Flight was "over subscribed" which is Air Canada speak for "we cancelled the earlier yyc-yvr flight so we now have more bums than seats".
Great flight attendants, great luggage tracking, pretty good trans-pacific business class setup, food was modest. Only paid WiFi in business class unless you enter an Air Canada member number at the time of booking (e.g., no Star Alliance member number). Vegetarian food was tasty but had no protein. Overall, a good mainstream North American carrier flight experience. Acceptable if the price is right. Otherwise, I might choose an Asian carrier for elevated experience.
We had an unfortunate incident in the Maple Lounge. After five hours between flights including a delay to our return flight to Brisbane. I had two glasses of wine over four hours and when I asked for a cocktail the serving person refused (Saturday 15th August, 2200 hours), she refused me. She claimed to have counted my drinks, and said that 'as a senior person (me)' I could have a medical incident on the flight if I had any more to drink. This was an extremely confrunting experience which I have never had before. Quite literally, I had two medium glasses of (quite average) wine between about 6 pm and 10 pm. I had poured one other, very early on our arrival, for my wife.
We were delayed from 8am until 5pm. Was not given food vouchers,just left sitting in waiting area.
The flight was on time. The seats were ok and the Indian veg food was good. Overall good experience.
First time flier on Air Canada and absolutely loved it. Everything was so clean. Friendly staff. Easy boarding.
Planes arriving on time would be better. Apparently flights are delayed almost all the time, making your connection impossible then having to rebook on another flight at another time. There is no regard for customers who need to travel somewhere at a certain time. Connection flights are not held by the same airline, even though they know the plane can get there within 30 minutes or less. Airline staff is amazing, but the excuses Air Canada gives for delays is not truthful. Some messages will say mechanical problems and the next message for the same plane will say air traffic control issues. So what is true? They don't need to refund anyone if they use these two excuses. So if travel from B.C. to Montreal with delays like this is common, I will consider not flying there anymore. When we missed our connecting flight, the next flight had one seat (4.5 hours later) and the next flight was a red eye at 10:45. Big difference from our 12:15 initial flight.
Crew are excellent. I wish they have personal care kit on board
The food was awful. It had more than 2 hours delay. It was too expensive
The code sharing reservation with United was messed up requiring extra trip to airport to fix. Air Canada customer service 2.5 hours on hold and resolved nothing.
