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Is Canadian Air Travel really that bad?

Is Canadian Air Travel really that bad?

Old Nov 28, 2021, 2:06 pm
  #16  
 
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PP is at fault for the YYZ layout and rules? Is PP also at fault when the restaurant serves cold soup? Cute or sad. Your pick
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Old Nov 28, 2021, 2:07 pm
  #17  
 
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Just flew for the first time in 22 months. No status anymore.

Domestic leg then international thru YYZ. Found it seamless as though covid never happened. No reason to rant as I am not a kettle.

I have to thoroughly agree however with other posts I have read that AC as an airline is rapidly approaching the gutter of a ULCC profile IMHO based on the Y segments. I refuse outright on principle to pay them for J. Once UA starts flying direct to SA again I'll be happy to sit upfront.

It's WS for all my domestic.

Last edited by KDS777; Nov 28, 2021 at 2:13 pm
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Old Nov 28, 2021, 2:08 pm
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by YOWgary
That's a discussion that would take us completely outside the topic of an airline forum, if you'd like to have that discussion I suggest Omni or Reddit.

The part I'm curious about is what kind of leap of imagination is necessary to blame socialism and Air Canada for your inability to cross an international border for twenty minutes to grab a sandwich.
The topic is Canadian air travel. YYZ layout is certainly a valid topic. And so it AC's non-customer service attitude, especially towards 75Ks
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Old Nov 28, 2021, 2:40 pm
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by Deltahater
The topic is Canadian air travel. YYZ layout is certainly a valid topic. And so it AC's non-customer service attitude, especially towards 75Ks
You're just all over the road here bud.

Pearson can lay its restaurants out ten different ways, that doesn't alter the fact that you were on the wrong side of a national border.


As a fellow 75K, I had no trouble reading the rules about upgrades to Preferred/E+/Comfort+/Main Cabin Extra/whatever you want to call it.

You're not the first American to show up north of 49 unhappy that things don't work exactly like they do at home, we always enjoy a chuckle when our southern friends visit in the summer and can't figure out why our money isn't green.

The other side of the upgrade coin is that thousands of Air Canada elites at all tiers, who would never get to upgrade a single transcon segment in ten years with Delta, are able to do this under AC's rules.

It's not better or worse, it's just different. If it makes you angry, well...

Sorry.
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Last edited by Adam Smith; Nov 28, 2021 at 4:01 pm Reason: Remove political commentary
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Old Nov 28, 2021, 2:46 pm
  #20  
 
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Not getting dragged into whos what, where, but I think two points are beyond dispute:

- AC was labelled too big to fail by the previous government - over a strike by customer service agents, no less. That usually leads to regressive mindsets as corporate culture goes - i.e. customers exist to serve airlines, rather than the other way around. That was the previous CEOs creed - with his whole Canadian global champion nonsense. That kind of thinking eventually infects the entire company. The service standards - especially for Y pax, who account for the vast majority of their passengers, is proof positive. Or, if you prefer something more tangible: AC banana bread.

- ACs TB lounges are generally very poor - often even worse than the domestic ones. The last TB lounge I visited - LAX just before COVID kicked off - reminded me of UA in its darkest days. Except that AC was booking record profits at the time.

The good news for AC FFs: I dont think status-matches US FFs who dont fly J exclusively are going to stick around for long, so that e-upgrade glut should be temporary.
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Old Nov 28, 2021, 2:50 pm
  #21  
 
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Originally Posted by yulred
The good news for AC FFs: I dont think status-matches US FFs who dont fly J exclusively are going to stick around for long, so that e-upgrade glut should be temporary.
Judging by this thread, I'm not too concerned about status-matched US FFs being able to navigate the eup system at all.
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Old Nov 28, 2021, 3:01 pm
  #22  
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So first of all, thank you for all the comments. We just survived the YUL-MIA flight. The cabin temperature was warmer than Miami - a flight attendant once told me they do that to make pax more tired and less demanding. Yes, it was another rouge flight and i can not remember such an uncomfortable flight in Y since i flew standby from Kansas City to Miami maybe 15 years ago on AA and I was trying to get out before a possible Tornado and the only open seat was a window less seat that wouldn’t recline at the end of the plane next to the engine - it might even have been an old TWA DC-9, though probably and MD 80. In 1997 I flew Dub-STN on Ryan air once - that was worse too.

I feel compelled to point out that I have a little perspective - I used to live in Toronto for 5-6 years starting mid 90s. Back then, company policy was Y under 4 hours, J when more or a red eye. My family has a similar travel policy now ;-) - when I was living in Toronto there were a couple of both Canadian and US border agent that greeted me by name. My preference in those days was Canadian Airlines (while it lasted), but I had plenty of AC flights under my belt.

This year we flew AA Y MIA-LAX-KOA - we did get upgraded (was a fairly safe bet) on the MIA-LAX segment - but we were perfectly fine on the LAX-KOA segment and the fare was ridiculously low. Point being, I am perfectly OK with Y in many cases and I wasn’t expecting any wonders - I am UA gold on and off - and LH will try to block the seat next to me - while AC did want $15 per selected regular seat. Maybe that is because the locator included my son - but then that’s sucky IT.

While of course we have been traveling a lot less during Covid, there still has been enough to compare - and this experience was just poor. I mean, we had had a row of elites (little one is only UA silver), but one AC 75 and one AC 50. We dared to ask for the entire Can of club soda. “I only have 3 left for the rest of the plane”. “OK. How about a regular water and an apple juice” (my son likes that mixed) “I can give you the regular water” - more or less throw it on the tray table and moved on. We got the apple juice out of a different flight attendant.

Anyhow, we were thoroughly underwhelmed. On the other side, we liked most hotel stays a lot better in Canada than what I would have expected in the US. But I would fly AA or DL over that AC experience any day - I think I’d rather why South West actually.
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Old Nov 28, 2021, 3:10 pm
  #23  
 
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Originally Posted by flying_geek
there still has been enough to compare - and this experience was just poor.
These days all airlines are bad. Some are worse than others.
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Old Nov 28, 2021, 3:11 pm
  #24  
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Originally Posted by Dave510
Judging by this thread, I'm not too concerned about status-matched US FFs being able to navigate the eup system at all.
Yeah, probably safe bet ;-) - I was unable to request an eupgarde. Either because the fare or because the system doesnt know what todo with 2 AC elites and one UA member on the same locator. Didnt see important for a 3h flight when I booked it
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Old Nov 28, 2021, 3:27 pm
  #25  
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Originally Posted by flying_geek
Yeah, probably safe bet ;-) - I was unable to request an eupgarde. Either because the fare or because the system doesn’t know what todo with 2 AC elites and one UA member on the same locator. Didn’t see important for a 3h flight when I booked it
@flying_geek
First, welcome to the fun house that is AC FT. Second, some of would be happy to help you navigate the AC eUp thing but if you have time to read, we have a thread...... and if you decided to fly AC again.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-...0-onwards.html Feel free to ask questions.
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Old Nov 28, 2021, 3:31 pm
  #26  
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Closed pending moderator review and clean-up.
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Old Nov 28, 2021, 4:23 pm
  #27  
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I've deleted or edited the most egregious of the off topic, political, or otherwise inappropriate posts.

I'm not going to reopen this thread, because it's all over the place, and much of what's discussed here belongs in another thread or another forum altogether.

I will point out, for instance, that the AC forum has threads to discuss:
I will also note that the AC forum is not the forum for everything related to air travel in Canada. The Canada forum has threads on many of the topics covered here, such as:
As for the debates about Canada's political system, those shouldn't be anywhere outside of OMNI/PR.

Those wishing to continue discussion of the non-political points that were raised in this thread are asked to do so in the appropriate threads (you can quote posts from this thread to continue the dialogue).

Adam Smith
AC Forum Co-Moderator
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