Air Canada

Air Canada

Toronto Pearson Airport

Ontario, Canada

www.aircanada.com

This Christmas myself and my boyfriend spent almost $2000 on a trip to Fort McMurray, Alberta from Moncton, New Brunswick. On our way back we experienced the absolute worst service either of us have ever experienced.

Our flight from Calgary to Toronto was delayed over 4 hours. There was no one at the desk to explain to us what was going on, we had to wait in a customer service line up. No one apologized for any inconvenience during the whole ordeal I'm about to describe. Because of the 4 hour delay, we were missing our connecting flight to Moncton in Toronto and would have to wait until the morning for another flight. We were told in Calgary that we would have a voucher for a hotel upon arriving in Toronto. The 4 1/2 hour delay ended up turning into a delay of around 6 hours. On top of the 3 hour layover we already had in Calgary. No one explained to us the reason for the delay, although I overheard one of the employees saying something about the engine. Everyone we asked told us they didn't know why the plane was delayed, I heard this as we were boarding.

It should be mentioned that I usually travel with West Jet, and the only time I ever had a delay with them it was for 2 hours and they gave me a $50 food voucher, showed me to the best places to eat and relax in the airport during my wait, and apologized profusely for the inconvenience. Not only did none of this happen with Air Canada, but when we finally got on the plane they charged us for meals on top of a meal that we already had to pay for in the airport unexpectedly. The only other time I've travelled cross country with Air Canada they at least had the courtesy to waive the fee of the on flight food once they had me waiting for hours in the airport.

So we finally got to Toronto at around 11:30pm. We were told that everything had been taken care of for us, and to speak to the representatives waiting in the terminal about our luggage and hotel vouchers. As soon as we got off we went to speak to one of them, he asked us which flight we were supposed to be on, we told him we were heading to Moncton, he then told us to go get our luggage at one spot, and then to go to another place to get our hotel voucher.

We waited around 30-45 mins for all the luggage to come through, and ours was no where to be found. We went to speak to the baggage claim people who told us that our luggage would have gone through to Moncton already, and we shouldn't have been told to come get it, and to go upstairs to get our hotel voucher as there "should" still be someone up there. We went upstairs and there was no one to be found. We came across one Air Canada employee at the ticket purchasing desk and she told us to go down to where the international booth was, and they'd take care of us there. We went down there and were VERY rudely brushed off by a woman who told us she was only dealing with international customers, and to go back up to the ticket counter. We explained that there was no one there and we were told to come to where she was to get a hotel voucher to which she replied, "Well if you were delayed because of weather that's not my problem, you don't get a hotel voucher." We explained it wasn't weather, that something had apparently been going on with the engine. She again very rudely told us that it was not her problem, and to go wait for someone at the ticket counter if there was no one there. We ended up spending 2 hours being told to go various places in the airport where no one was working to help us by the very few people willing to speak to us. Finally it took an airport police man to tell us that everyone from Air Canada had gone home for the night at midnight and that no one would be back to help us until around 4:30am. Seeing as we didn't land until 11:30 you'd think

someone would have told us that we only had a half an hour to get our hotel vouchers instead of sending us to wait for our luggage which wasn't even there. I saw 3 other people going through the same problem as us from the same flight.

We then had to give up and try to find our own hotel. Staying in the airport was not an option. We were promised a hotel and so tired and upset at this point that we couldn't stay in that airport for one more minute. We went to the Sheridan which was full, and then had to wait for a shuttle to take us to the 4 points where we had to dish out $140 for a room out of our own pockets to get 3 hours sleep before leaving for Moncton in the morning. We were then given seats on the airplane to Moncton which did not recline back, so we couldn't even get some rest on flight.

Myself and my boyfriend have done a lot of cross country flying over the years, and neither of us have ever experienced such terrible service and rude people. We normally fly with West Jet who have been so helpful upon any problems that this all came as an extreme shock to us. The last time my boyfriend flew with West Jet his flight was delayed 3 hours and without even complaining they sent him a $250 refund in the mail for the inconvenience. We paid a lot of money for this trip, and Air Canada treated us terribly. As it stands right now we don't plan on ever fling with Air Canada again and you better believe we'll be telling everyone we know about how we were treated. My mother lives in Fort McMurray and we usually travel to see her once a year, and herself and her boyfriend travel home

twice a year to visit. Our money will be going to West Jet from now on.

On top of everything that happened we both missed a day of work because of the delay. As you can imagine money is tight around the holidays, and we were forced to spend a lot of money we didn't have because of the delay. I understand that is a risk you take when flying, I simply am pointing it out to further illustrate our frustrations.

I would like the $140 hotel charge we had to pay for covered, as well as the $60 in unexpected food costs, and to have a portion of our ticket reimbursed to make up for the trouble we had to go through. As it stands now I am so furious with Air Canada that I will never fly with them again and will make sure my friends and family hear about how I was treated. Air Canada could help rectify this by showing us some of the respect after the fact that we were not shown during our trip.

Our names are Cathy Yetman and Gary Gallant. Our flight confirmation number was NA6YTV if you need it to access any other information about our flights. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Catherine Yetman