Air Canada Review

Overall Rating

As opposed to Air Canada, Hawk Air is a great alternative from Vancouver to Terrace BC.
I am going to do my best to take United from the east coast of the states to Vancouver from now on rather than Air Canada.

Canada is a great country but Air Canada is not the best thing about traveling to Canada.

My recent trip started in Albany NY. I arrived 90 minutes early. 20 minutes before the flight the gate staff and signage said the flight was cancelled. we were told to leave the secure area and there was a phone number to call to reach Air Canada. The local staff were not very helpful. Once we called AC they said the flight was still on. Of course confusion reigned but eventually the flight was deemed on and departed 1 hour late.

We were late for our connector in Toronto, but that flight was late too. I arrived at the gate after a long run, customs... and the jet way door was open but the gate staff would not let us on. We pleaded that we a had the last flight out from Vancouver to Terrace BC and in order to make that flight we needed to get on this plane. Despite smiles and pleading no help. She said there were seats but we couldn't go on that plane. Of course that plane then sat at the gate for another 30+ minutes before departing.

Finally after getting to Vancouver on another flight we missed our connection to Terrace BC and had to spend the night. Air Canada were not helpful in finding or offering payment for a hotel room. They couldn't provide any explanation about the delays experienced earlier in the day. BTW weather was cold but fine.

After an overnight at the Vancouver Airport Fairmount Hotel(great place), it was another attempt to get to Terrace BC. This is a smaller prop plane typical of shorter flights to smaller places. The other departures of similar planes were going well but our flight crew arrived 20-30 minutes late. Once the crew arrived we boarded and got in line for deicing beacuse there was some frost on the wings. According to our pilot, the single staff member who runs the ground power for restarting the plane after deicing was not available so now Air Canada cancelled all smaller plane local flights. I knew Hawk Air had a flight leaving soon for Terrace so I asked to be booked on that flight. The airline employee would not assist me in transferring to Hawk Air and would not transfer the ticket even though the flight was cancelled.
I called Hawk Air and paid for a seat. We flew on time and without incident.

If I ran a tourist company in Canada I would demand more competition in the airline market.