Air Canada Reviews 

Extremely disappointing experience with Air Canada – will not fly again

This was a 12-hour international flight from Tokyo to Montreal, and unfortunately, the experience was consistently below expectations.

To start, the flight was delayed by about 1.5 hours. While delays can happen and are not always the airline’s fault, the issues that followed were.

We boarded last intentionally to avoid waiting onboard unnecessarily, but after sitting for 15–20 minutes, we asked for water. We were told it would be brought shortly. Over an hour later, we still hadn’t received anything. The only water we ended up getting was a small bottle served with the meal about 1.5 hours into the flight — and that was the only water provided for quite some time.

The service overall was slow and inattentive. The food quality was poor and disappointing for such a long-haul flight. The seating was uncomfortable, making the 12-hour journey even harder.

The Wi-Fi was another major issue. We paid around $30 for it, yet the quality was extremely poor and unreliable. Compared to other airlines, the difference is significant — both in connectivity and overall value.

The entertainment system also felt outdated, with screens and content far below current standards.

Additionally, our itinerary from Bangkok to Montreal required a layover in Tokyo that involved switching between two airports located about 1.5 hours apart — entirely at our own expense. We had to pay roughly $75 for transportation. As travelers in transit without a local SIM card or reliable Wi-Fi, this created unnecessary stress and inconvenience.

Even on the outbound flight, the service was mediocre. The staff did not appear engaged or attentive.

We have flown with many airlines — easily over a dozen — and I can confidently say that Air Canada ranks at the bottom of that list.

As a Canadian, it’s disappointing to say this, but this will be the last time we choose to fly with Air Canada.

Air Canada cancelled our flights with no clear explanation and offered no meaningful support to resolve it.

We spent over 6 hours on the phone trying to get through, repeatedly being cut off after long wait times. When we did manage to speak to someone, we were told to contact our booking agent. The agent then confirmed they could not rebook and directed us back to Air Canada.

At one point, an Air Canada representative had actually taken control of the booking and started the rebooking process, but the call was disconnected — and since then we’ve been unable to get back through to complete it.

We are now stuck in a loop between the airline and the agent, with no resolution, and facing significantly higher costs to rebook ourselves.

This isn’t just poor customer service — it’s a complete failure to take responsibility when cancelling a customer’s flight. At a minimum, we expected to be re-routed onto suitable alternative flights, not left to sort this out alone.

Extremely frustrating experience.

My review today will mean this is the last time we fly air Canada.

We got through security no problem, droping our bags was a breeze, spent our time at the lounge with VIP access and had a beautiful time getting ready for our 24 hour travel day.

We then go to board our flight. "Eric" (staff member at the gate for AC33 taking off at 6:40pm on March 18th, 2026. We had taken out my mom's little purse our if her backpack just to get her passport and boarding pass out for boarding. We are going to put the tiny purse back into the bag where it belongs but Eric stopped us and said we had too many articles. I responded and said no problem, my mom just had this out of the bag because we needed identification for boarding. He said, sorry there is no repacking allowed you will have to check your bag. I said well she has medication in her bag so we can't do that but we will just put the passports away and you will see we are within reason. Especially since larger bags are going past us at this time. He said no again. I then suggested we check my bag instead because it didn't have medication and he said that it has to be her bag. I was wondering how this made sense, but anyway...then he then made my mom measure her backpack after he did allow us to put the purse back in which pretty much fit in the personal item section (75%). BUT we tried it earlier when we dropped our bags and it fit fine. She was just being rushed so it didn't slide right in after moving stuff around being at the lounge for a few hours before.

The other device she had was a medical CPAP. Eric said that that counts as a personal item for Air Canada which is incorrect based ony research and he also said we needed to exit the boarding line and board again because we weren't agreeing with him and so we could remove any medication.

Unfortunately the medication in my mom's bag was too big to fit anywhere else so we had no choice but to check it. She is now going on a 24 hours travel day without her medication thanks the Eric.

We were leary to book Air Canada for such a long flight but my mom ensured me that her previous flight the Australia was great with them and that long haul is usually better. We now know that that is incorrect and will not be using Air Canada again. Eric has put a woman at risk for health issues and has jeopardized her safety for a long period of time. My mom doesn't travel much so this was quite traumatic for her. I travel extensively and will make sure Air Canada is mentioned on my social media for jeopardizing someones health and safety.

Just a side note. This trip is for my sister's wedding. A mother is now ALSO on top of having her medication taken away, without her very expensive wedding dress ($800 worth) that could potentially get lost being checked. For a mother to experience that at her daughter's wedding would also be traumatic. The other staff standing around Eric were completely embarrassed and expressed that very clearly to us as well. We appreciated that at least. Thank you to the staff that were wonderful on this flight. Eric unfortunately has chosen authority over health and safety. I will be inquiring about our legal rights in this experience for the purpose of protecting passengers rights to health and safety.

Terrible management of refunds and customer support. We were flying during the August strikes, our second flight was canceled and the one we were moved to was late of several hours, which caused an incredible delay and an arrival at our final destination late at night.

We filed the compensation request which was accepted on NOVEMBER 17 and should have arrived in "4-6 weeks" as stated in the signed agreement.

I received it only today, APR 15, after many emails requesting updates.

But it's not the end – the compensation I received is lower than the one agreed on in November. Now who knows how much time and emails I will need to get the missing amount as well.

I understand the chaos caused by a strike, but this level of mismanagement of compensations even after months is appalling.

The support was also useless during the strike as we were trying to arrange a new route. Luckily we found another way on our own which we suggested to the agent (all of this in the middle of the night in our country, the night before departure) or they would have made us fly for even more hours with a layover in the US.

Cramped tiny seats, legroom compromised by seat mounting in front on some seats. Awful, truly awful, food. Flights over stuffed so people cannot even fit their belongings into the overhead compartments. Thanks for making me feel like cattle being shipped to slaughter after paying $1600 for the privilidge.

What an absolute disaster dealing with Air Canada’s customer service.

I made a booking back in January for a holiday in May and even paid extra for preferred seat selection so everything would be sorted in advance. Thought I was being organised… clearly not.

They’ve now changed my departure flight THREE times — and every single time they’ve also changed the seats I specifically paid for. The first time, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Fine, things happen, aircraft issues, scheduling, whatever. But why on earth would you just change paid seat selections without even contacting the customer?

Instead, I’ve had to spend HOURS on hold trying to get through to someone on 08088126310. After long waits, I managed to fix it twice and get my preferred seats back… only for it to happen AGAIN for a third time.

Now? No one answers. No one seems to work there. No accountability whatsoever.

What started as a smooth and pleasant booking experience has turned into me wasting hours of my life chasing an incompetent system and nonexistent support.

Absolute disgrace. Avoid at all costs. I will never fly with Air Canada again.

We were flying for our beach vacation from NY to Antigua through Pearson airport in Toronto. The flights were OK. Bad service on board, no food on a longer, close to 5 hour international flight from Toronto to Antigua. But the worst part was delayed laggage. They didn't trnsfer our carry-on's and we arived to our final destination with no clothes and no necessities. Imagine landing in a hot weather with nothing. We had to wait for our luggage for 2 more days. No apologies, no communication, no phone contact number.
They ruined our vacation!
I will never fly with this company again!

This was one of the worst flight experiences I’ve had since moving to Canada. I’ve been flying for work with the Government for 15 years, and Air Canada’s service has never improved.
I arrived at 7 pm for AC1169 flight from Toronto to Normanwells,because I didn’t want to be late. The agent who checked me in took over 45 minutes, couldn’t process my second luggage, and then blamed me, telling me I should “buy my ticket through Air Canada next time.” She clearly didn’t understand that I have to book through Canadian North because Air Canada doesn’t fly in the North.
She also didn’t tag my luggage through to Norman Wells, so I now have to pick it up in Yellowknife, wait for a taxi, and check in again. This is unnecessary and exhausting. Normally, Canadian North checks my luggage all the way through.
Then the flight was delayed by an hour and a half, and we were moved between three gates. I’ll be arriving in Yellowknife at 1:30 a.m.This is not the first time. In 2023, Air Canada failed to transfer my luggage to Air North, and it ended up in BC for a week.

If you are to read and trust a review, please let it be this one.
Everyone has their odd bad experience with an airline, but no one should experience any like the ones presented by Canada Airlines.
I had a connection flight from Orlando-Toronto-London. These were the following events:
The air attendants on the first flight were rude and seemed to be annoyed when asked a simple question.
Following on from this, as I landed at Toronto (which was meant to be a 2hr layover) I was alerted my connection flight had been cancelled. It was later bought to my attention that this was the 3rd week running that the flight from Canada-London, had been cancelled! Many people who were also on my flight were severely bothered by this.
They then messed up the baggage collection terribly, leaving me and my family stuck at a foreign airport for 3.5hrs. Extremely little help from unbothered staff members meant we got sent back and forth through the airport with no guidance whilst we tried to find some answers. Eventually, we were informed a hotel with food vouchers was being provided for the night. Thankfully, this was not far away.
Come the next day (11/04/26), our flight got delayed multiple times, and the gate was switched 5 times also. This left me and my family with strong feelings of frustration, confusion and annoyance.
In summary, the communication is appalling, staff members are rude and unhelpful and if you are planning on using any airline, do not let it be Canada Airlines.
Thank you for reading.
Yours sincerely,
A very unhappy traveller.

First of all it’s a shame that an airline company, with such POOR customer service as Air Canada and whose passengers first point of contact to Canada is allowed to use the name of a great, welcoming and friendly country “Canada” as their official corporate name and use the maple leaf as their logo.

This might be a remedy to Air Canada’s POOR SERVICE. Next time you’re at an airport and Air Canada announces a delay or anything that irritates YOU, the passenger. After the announcement, YOU, the passenger should all together respond by saying “ Air Put,Put - - Air Put, Put, Put,Put - - Air Put,Put”. This may eventually shame Air Put, Put in providing a better SERVICE and CUSTOMER CARE. They need to be shamed and shown that we are fed up with their lack of service.

A flight that should have taken 14 hours with stop over took over 31 hours with no food provided for a special medical diet requested in my airline profile.

So all together “AIR PUT,PUT”

We came from Hawaii to Vancouver and needed disability service. The flight crew was amazing, top notch. When we landed they took excellent care getting is through the airport and customs. It was a late flight and we were exhausted. They support staff was amazing and went beyond our expectations. Thanks 😊

Flight cancellation (maintenance issue go figure) with next flight 13 hours later with 15 dollar meal voucher. Paid extra to choose seats (medical
Issue) and they changed twice and now sitting in middle seat and no seats recline because of aircraft change. Airline doesn’t care and neither do staff.

You had an option to choose a seat for free when booking the flight. They then proceeded to change your seat 4 times until 12 hours to departure. Then the flight was cancelled entirely. Air canada very "kindly" booked me onto a later one where I had to suffer in economy middle seat with no option to change. On an 8 hour flight. Avoid at all costs.

One of pathetic airlines in world, cancelled flight before departure on last moment, cost me a huge loss due to unable travel. Don’t ever book it

I had a direct flight from Toronto to Denver with Air Canada. I checked my suitcase and somehow it ended up on a flight to Ottawa. Then they moved it to Montreal. Now it’s sitting in Quebec City. I’ve had to wait over an hour to try to get someone on the phone just to get hung up on today. I called back and waited. Finally got through to somebody, but all I get is that someone will call me back. The total lack of empathy and care is terrible. I’m really desperate and no one will help me. I have personal things in my suitcase that I’d really like to get back. I’ve tried calling. I’ve tried filing through the online request form. No one at Air Canada has reached back out to me. This is a terrible experience.

Air Canada approved a 40 EUR refund for a damaged bag on Feb 3, 2026 (Case CAS-10502240-H8S7R1). Since then, they have IGNORED all my emails. They make fake promises to close the file but never send the money. This is a scam behavior. I have already sent a formal "Messa in Mora" (Legal Notice) and reported them to the authorities. TOTAL DISRESPECT TO CUSTOMERS.

My flight was delayed for hours with zero updates and the cabin was uncomfortably cramped. To top it off they lost my luggage and the customer service was dismissive. I'm only giving 2 stars because we actually landed safely

Worst flights I and my family have ever taken in our lives. Whether it be delayed 8hrs while on the tarmac or canceling our connecting flight home making us wait 1-2 days to get home with almost nobody at customer service too not to mention.

If I could I’d give it -5 stars.

My experience with Air Canada and Toronto Pearson Airport was extremely disappointing and unnecessarily stressful.

On April 4th, I travelled with my children from Aruba to London via Toronto, with only a 2-hour connection. Despite being in transit and not intending to enter Canada, we were forced to go through full immigration and customs, exit into the main terminal, and then queue again for security screening.

This process is completely illogical. We had already been screened at departure, yet we were treated as new passengers and pushed into the general flow, resulting in long queues and confusion. There were no clear signs, no proper guidance, and no support for passengers with tight connections. We nearly missed our flight.

When we approached security staff for assistance, explaining that we had a short layover, we were simply told that nothing could be done. No prioritisation, no help, no understanding.

The situation was made worse by inconsistent duty-free handling. Items purchased in Aruba were sealed in official security bags with receipts, yet security staff insisted on opening them. This completely defeats the purpose of duty-free packaging and creates unnecessary inconvenience, especially when the items are intended as gifts.

Overall, the entire experience felt poorly organised, inefficient, and not designed with passengers in mind. For transit travellers, especially those with children or short connections, this setup creates avoidable stress and risk.

After this experience, I will actively avoid both Air Canada and Toronto Pearson Airport in the future and would strongly recommend others to do the same.