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| - Photo by Patrick Cardinal, licensed through Creative Commons |
You know your no-account brother? The one who passes bad cheques and storms out
of the intervention when your father says “You’re killing your mother – just killing
her!”? If he ran an airline it would be
Air Canada. Something of a running joke
here in the Great White North, Air Canada has, in the span of a single decade,
been bailed out by the Canadian government twice (once in 2001, again in 2009)
and shows no sign of improvement.
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| "On second thought, miss, I don't need a blanket. But thank you." |
Check-in agents are
grumpy, flight attendants could frighten
Rampage Jackson and should a delayed flight cause you to miss a connection in
the evening there is no guarantee AC will issue you a hotel voucher.
My distaste for Air Canada is such that I wouldn’t mention
the airline at all if not for my fellow Canadian readers, who are not exactly
spoiled for choice when it comes to choosing a Transatlantic carrier*. Given their limited options, Air Canada
represents the middle ground between the higher prices and superior service of
British Airways and the bargain basement airborne buses operated by Air
Transat.
* Update: As of May 24th, Virgin Atlantic will be operating
four flights a week from Vancouver to London Heathrow, meaning you west
coasters will have even less reason to fly with Air Canada.
