AIR CHANCE!

If you’re planning to travel, avoid Air Canada. That is, if you care about fairness, truthfulness and value, concepts clearly Canada’s national airline have thrown out.
Quick background: My travelling companion and I were booked on Air Canada 816 on May 13, 2022 to Venice, Italy. I had lots of Aeroplan points and decided to upgrade our seats to Premium Economy, having to also use a good deal of cash via my credit card. I received Air Canada’s confirmation of this upgrade to seats 15 D&E.
However, days later, when I went to get our boarding passes 24 hours before flight time, it showed we were in seats 39 D&E! I spent countless frustrating hours on the phone waiting to speak to one of their representatives. When I finally was able to talk to a human being at Air Canada, and subsequently at Aeroplan, I was told they did not have my upgraded booking. “What do you mean you don’t have it?” I asked. “It’s not in our system.” they said. “You didn’t order it.” “Oh yes I did,” I stated. “And you confirmed it. And why do my credit card and my Aeroplan points count show they have been used to get this booking!!?? (My credit card clearly shows Air Canada having charged $1,987.62 against my account and my Aeroplan record shows redemption of 143,400 points.)
Finally, someone told me to work it out at the airport: “They’ll be able to help you there.” I was very skeptical of this since how would they get us the seats I had ordered (and had confirmation of) at such a late date? Indeed, the next day, when we went to Toronto international Airport specifically early to address this issue, we talked with several people, none of whom could help us. And so, we ended up travelling from Toronto to Italy in awful seats I would never have chosen to fly in!
On arriving home after this vacation, I complained to Air Canada and to Aeroplan. Someone named “Karen Michaels” was supposedly put on this to solve the problem, but I think it’s a robot which has made several errors and the money and points have not been returned to me more than two months after they were illegitimately taken from me.
My patience has run out. My requests to have someone senior address this problem fall on deaf ears.
So, if you’re planning to travel, don’t go near Air Canada! They are a second rate operation and they care nothing about their customers.

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