Comment by neom | Hacker News Reader

Comment by neom | Hacker News Reader

I can't get over how bad Air Canada is, compared to porter or even west jet I'm surprised anyone flys them, the people who work for them are clearly angry and the service is always expensive and bad. My most recent travel adventure with them, they fly out of someone else gates/desks at SJO, this is not messaged anywhere - I got to the airport early, and walked around trying to find the Air Canada desk, asking people, nobody seemed to know, checkin closes at 7, it's 6:55...finally find the checkin desk, Swiss Port branded (?) with an Air Canada uniform person, I swear to god she hit enter as she saw me running towards her and closed the flight, yes, I arrived at the desk exactly at 7:01. I called Air Canada and all I said was "how do I find the air Canada checkin desk in SJO?" and the response was, I kid you not, "why are you calling in to find that out?" I explained the situation, put me on hold, came back and explained that Air Canada only has a small team there, and no branded desks, and then in a very scolding tone (really, I was shocked): it was "my responsibility to figure this out in advance of travel, sir". I asked if they could help me rebook, told to "do it online".

Yeah sure, all my own fault I suppose, but also...bugger off Air Canada. </rant>

Noel recently covered Air Canada vs Porter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_acPeCOY1I

In fairness to Air Canada a few months ago they pleasantly surprised me. Admittedly long haul international, which does not seem to be as extremely bad as their domestic. Pearson is clearly a disaster area at this point, as that whole gold theft demonstrated.

Yeah, I've been travelling around Canada and the US for two years now for work (~30 trips) and Air Canada had a dramatic improvement somewhere around Spring/Summer 2024. From November 2023 to around April 2024 I was keeping track of the probability of actually having my checked bags arrive at the destination and they were sitting around 60%. Since around Spring 2024 it improved dramatically, plus they started offering (mediocre) beer for free in economy!

People fly air canada because the regultor protexts their routes so they or their partner are often the only option, especially on ibternational flights. For example. Calgary has hd many direct finternational flights denied over the years becauae the regulator thought we were served enough by flying to vancouver and tking the air canada route from there. Its pretty offensive. Regultors should be figuring how to let a aervice be offered, nit propping up entrenched junk

> Regultors should be figuring how to let a aervice be offered, nit propping up entrenched junk

Welcome to Canada!

No doubt. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory since at least the firat trudeau government

Not a big fan of Air Canada, but if you are flying out of Montreal (YUL) I find that they have the best airport integration overall by a wide margin. For international flights (excluding the US), my record from drop-off at the airport to sitting at the gate was 15 minutes and it never was more than 45 minutes. Their infotainment system is also pretty good overall, never had a dead screen in +10 flights at this point.

But I feel like the average person flying only a few times a year makes this very difficult to evaluate properly. My only experience with WestJet was abysmal, same for Delta. United was ok. Transat (much smaller) was good.

Air Canada get an overly bad reputation imo.

1. They are significantly larger with more complex operations than either Westjet or Porter. If people flew Porter or Westjet as frequently as Air Canada, I'm sure they'd suddenly have just as many negative experiences with them.

2. A lot of Canadian Airports SUCK, and this then gives the perception of Air Canada making a mess of things.

They tried to land in the SFO taxiway nearly missing several jets not too many years ago. I think they cleared one by 20 feet or so. Not very promising.

> A lot of Canadian Airports SUCK, and this then gives the perception of Air Canada making a mess of things.

I've only ever flown out of YVR and I have nothing bad to say about AC, so the airport could be a factor!

If I had to guess most of the most negative experiences involve YYZ.

I actually know someone who did contract IT support for them. I'm kind of surprised by how at least the IT component operates. It looks to me like there are multiple middle men trying to outsource nearly their entire company to the absolute cheapest thing they can find.

Maybe all airlines work that way but I can't imagine that results in something functional.

air canada often has the only direct routes for me

They also have more frequencies. E.g. Porter flies once a day YYZ-SFO. Air Canada has ~5 flights on the same route, plus various options via YVR or YUL. As bad as they are, it's good to have options for cancelled flights or changes of plans. AC know they are the only game in town which is why their service can be so bad. On routes where they have competition, particularly long-haul to Asia, I understand their product is much better.

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