MY AWFUL Air Canada Business Class Flight *Silenced by Cabin Crew*

What happened on my Air Canada Business Class Flight?

I flew on AC's new new 787-9 Dreamliner on red eye flight from Mexico City. I'd be excited to try this airline, as i've never had a chance to before, but unfortunately quite a few things went wrong. Here is my account of what happened.

I was silenced by the crew, told I was not allowed to film, provided a sub par premium experience and made to feel very unwelcome. This is not what I expected from North America's best Airline...

I want to give a special mention to the ground crew which came to check on me in the terminal, to apologise for the experience I had and to offer me food, snacks and Air Canada merch. An excellent example of how to rectify a poor experience, I just hope that mentioned service improvements will happen on this red eye flight.

Thankfully I still managed to offer a comprehensive review of this flight, but had I not pushed back or made my concerns public on my IG then I feel this may not have been the case.

Next flight up, I'll be flying onboard their 777-300ER in Business Class, and without giving too much away, it was a completely different experience. Let's hope what happened today is a one off. My other concerns today were with the soft product provided, no bedding for a night flight, breakfast served at midnight and overall attitude towards taking photos (not in line with other reviewers).

I hope also to try their Signature Business Class, their YYZ suites (lounge) - but managed to get a tiny sample on my next flight of what their concierge service is like.

As always let me know what you think to my flight down below.

[marissawalters]

Can definitely say, Air Canada only apologized because they realized you have a following. I've ridden with them maybe 3-4 times in my life and every time I had awful service or baggage destroyed. One of my friends watched in shock and horror as some of the employees destroyed his wheelchair by jumping on it when it wouldn't collapse. Majority of Canadians avoid them like the plague. I've spent an extra $100 just to fly with another company.

[tomcervenka]

I was at a screening of a film once, at the Banff film festival, and an air Canada advertisment started to play before the movie. It said "Air Canada was voted #1 in customer satisfaction, for the third year running". And everyone in the audience spontaneously started to laugh.

[TheoWerewolf]

"I was silenced, threatened with legal reprimand and made to feel incredibly uncomfortable." So, an average Air Canada flight, then?

[philippelachaine]

I am Canadian and I do everything that I can to avoid AC. Employees are rude and service is awful. It was like that before and during Covid and it is still like that.

[coolbreeze]

Air Canada has always been horrible. Had to fly with them many times but the absolute worst incident was when I was continuously refused service on a long haul flight in 2006. I asked for a cup of water and the attendant said sure. She came back, proceeded to serve people around me. I saw she was walking away and said "sorry, is my water on the way?" She said "I'm sorry, yes I'll get it." She never came back. This was when personal water bottles weren't allowed on flights so I was feeling very thirsty by that time. About an hour later, meal service came out and everyone was served but me. It was a different crew member handing out meals. At this point, the passengers around me were like "serve her first, no one is helping her even though she's asked many times." It wasn't until then that I was finally helped. The crew member even said, "you're so tiny, you blend into the seat" when she came back! What difference does my size make? I was 5'5 and over 120lbs lol The passenger next to me even said she'll go to the counter with me once we land as a witness if I wanted to file a complaint. This was before social media.

[Yuki_Kabuki]

If they can treat business class passengers like that, imagine how economy passengers can be treated.

[roxyg]

Air Canada’s motto “We’re not happy until you’re not happy”. There’s a reason so many Canadians refuse to fly with this company.

[emma]

I am yet another Canadian that avoids Air Canada at all cost. I have flown with them once that once was more than enough: not only was I rudely treated, the flight attendant actually made my flight uncomfortable which one would think is contrary to their job. I will take a slow train across the country before I step on another Air Canada flight. Thank you for exposing them for how awful they are.

[helensmith]

As a Cdn. we all know the AC motto is "We're not happy till you're not happy" and absolutely correct.. no response would have happened with an ordinary Joe.

[sisken]

I think they were just plain rude, then tried to clean up their mistake after finding out you were for real. How tacky of them.

[seanciftci]

So last year, I flew my family of 5 to Morocco, with Air Canada. After I purchased the tickets, the scheduled aircraft changed. I had already paid extra $110 per person for the seat selection, but because it was a different aircraft, the reassigned every seat, and our seats were scattered around. Then I called the customer service and asked them to put my family together, but was told wasn't possible cause they have already reassigned the seats and the flight was fully booked. Obviously, I asked for a refund, but again was told that Air Canada can't refund service fee's, only can issue a credit to use in the future. So at the end of the day, I had to pay $550 for the seats I couldn't even choose. Talk about customer service...

[catherine]

LOVE your honest reviews!! In Canada 🇨🇦 we have VERY limited options for airline carriers and your experience here, while very unfortunate, is not rare. I suspect you’re correct that their desire to set things right was highly influenced by your subscriber count but the average traveller (myself) thanks you immensely.

[TheShadowCamo]

When Fort Mac in Alberta was being burned down by forest fires. West Jet was evacuating people for free. Taking pets and everything without complaint. Air Canada doubled their ticket prices. And that was pretty much the last straw for Air Canada. The only reason I would fly them is absolute last resort.

[Rene-xiso]

Seen some people in the comments defending Air Canada about the gopro situation, which fair enough, even if it isnt law it's their plane etc - but that still doesn't excuse the lack of blankets, the meals, the ticket pricing, the saving face they did when they saw his post, and the countless other comments and experiences others have said about the staff and the flight being awful. A crap airline is a crap airline

[ag]

The reality of Air Canada (and this is increasingly applying to WestJet) is the culture among the staff is to not treat their customers like customers. Air Canada staff treat their customers like they’re a necessary inconvenience in order to get a pay cheque.

[davtravels]

I’m a flight attendant for a U.S. Airline, and I have caught coworkers lying to passengers saying something was illegal when it actually wasn’t. I’ve found myself having to correct them, and smooth things out with the passenger.

[lorigoodwin]

Welcome to AirCanada. Well at least I know now that business class gets treated just as bad as standard class like crap.

[brianwied]

You did a great job documenting a bad experience, but very professionally. This is exactly what travelers want as opposed to the white-washed reviews of other travel bloggers. Great video

[JoshCahill]

Welcome to the "Silenced by Air Canada" Club 😉

[meekainc]

I’m shocked with all these negative Air Canada user experiences!

I was only recently looking at flying business class for the very first time - looks like I’ll be choosing another carrier.