Yes, I know I’ve ranted about Air Canada and their lousy service few times before, but just when you’d think they’d start to act better, they slap you in the face again.
I’m currently in Huntington Beach, CA (more on that in a following post). To get here, I had to fly from Calgary to Los Angeles. A fairly routine flight in the grand scheme of things, or so one would think.
First off, I had to get my boarding ticket. In the past (assumedly prior to 9/11), it was just a matter of inserting ye olde Aeroplan card, confirm my seat, and ptui!, my boarding pass.
But not anymore. Now you need to insert your passport for verification, provide a street address of where you’re going, along with the city name, state, date of birth, blood type, racial background, all while trying not to squirm from the anal probe that makes sure you’re not lying.
And then you have to talk with the desk clerk to check a bag. Which takes no less time than if I’d just gone to them to get my boarding pass.
Ugh.
The flight was delayed in departure. By 90 minutes. An hour and a half I sat in my chair, unable to do much of anything because we were waiting. For what, I have no idea. Not a clue.
If it were British Airways or Lufthansa, I’m sure we’d get a nice, eloquent story about what is happening and why we’re not going anywhere anytime soon. But not, we’re in Air CRAP that is quite content to just let us sit in silence wondering how much nose-picking is going on in the cockpit.
Yes, they told us that we’d have to be de-iced before we left, but that wasn’t why we waited.
Finally, we hit the air. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to fork out even more money.
Why? Guess what, folks — even the pretzels aren’t free anymore. Just a drink. That’s it. One. For a 3+ hour flight.
I got a sandwich, chocolate bar, a bag of chips, and a drink on my 90 minute flight from Frankfurt to Paris. A can of pop??
They had record sales of their so-called combo meal ($10, US or Canadian), which had the people next to me laughing because they thought the price was a joke.
That’s the rub. Air Canada’s becoming a joke. A national embarassment to inefficiency and absurd practices. You want cost control? RECYCLE THE HEADPHONES, you MORONS! You throw them out after they’re used? Sanitary, possibly. Wasteful, definitely.
So why do I keep flying Air Canada? Because that’s who I get booked on. I’ve got enough miles to fly to Australia and back (one person) or Costa Rica and back for two. That’s the only reason. Points. And even that’s waning.
