Air Canada review: Delayed and flight cancellation process

I am writing to share with you my recent extremely frustrating experience I had with Air Canada Airline.

It is about my return flight on 10 August 2023 which was scheduled to fly on Air Canada flight number AC7974 from Toronto (YTZ) to Montreal (YUL) connecting flight on Qatar Airways flight number QR0764 from Montreal (YUL) to Doha (DOH).

Before heading to the airport in Toronto, I received a series of messages from Air Canada thru SMS stating that my flight has been delayed and then the flight was cancelled due to a technical issue.

• The first change is delayed for 20 minutes.

• The second change is delayed for 1 hour.

• Third change is flight cancelled.

Also, Air Canada automatically rebooked my flight without any confirmation to be on 11 August 2023 from Toronto (YTZ) to Montreal (YUL), Montreal (YUL) to Athens (ATH), Athens (ATH) to Doha (DOH).

• The first flight rebooking with total flight of 41 hours.

• The second flight rebooking with total flight of 27 hours.

As result, my assistant contacted Qatar Airways Customer Service as I purchased all the original tickets thru Qatar Airways online. Unfortunately, Qatar Airways informed her that they cannot make any changes as Air Canada took the operation and they directed us to contact Air Canada directly.

My assistant and I kept calling Air Canada Customer Service for like more than 12 hours, international calls from Qatar and local calls from Toronto, but no one was taking the call until my assistant reached to conclusion to call Toronto Airport Customer Service and seek for help to connect to Air Canada Reservation.

Luckily, Air Canada Reservation took the call and rebooked the flight on 11 August 2023, same as the original flight, AC7974 from Toronto (YTZ) to Montreal (YUL) connecting flight on Qatar Airways flight number QR0764 from Montreal (YUL) to Doha (DOH).

On the same day, I received other SMS that there was a delay in the flight, but I decided that it would be easier to go to the airport and solve the issue directly with Air Canada Staff if the flight was cancelled.

Upon arriving at the Billy Bishop City airport on 11 August 2023, Air Canada offered me to board the earlier flight from Toronto (YTZ) to Montreal (YUL) as the flight AC7974 will be delayed for more than an hour. I really appreciated the initiative as I have given much time to onboard my connecting flight.

After reaching Montreal, Pierre E. Trudeau International Airport, I went directly to Qatar Airways check-in counter to issue the boarding pass to Doha as they couldn’t issue it in Toronto. Qatar Airways told me that my flight ticket from Montreal (YUL) to Doha (DOH) which was arranged by Air Canada, was overbooked, and there were no available seats, and it was not confirmed. They gave me the below options; Give me an Economy class seat to onboard the current flight, Stay the night in a hotel and travel to Doha the next day or wait at the airport till the end and wait for someone that will miss the flight and I can get his seat in Business class.

Of course, I selected the last option because I wanted to get to Doha ASAP. I had another flight to UAE as my father has passed away and I needed to be with my family during this tough time. Hence, I selected to wait near the counter for two (2) hours to see if I had a chance to board the flight.

Finally, I got my confirmed flight ticket, but I needed to rush to the immigration and boarding gates as I didn’t have enough time.

After all the tension, frustration, and heartbreaking situation, I arrived in Doha (DOH) on 12 August 2023 at 17:05.

But unfortunately, I had to rebook my compassionate leave flight tickets to Dubai, from 13 August 2023 to 15 August 2023 in Qatar Airways as I was too tired to fly the next day.