a dead end. I follow some stairs which lead up to departures, and am sent back down. Eventually I get hold of an airport employee who tells me that I'm meant to stand beside the blue clock until an Air Canada agent comes to collect me. Then I stood beside the blue clock like a clown for 15 minutes until I was collected, only to be taken through various corridors, sign some form, collect my bag, go through customs again etc. The staff member who picked me up said there were signs beside the escalators in YYZ transit area stating that connecting passengers had to collect bags, but as the escalators were not in working order, we had been directed to stairs which didn't have any such signs.

So now I am back at the missed connections desk, a good 45-50 minutes after I was first there. Considering I'd already been travelling for 22 hours, I was not best pleased. I had told the agent about the rude flight attendant on board too, and she just dismissively gave me a card with AC contact details on it. And I was rebooked. No apology or attempt to show even the slightest degree of care. Just one rude employee after another. Not even on the budget airlines of Europe and Asia had I come across anything like this.

The trip back had pretty cold and lacklustre service, but nowhere near as bad as on the trip out or at YYZ. I hope those rude employees are not representative of those working for the airline as a whole. They are disgraceful ambassadors for the brand.