Their jobfairs are just as bad. You get mixed signals whaen it comes to their interaction skills during the recruitment process. The first time I went to one I was still in high school, which automatically ruled me out as an unlikely candidate. The process was quick non-the-less; I stood in a long line up (in my heels) for what felt like the better half of an hour. My interviewer was really nice and very professional; I even remember their name.
Unlike the above mentioned, my last attempt (and will probably remain) was absolutely disgraceful. We were all hearded like cattle! and forced to wait an excruciating 2 hours for every time the line budged. The space was exceedingly cramped and the temperature was more than 80 degrees (I happened to be standing next to the thermostat). People were getting frustrated to the point where they were forcing their way to the front of the line (and infront of people who had been waiting since the morning). People were turning beet-red and fainting. It had been almost 8 hours before I was finally interviewed.
Just my luck! I happened to be interviewed by someone who clearly didn't understand English and who would have rather much preferred that the interview be in french. they would ask me a question that I was more than prepared for; as I answered it, they'd cut me off. They'd tell me that the answer I was giving them wasn't one they wanted to hear and to "hurry up and answer because the have oher people to interview" - DISGUSTING!(literally - I'm not kidding!!!)
The interview was pretty much along the lines of 'you hate your job... tell me what you hate about it and why'
I was in such shock and disbelief. I couldn't believe that I was being ordered to not only bash my past employers, but to lie about it in the process!

when they finally decided to ask me if I had any questions I asked: "This is a vey popular position to apply for. Tell me what you enjoy most about your job"
the response i got was as follows: "I get to meet amazing people (repeated three more times to make a sentence)... (lull)"
I then asked if they ever had to deal with anything that was too dificult to handle while on duty. the response was, "I can handle anything because of my amazing training"
at this point they were pissed off because I put them on the spot with the same questions that they themself could not answer. They thanked me for their time and told me to leave.
So to any of you recruiters out there, or even those of you who are considering the extra over-time pay, think to yourself "do I really love my job enough to be here?" cause if you don't then you should change careers.

I flew on Air Canada (AC) from New York to Geneva, Switzerland with a connection in Montreal. This was not a pleasure trip but was due to my 89 year old mother falling and breaking her foot. Pictures are on link below (copy the link and paste it):

http://s449.photobucket.com/albums/qq211/semsem1234/Air Canada/

I chose Air Canada because:

1. They don't charge for a second suitcase.British Airways charge as high as $75 I believe.
2. They were $100 cheaper than Swiss; however Swiss fly nonstop.
3. I get full mileage credit on my United mileage plus account.
4. The ticket is valid 3 months with a change of date fee of $150. This compares to as high as $250 on Lufthansa.

Newark to Montreal: Check in was quick and efficient at Newark. AC use smaller Canadair and Embraer commuter aircraft between New York and Montreal / Toronto. These planes have less room and are somewhat noisy. All that is served on this sector are nuts and a drink.

As I checked in I was calm and relaxed knowing that I had 3 hours connection time in Montreal. I noticed that the flight to Toronto was delayed for 1 hour due to bad weather between the US and Canada.

Our flight was delayed by 2 1/2 hours. And even though it was clear we would miss our connection no effort was made to put us on another flight to Europe from Newark; for example Lufthansa had a flight to Munich.

I was upgraded to Business Class; 3 seats instead of 4. We were served nuts and a drink on a 1 hour 15 minute flight. When we arrived a wagon was waiting to rush us to the gate. We had to pass Canadian Customs which was quick. However the door to the gates was shut and by looking at the board, I realised that my flight to Geneva had just left 5 minutes ago.

I had to wait in line about 30 minutes to pass passport control and then pick up my luggage. It was already 10 PM by now. I was offered a hotel room and $30 in vouchers for dinner, breakfast and lunch. I was put on an 8 pm flight to Frankfurt resulting in a 2 PM arrival in Geneva; 28 hours late.

I asked the agent "what about routing me through Zurich?", as I knew AC are partners with Swiss Airlines. She looked at me as if I was an idiot. "Why would you want to go through Zurich?" Later I found out that had she routed me on Swiss Airlines I would have gotten to Geneva at 8AM instead of 2 PM and avoided Frankfurt Airport which is a terrible airport. Long walks, confusing signeage and slow, slow, slow security personel who work in "slow motion" with insufficient staff.

Gripe 1: No effort was made in Newark to get us to Europe the next day.
Gripe 2: No effort was made in Montreal to get me to Geneva as quickly as possible.

Air Canada are in the same alliance as Lufthansa and Swiss and in fact code share with Swiss from Montreal. So they should have transferred us to Lufthansa at Newark or at least put me on Swiss from Montreal. Their aim is to keep you on Air Canada no matter what.

I was put up at the Hilton Gardens near the airport. It was a nice hotel and I was lucky. Others were put up at the Travellodge, a 40 year old hotel which did not look all that nice.

Montreal to Frankfurt: The plane was a 777. The seats were comfortable, good legroom, good entertainment system which was easy to use. The crew were well groomed and very friendly. They also gave us a newspaper.

Mood lighting: this is the "new thing." Low lighting which in our case was bluish. Interesting but what I did not like was that they put it on the moment you board. I want to full lighting till after dinner. I find a dark cabin depressing unless it's sleep time.

Meal: Mediocre. Beginning salad and main dish were acceptable. But the desert was a cheap chocolate brownie which tased disgusting. Also no cheese with the meal which I always like as it fills me up with the bread. I would have thought that a flight operating from "French Quebec" would have some cheese.

Breakfast was very good. A large banana muffin with delicious coffee
from a company called "Second Cup." In fact it was so good I had a "second cup."

The return trip:

Geneva to Montreal: The plane was a 767. I had changed my return date twice for a fee of $150 for each change. Even though AC only operate 4 times a week I was impressed that they accepted to change the return dates without paying even more.

The seating was comfortable. However the seat pocket in front of me had not been cleaned. I found a dirty napkin, plastic and in the seat pocket next to me a dirty stirer.

Though my flight was in mid November the in flight magazine was from October. Three seats away I found a November issue.

The meal was again mediocre: edible salad and main dish. The desert was disgusting. A milky creamy white liquid with a peach. The peach was edible. Again no cheese. I was not very satisfied.

The snack was insufficient for an 8 hour flight. A small spinach thingy mig gig with not much spinach in it.

Montreal to New York: I had to pass US Customs in Montreal which I don't like. I prefer to do that in New York. We had to wait a lot. You don't get to see the suitcases. They take a picture of the suitcases.

The flight was in a small Embraer commuter plane; noisy and bumpy. Somwhat narrow seats.

Lost suitcase: I arrived in New York and to my lovely surprise one suitcase was missing. After 2 months Air Canada informed me that the suitcase is now officially lost. At the beginning I had to communicate with agents in India who had no clue what was going on. I gave up bothering calling them.

I am convinced that the suitcase was stolen. I had a permanent leather address tag on the top handle and 2 paper address tags; one was Air Canada and the other American Airlines. And on the side I had another American Airlines tag.

Though I had $4,500 worth of clothes / shoes / coats in the suitcase, Air Canada wrote me the following letter.

1. They are liable for up to $1,600 in losses as per the Warsaw Convention.
2. Because I could only proove a few hundred dollars of purchases from my receipts, they would only offer me $1,167 and 41 cents.
I love the 41 cents. Question: Who keeps 5 years of receipts on clothes they buy. Pathetic excuse.
3. I admitted in my application that I had Homeowners Insurance. So I was told by Air Canada to go to my own insurance company.

They made it seem as if it was my fault that the suitcase was lost. It reminded me of rape victims who get blamed for getting raped.

Conclusion: I don't consider Air Canada to be in the "major leagues." True the weather delay was not their fault but the lack of any attempt to get me to Geneva as quickly as possible was.

Losing a bag can happen but to lose it "permanently" is to me unbelievable. It happens very rarely. In fact I don't know anybody who has gone through this experience. They usually find the lost suitcases after a few days.

I had stress in both directions.

The people who work for this airline, the ground crew, air crew and reservations agents were all great; (except for the employee who may have stolen my suitcase, though I have no proof of that); I don't think I will risk flying with them again even if I get a free ticket.

To have to replace all my stuff is going to be a tremendous hassle. Because I thought I may have to stay as long as 2 months I had taken all my nice things with me.

Lesson: Buy sufficient luggage insurance as you never know what can happen.
Try to fly nonstop if you can. It greatly reduces the risk of lost luggage.
Pass Customs at your final destination not in between; in Canada in my case. It also reduces the risk of lost luggage.

After 5 hours of flight the Pilot told the passengers through the intercom that "the plane can not land in Bogota due to a pressure problem, and if it did it would explode" yeah those are the literal words of a pilot who seems to not care about scaring the passengers. The next action of this briliant pilot was to return to Toronto, another 5 hours away, instead of landing in any other of the thousands of posible sea level airports in the caribbean, south america and florida (Bogota is 2600 meters above sea level). Furthermore, upon returning to Toronto, the AC staff where incredibly rude, unhelpfull, and uncooperative. AC is a terrible airline.

Do you know how dumb you are? 90% of the people you see now with AC uniforms on are former CP employees. Their pension was so bad they all have to stay until age 70. Think of all the CP jobs that were saved by AC taking over their debt! AC has almost gone broke twice - the first time when CP was aquired with all it's debt and lately because of that same albatross. Do you not get it that the employees of the original AC have suffered beyond compare? I am one of them! I left in 2002 because it was so tough to fly with the former CP in light of the animosity and fear of losing our jobs to safe another carrier. Ther is much more but I won't waste my time trying to convert an AC hater who has no clue what happened!

I fly a lot. Always Elite and some years Super elite. Mostly international. Often in Exec. AC are fine. Better than most. It seems to be a national passtime to dis AC. There are some airlines that are better (Singapore and JAL come to mind) but there are many more who are way worse (British, Qantas, Malaysia to name a few). Lighten up!

Air Canada is one of the world's lamest airlines. Period.

Many moons ago, I had the misfortune of flying from Narita to Vancouver on Air Canada. I was the second person in line waiting to get boarding passes. With my wife by my side I was told that there were no "2 seats together on the flight". I was the 2nd person in line! This was before you could pick seats over the internet. I raised a stink and they found the 2 seats together which was a physical impossibility only moments earlier. Since that day, I have been on the Air Can'tada shit list. I'm always called to the desk to "identify myself" and there are always problems when I check in. Lamentably, Air Canuckistan is the only airline I can take direct from Tokyo to Canada. Going to the US is a sham, joke, pain in the ass, beyond soul destroying.

Of course, the soon-to-go-blind-uber-intense-boner-inducing-60 year old chain smokingesque stewardesses throwing whatever slop in front of you that was some kind of sustenance were always so helpful. The non-stop useless French updates are totally retarded. I'm the only non-Asian on the plane and they insist with disturbing your sleep with informing you that "Mesdames et messieurs, il y a la Turbulence. blah blah blah hon hon hon." fuck off already. Not to mention the CBC "news".

Everytime I have to actually take that shit airline, I take the advice of the Ramones and get as heavily sedated as I can. Whether its beer, pot, asprin, morphine, whatever.

Before some douche puts down his donut to run to the defence of one of the idustrialised world's worst airlines, I have flown on almost ever major carrier there is. Cathay is one of the best. So is Singapore. JAL is good as is Emrates. Air Canada is up there with Mongolian Air and East China Air, where the seats fly forward during landing and Coke cans are used to cover holes on the wings.

Air Canada sucks balls and all their staff chew on the short n' curlys.

Try flying on any US carrier, and you will see that Air Canada is a far superior carrier. Air Canada always wins the best North American Carrier Award. You are perhaps not a frequent traveller nor travel with many different carriers ...

As for the airlines caring about us? Ha! The attitude of consumers who seem to think that airlines give two sh*ts about our complaints is laughable, at best.

Customer service is an illusion, just like it has been for the past two decades since deregulation.

Get this: you are JUST ANOTHER CONSUMER. Read twice for emphasis. You are replaceable, and really do not matter in the grand scheme of things.

The airlines you feel are competing for your business, are in reality so intertwined and connected that it really does not matter what airline you are loyal to, or what level of customer service you perceive to be acceptable.

Basically, the pacifying mechanisms used to dilute the passions and emotions of customers who have been “wronged” by the airlines are almost insulting to us as humans.

Stop feeling as if you are entitled to some humane treatment from a human representing a robotic corporation, who is not even being paid enough to fake God given emotions and other humanoid states. You are just a consumer.

You really, no disrespect intended, DO NOT MATTER. YOU ARE DISPOSABLE. Anyone who would have you think otherwise is practicing deception of the highest order.
Have a nice flight.