Has anybody flown Air Canada? What was your experience. Thanks.

Yes, I did. <BR>My experience with Air Canada was fine

yep, AC Dulles to Paris (via Montreal, then Toronto).<BR><BR>I was overseas during the tragedy, made it back on the 17th. Had no problems whatsoever. <BR><BR>The plane to Montreal was a small jet, smelly bathroom. The rest of the flights were large planes and quite comfortable. <BR><BR>Beth

Air Canada is a lot like Canada. Pleasant, but nothing stands out.<BR>If Canada was a food it would be meatloaf.

Dean that wasn't a very nice thing to say. Canada is a very beautiful place to live and visit. We are friendly and have great places to visit. The question wasn't about Canada is was about Air Canada.<BR>To answer your question, I fly it all the time and it is a great airline. nice planes, nice people, good service.

I, too, have had several very good experiences on Air Canada flights...to and from Winnipeg and Ottawa...from NYC.

I've flown then from Wash DC to Quebec City (through somewhere, Montreal and/or Ottawa coming back). It was a small commuter plane, not a big jet. It was ok, nothing much I can say about it. They wouldn't allow me to carryon my 22" roll-aboard coming back but they did going, same size plane -- that kind of po'd me. Other than that, nothing unusual to say except I didn't much like Quebec airport.

I fly quite alot, about 250 flights per year during my hectic years. I have also flown extensively with Air Canada (and have about a half million frequent flyer points with them). When I fly, I am very selective with the airlines I use, and Air Canada is at the top of my list of preferred carriers (I also like British Airways, Singapore Airlines and KLM). The crew is professional and personable, and the fleet is well maintained and in good order (I had some scary experiences with other airlines, with seats falling into the aisles). You will have a great experience with Air Canada.

We flew Air Canada to Paris from Vancouver (stopping in Toronto) and it was NOT a pleasant experience. Although we checked in early and our bags were clearly tagged, our luggage was lost both going over to Paris AND on the way back! It took three days for it to make it to Paris and Air Canada was extremely reluctant to fork over the $$ that we were entitled--they tried to palm off two biz class toiletry kits and that's it. Air France (which was handling lost luggage claims for AC at the time, don't know if they still do) stepped in and insisted they give us the cash. On the way back, the staff were very frosty and told us we should (direct quote) "be grateful we were getting our bags back at all."

Fly Air Canada fairly often and fly my granddaughters in to see me on Air Canada. Maybe not cordon bleu but c'mon, it's not meatloaf either!! I think it's comparable to many U.S. airlines.

We recently flew Edmonton-Toronto and Toronto-Edmonton with Air Canada on either end of our trip to Portugal. The flight there was trouble-free, but the flight home was a nightmare! Arrived at Pearson airport 1 1/4 hours before our connecting flight, on which we had reserved (pre-selected) seats, and were told that they'd oversold the flight and we were bumped! Put on standby for our originally scheduled flight - didn't get on it; put on standby for the next one(2 1/2 hours later), didn't get on that one, either; fortunately, the customer rep we spoke to had confirmed us on the last flight of the night, and upgraded us for free. However, we ended up hanging around the airport for an extra 5 hours! We feel that, since they have a virtual monopoly, Air Canada upper management really don't see their passengers as anything but $$-genereting units. The front-line staff we dealt with (with the exception of the check-in person and the first gate agent,who left a lot to be desired in their communications skills) were outstanding in their genuine regret about our dilemma and in their efforts to assist us. The front-line staff members like this are all going to burn out, however, if they have to continue bearing the brunt of upper management's indifference to quality customer service. Oh, and did I mention they lost our luggage, too?<BR>ja

Air Canada are doing some flights at the moment between New Zealand and Australia on behalf of Qantas. I was unfortunate enough to be on one of these flights recently between Auckland and Melbourne and returned the following day. Both flights were poor. The service was extremely slow and was nothing like that provided by Qantas. This was a common complaint from passengers especially on the Melbourne to Auckland leg. That flight leaves Melbourne at 7.30pm on a Friday night, landing in Auckland at 1.00am. A common end of the week commute for trans Tasman business people. Its a Friday night, end of the week, people want service and quickly. Its a three hour flight. Qantas are up and down the isles within 20mins of takeoff. It took these guys nearly an hour.<BR>So, one experience only I admit, but I'd always choose an alternative based on the limited experience I have had with Air Canada.<BR><BR>David

I would love the opportunity to try Air Canada, but when I checked airfares from NYC to Quebec it was close to $1,400 for a r/t ticket! A little steep for me!