I was very disappointed with my recent Air Canada flight from Toronto (YYZ) to Vancouver (YVR). My family flies with Air Canada regularly and we normally have very good experiences, which made this flight particularly disappointing.
The problems started during boarding. I am 13 years old, and one of the gate agents insisted that I needed identification to fly domestically. Her own coworker was telling her that I did not need ID, yet she continued to insist otherwise. What made it even more confusing was that she then said my 17-year-old brother did not need identification.
Instead of simply resolving the issue, the agent separated my dad from the rest of our family and sent him to another agent while we were trying to board together. This was unnecessary and made an already confusing situation even more stressful.
I found the entire situation extremely frustrating. Passengers rely on airline employees, especially gate agents, to know and correctly apply their own identification requirements. I would expect Air Canada staff responsible for boarding passengers to be properly trained on something as basic and important as ID requirements, rather than having employees contradicting each other at the gate.
Unfortunately, the problems continued after boarding. Our flight ended up taking off approximately an hour late. We were also informed that the aircraft had not been properly catered before departure. Soft drinks and other beverages were available, but there were no normal dry snacks, and the food choices were essentially limited to cheese and overpriced sandwiches. For a flight all the way from Toronto to Vancouver, this was extremely disappointing.
Overall, I was very disappointed with this experience. Air Canada is normally very good, which is why this flight stood out so much. Between the contradictory information from the gate staff, separating my dad from our family during boarding, the approximately one-hour delay, and the catering issue onboard, this was well below the standard I normally expect from Air Canada.
I hope Air Canada looks into what happened, ensures its staff are properly informed about identification requirements, and takes steps to prevent other families from having a similar experience. read more