Bigmo747 From United States of America, joined Dec 2000, 306 posts, RR: 1 Posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 2389 times:
So i'm driving to work and on the NJ turnpike (between exits 13-14) there's a huge bilboard saying that Air Canada has been voted the best airline in North America. I didn't see anywhere on the sign by who. I've flown EWR-YYZ a number of times on Air Canada--it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. I've had better times on Continental. Anybody know who voted Air Canada the best in North America???
Mcdougald From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 9, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 2319 times:
I traveled with them in September/October, initially with low expectations following all the post-merger screw-up stories I heard.
AC actually turned out to be better than I expected. Granted, you won't get fawned over or pampered in coach, but I got something hot to eat on each leg of the flight (even if it was pizza on the domestic legs), and everyone I dealt with was at least courteous, sometimes even outright friendly.
Maybe the company is actually doing something to improve its image.
Slawko From Canada, joined May 1999, 3799 posts, RR: 10 Reply 11, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 2284 times:
Yeah thats the one, the one that has seat pitch in coach that rivals even the "more room through coach" airline, the one that actually feeds you on a flight that is more then an hour long.
"Clive Beddoe says he favours competition, but his actions do not support that idea." Robert Milton - CEO Air Canada
Yvr74 From Canada, joined Sep 2002, 52 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 2270 times:
For flying within North America, Air Canada has my vote hands down.
I have been a flying passenger for the last 20 years. Up until 3 years ago I only had flown US carriers within North America. Now that I live in Vancouver, I have been using Air Canada.
I can't speak for short flights, since most of my flights have been wide-body flights from YVR to YYZ or flights to points further east from YVR. Just like with any airline, I have had fantastic experiences with Air Canada and conversely I have had one awful experience with Air Canada and their ground staff at YYZ, but overall their service has been consistently better than the US carriers I have flown domestically since I began flying.
Most of my flights have been on the B767 with Air Canada; and the three points that have made me favour them are more room in coach than US carriers, further seat recline in coach than US carriers, and flight attendants ensuring the passenger in front of you has his/her seatback up during meal service (A thread of its own which has previously been debated with fiery vehemence).
Canadi>nBoy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 14, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 2261 times:
One major factor which is helping Air Canada maintain its coveted position in the industry is the addition of the all the wonderful and experienced
CANADI>N AIRLINES INTERNATIONAL flight deck crew, cabin crew, pax
service agents, res staff, ground and maintenance workers.
These men and women have brought their "Proud Wings" into the Maple
Leaf fold, and are instrumental in providing the best service they can to
the passenger. They brought with them the excellent legacy inherited
from the CP Air / Canadian Pacific-Pacifique / Wardair Canada Ltd. /
Pacific Western Airlines / Eastern Provincial Airlines teams.
"Proud Wings", the name, like Canadi>n, may be gone, but its spirit and legacy live on in the minds of the thousands of ex-CP employees, who, day in and day out, are now contributing to the sontinued success of Air Canada.
Bear that in mind, Mr, Milton and all you AC union boys. Allow that to bypass the forked tongues and double-standards. Put that in your pipes and smoke it.
RIX From United States of America, joined Aug 2000, 1785 posts, RR: 1 Reply 15, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 2229 times:
Well, I'm not a frequent flyer within North America but my by far the best flying experience was with Delta Shuttle 737-800 and Delta 767-400. Air Canada? Shiny and terribly cramped A319, very clean and nice DHC8-100 (actually, Air Nova), just clean and... well, just clean CRJ. Food? The same "snack" as on any US carrier (except, of course, Delta Shuttle). Still, much better than AA domestic but, well, hardly better than Delta... Never flew with them outside North America.
Ramprat From Canada, joined Apr 2000, 188 posts, RR: 1 Reply 16, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 2193 times:
Canadian Boy, i beg to differ about the supposed ex-Canadian staff making the difference. Here in Calgary we have only had Air Canada ground staff and things worked quite well here, with very little complaints from customers. Now we are inheriting some rampies from Vancouver due to layoffs and bumping the junior staff, and let me say, they go out of their way to screw things up, not all of them, but unlike anything we have seen here before. One guy shows up here on his first day wearing a Canadian airlines sweatshirt and prononuncing that he is only here because he has to be. Fine, whatever, then he starts throwing bags in the wrong cans for a flight to YYZ. I ask him what he is doing, and he says, "as long as they get to Toronto, i dont care past that, let them deal with it" If this is the Canadian attitude, the other stations can keep their precious ex-Canadian employees. Not that all of them are bad, like i said before, some of them are great to work with, but i find many more of them compared to Air Canada employees lacking in the service area. Not that all Air Canada originals are great either, but there seems to be fewer of the so called bad seeds.
Rai From Canada, joined Feb 2008, 0 posts, RR: 0 Reply 17, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 2156 times:
I agree with you Big Mo. I fly to Canada at least 10 times a year with various air carriers. From YYZ/YUL/YOW-NYC, I've flown with a few American carriers and AC. I haven't experienced anything spectacular about AC's service, and certainly not any better on any American carriers I have flown with. My AC YOW-LGA flight a few months ago it may have been the worst flight I have ever been on.
I think they have a good international product though. Each time I've flown to Europe with them, I've been satisfied with the service...except on a YYZ-FRA flight a few years back. But most of the others were quite good.
Also, I think AC's service depends where the crew is from. If you fly with an Eastern Canadian crew, they seem much more snarley and rude. Western Canadian crews and so much more pleasant and chipper.
Canadi>nBoy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 18, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 2147 times:
Ramprat, indeed, and unfortunately, yes there are more than a few "bad
Canadi>n seeds". Every carrier has them, and Canadi>n was no exception.
Of course there are many dedicated and wonderful Air Canada crews, and
I apologize for displaying a biased, one-tracked mind in my above statement.
I won't excuse the unprofessionalism of your ex-CP co-workers, and I certainly don't condone such behaviour. The past is the past, and it's one carrier now. Period.
And no, this is not the overall attitude, per se, with all of the ex-CP employees. To be fair, I have been on many many AC flights since the
takeover, and have encountered extremely hostile AC crews (in regards to
CP). God only knows how the seniority issue is going to be resolved. In short, it's a hell of a mess. But you can be sure of one thing: the animosity between CP and AC crews is going to simmer, boil, and linger for quite some time to come.
Hkniceguy From Hong Kong, joined Jun 2001, 130 posts, RR: 0 Reply 19, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 2087 times:
Air Canada = A nation airline, but tasteless inflight service (compare with other world class airline like: CO, BA, SQ, JL... Way below the international standard! From a passenager point of view, I pay for the ticket, so all I care about is the quality of the flight. Because our ticket is where most of thier profits come from... Shouldn't they improve the inflight service quality?!?! When the travel agents told me AC and CX flight HKG-YVR are at the same price last summer, I felt a little mad about AC, and of coz I choosen CX at last.
I wish they'll add PTV, better meals (No more snack when it's suppost to be lunch) and get rid of thos Zip's 737-200 and train thier flight attendent to be more professional!
Since Air Canada won so many award from the industry, I do like to see a "Inflight Service Award" in thier list in the near future.
Hmmmm... From Canada, joined May 1999, 2088 posts, RR: 5 Reply 20, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 2086 times:
For service, Air Canada, nor any other western carrier, can ever rival Asian carriers in the "let-me-give-you-a-rub-and-a-blow-job" category. And yes, Quebec-based flight attendants can be just plain rude. But that's a Quebec thing.
What the passenger sees are the frills. But airlines should not be judged by the frills alone. At 585 mph, at 37,000 feet, there are much bigger fish to fry than that. Some things are more important than others, and Air Canada is usually tops in the things that matter most: cleanliness, technical proficiency, professional competence, and the all important maintenance safety category. Probably even better than Swissair or Lufthansa. Year in and year out. Why should Air Canada be any better than so many other airlines? I have no idea. But it seems to always be the case.
These are the things upon which all airlines should be compared and judged. If you gave a score for each category, Air Canada would average out to be one of the best in the world. Despite the fact that there are no PTVs, and you will not be getting any French kisses from any of the flight attendants.
An optimist robs himself of the joy of being pleasantly surprised
Hkniceguy From Hong Kong, joined Jun 2001, 130 posts, RR: 0 Reply 21, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 2077 times:
"For service, Air Canada, nor any other western carrier, can ever rival Asian carriers"
Not only asian carrier as an example, there are western carrier with good service too... Like: Continental Airlines, LanChile Airlines, Qantas Airways, SAS, Virgin Atlantic Airways..... etc. Why can't Air Canada be one of them?
Rai From Canada, joined Feb 2008, 0 posts, RR: 0 Reply 22, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 7 hours ago) and read 2067 times:
For service, Air Canada, nor any other western carrier, can ever rival Asian carriers in the "let-me-give-you-a-rub-and-a-blow-job" category
Dude, have you ever flown an Asian carrier before? That's pretty low. Western carriers could learn a thing or two about service from those "FA whores". Even KE, which has a notoriously bad safety record, has inflight service that's lightyears better than anything AC offers. And that doesn't include the blowjob.
Air Canada is usually tops in the things that matter most: cleanliness, technical proficiency, professional competence, and the all important maintenance safety category.
Funny. On my last flight, the plane smelt like piss. And that's not a joke. I even told the FA and she laughed like it was funny...it wasn't.
Hkniceguy From Hong Kong, joined Jun 2001, 130 posts, RR: 0 Reply 23, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 7 hours ago) and read 2065 times:
Quebec-based flight attendants can be just plain rude. But that's a Quebec thing? No way! This is not just the Quebec thing! This related to the whole company direction! Think about it as a passenager.
Hkniceguy From Hong Kong, joined Jun 2001, 130 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (10 years 6 months 6 days 7 hours ago) and read 2050 times:
BTW..... AC is not a low fare airlines~ They charge the same price as other "higher quality" international carrier on international routes, I wonder why they treat passenager like this...
And many airlines have good maintenance safety, cleanliness, technical proficiency and professional competence like AC does, but the most important thing is they DO have GOOD inflight service and AC DO NOT.
25 Hmmmm...: Western carriers could learn a thing or two about service from those "FA whores". Exactly my point. What did you think I was saying? Get your mind out
26 Rai: I just think your tone regarding Asian carrier FA's is a bit derogatory.
27 Hmmmm...: My point was that Asian carriers have extreme levels of cabin service relative to western carriers. How is it that you interpreted that as an insult?
28 Rai: The "blowjob" comment was a bit unnecessary...even if it was a joke and even if their service is excessive.
29 Dash8King: Funny. On my last flight, the plane smelt like piss. And that's not a joke. I even told the FA and she laughed like it was funny...it wasn't. Lol Rai!
30 Marco: the one that actually feeds you on a flight that is more then an hour long My parents flew Montreal-Chicago a couple of months ago ( a two hour flight
31 Lymanm: I think offereing nothing more than annectdotal evidence to prove that AC or any other carrier is better is simply preposterous. It's useless, irrelev
32 Hkniceguy: Not only European/Asian airlines AC cannot compare with, also South American, Australian, Middle East and African airlines!! Actually, talking about s
33 Hkniceguy: FA were hot on AC international flights? I hope you're not blinded mister, FA on all AC flights are old ladies... Maybe Hot Old Ladies... Watching CBC
34 AC320: It depends on experiences I'd say. My personal experiences with AC would have me voting it best North American airline in a heartbeat. All my flights
35 Mcdougald: Marco wrote: "...no way you can compare North American airlines to European/Asian airlines!" Indeed you can't. Airlines in North America are a form of
36 Hkniceguy: Of coz you think Air Canada is the best, since you're canadian yourself and i don't know how many airlines you have been on so far, Air Canada is the
37 Hkniceguy: Lymanm: "Windows were all iced up" -Window icing happen on any flight, do you know any airmanship? it has nothing to do with the airline. "it was an o
38 AC320: Erm, you do realize AC aquired the 737's only through the merger with Canadian and never actually operated them before? PS- good thing you aren't a fi
39 Hkniceguy: "they speak better french than ANY crew on CX" -Not all country and cities speak french. Does all AC cabin crew speak good french? does all inbound ca
40 Hkniceguy: AC aquired the 737's only through the merger with Canadian and never actually operated them before? But somehow they ARE operating them NOW. And they
41 AC320: Exactly, putting them to use mostly on low-cost carrier spinoffs and sports charters to make money off those old work-horses. It's called smart busine
42 Hkniceguy: "The CX interior was drab, the windows were all iced up" "Now in comparison, on CX, it smells like Hong Kong harbour and they serve gross seaweed! I d
43 Captaingomes: A few days ago I decided to fly on CX to Hong Kong and back on Air Canada a few days later. I'm writing a report for university to compare both airlin
44 Hkniceguy: Smart business? Most of the low fare airlines do not use 737-200 anymore, they can found more advantage aquire newer aircrafts like the A320 family an
45 AC320: Hkniceguy, you don't even deserve the dignity of a rebuttal to the foolishness and ignorance you are exhibiting.
46 Rai: I've never flown AC to HK, but I flew with CP and their service was spectacular! I'd say it was on par with CX's, which I also thought was phenomenal.
47 The Coachman: Could he be a slightly more ignorant version of United Airline?
48 Hkniceguy: Don't wanna argue with kids, check this our yourself~ Best staff 2002 AC is not even in the list! Coz Westjet best them! http://www.airlinequality.com
49 The Coachman: you won't find many people using airlinequality.com as a definitive survey...if you look closely at their ratings, they just don't make sense.
50 AC320: Yet, on the same website, AC gets 4 out of 5 stars compared to Westjet's 3. Not that it really matters since didn't anyone ever tell you there were li
51 Hkniceguy: The Coachman: Do you read any Industry Report? Skytrax Surveys have conducted Qualitative Airline Competitive Performance Surveys for the world airlin
52 The Coachman: hkniceguy, it's obvious you have no idea about biases in surveys. It's very easy to tilt a survey to the conclusions you want by wording the questions
53 Hkniceguy: Why should people make up lies and fake statistics about AC ranking? Whynot lies about other airlines? I trusted what I experienced, what I see and wh
54 B-HOX: people, people, people...Don't start a war here.......Although my favorite airline is CX, I seem too be impressed by the service of Air Canada's long
55 The Coachman: B-HOX, I was a QF B747-400 back in 1996 and the air-con was leaking as well. This was due to the humidity overloading the system. If you're landing in
56 CX773: The flight time depends on the weather and the jetstream along the flight route. it has nothing to do with airlines. CX chooses the best route to fly
57 TK: In the midst of all the laughter and sarcasm, I must say that I have no complaints from my past flights on AC. The service was decent and I throughly
58 The Coachman: Do ANY people on this board understand sarcasm....??
59 Admiral ackbar: Ok, I have to admit that I am a bit biased since ,when I fly home from Paris to Montreal, I get a good feeling when I see the AC A330 with the big red
60 TK: Lymanm, I'm sure you wouldn't have a very easy time interpreting sarcasm if it was written to you in Chinese.
61 Canadi>nBoy: Rai wrote" "I've never flown AC to HK, but I flew with CP and their service was spectacular! I'd say it was on par with CX's, which I also thought was
62 RickB: Depends on how you rate airlines I guess - a couple of months ago my brother and his wife flew on Air Canada from London to Vancouver on to Toronto an
63 Hkniceguy: I've flown to HKG, HNL and AKL on Canadi>n before, I was impressed! And it was one of my favourite airline. Although CP is gone, but CP are still the
64 B-HOX: wow....Lymanm......sarcasim is nice.....but I think sum of us here misterpret it as an arguement.....
65 LOT767-300ER: Id take Midwest Express any day over a fleet of buses....bah Airbus bah
66 B-HXB: Lymanm - smirk, smirk at your beautiful sarcasm. But it's not nice to criticise people simply because they don't have a good enough grasp of English t
67 Bigmo747: It was a pretty simple question i asked when i started this thread--but all of these replies for me....
68 Ryanair!!!: Hmm... surveys can indeed be skewed by biased questioinings and thus leading to a biased result or conclusion. Hkniceguy: there is no need to jump at
69 CF-CPI: Personally, the ultimate airline in North America was and always will be painted ORANGE, and while airline standards are not always as consistent as t
70 Mcdougald: CP Air and Wardair had reputations that were hard to beat. I once saw an old 1975 CP Air ad boasting that they always use real dishes for serving food
71 Captaingomes: As an aside, Royal also used real dishes as well for their meal service, and they were just a charter company. Of course that brings weight restrictio
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined Dec 2000, 306 posts, 
From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2001, 47 posts, 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
From Canada, joined Feb 2001, 331 posts, 
From United Arab Emirates, joined Jul 2000, 4161 posts, 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
From Hong Kong, joined Jun 2001, 130 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
