Air Canada review by Sharon

I travel for business a lot. I understand that there can be delays. Air Canada is incompetent in effectively handling delays in particular for business travelers. There are a lot of negative reviews of Air Canada for everything from overall friendliness to food. I care about those things – but as a business traveler I care most about getting to my destination on time, and that delays are handled effectively and knowledgeably when there are disruptions so that I can still get to my destination as needed. I won’t trust them with that again. I was flying from Pittsburgh to Shanghai via Toronto. My flight was delayed to Toronto, causing me to miss my flight to Shanghai. There were two other flights that could have gotten me to Shanghai in time for my meeting. Due to the incompetence of the Air Canada staff I missed both. In particular, there is no Business Class line at the re-ticketing counter. I waited for an hour and a half – missing both other flight options. I was behind domestic travelers on cheap tickets with multiple rerouting options. Even when I called over a “supervisor” and explained the situation I was told there was nothing she could do, she couldn’t get me to the front of the line, and I would just have to wait. I was going for a board meeting, with my executive team flying in from all over the world for this meeting. All other travel and arrangements – for all of the other people – needed to be rearranged due to my travel issues. I am a frequent Air Canada traveler. I go to Asia at a minimum twice a year in Business Class. The other route I travel often (Toronto to Pittsburgh) is typically in the $500 range. When I wrote to customer service to complain I was offered a $200 voucher. When I requested at least $500 (again – my typical non-Asia ticket) and to speak to a supervisor I was told that wasn’t an option. No management escalation, no flexibility on the $200 offer. My experience with customer service just added insult to injury. I am taking the time to write this review on as many review sites as I can. I don’t typically write reviews. In this case, however, I really want to warn other business travelers – in particular overseas business travelers – that Air Canada is not at all equipped to handle the inevitable travel disruptions and prioritize business class tickets. And that’s in addition to the relatively uncomfortable business class seats, poor customer service, and bad food.