AC A319 YYZ-St. Lucia

[MarkD]

hi all

am booked on a 319 to St. Lucia for the honeymoon - bird in charge, always a dubious thing I know...

anyhoo it's 5.5hrs and I wondered what kind of service AC provides on that a/c-route.

thanks.

[604guy]

Interesting question........you have service and Air Canada in the same sentence. :}

[SAW]

Congrats on the wedding thing. When my wife and I honeymooned there we also travelled on the red team. Now this was 5 yrs ago we did get full service meals and drinks. Enjoy your holiday it is one of the nicer islands we've been to.

[Panama Jack]

If you booked through a travel agent, he or she should be able to tell you exactly what meal you get (that's part of what your travel agent is there for). If you booked with AC directly, they will be able to tell you also.

Recently flew an AC sector between Toronto and San Jose, Costa Rica on the A-319 (also about 5.5 hours).

Basically, if it is a morning flight out of Toronto you should expect a Breakfast shortly after departure. On the way back, there is a hot meal also. No, not service ala-Wardair, but those heady days are long gone-- at least it isn' t the clapped out hot junk-food sandwich with chips as on the US carriers. Servicewise, still the best service on North American carriers, although you might want to take your own bottled water along.

[604guy]

SASK9999

I too have travelled a fair amount on team maple leaf over the years. When I am not up in the front office earning my daily bread, I do some volunteer work for an organization that takes me throughout this country and several places around the globe. The past 5 years or so this has given me “Prestige” status on their FF program. I offer that information solely to indicate that I have been exposed to AC enough to feel justified to offer opinion about customer service. I have been on both short haul and long haul. Short haul is generally good service overall especially when departing from smaller airports as the employees, from the moment you walk through the ATB door, are Jazz folks and are happy to be at work. Leaving from the larger airports or on the mainline though is a totally different experience. This is not just in the last year or so during AC’s current difficulties.

I can offer you example after example of the total lack of customer service. It is in fact so systemic that I can only conclude it is both a lack of training issue and a lack of good leadership. I won’t tie up bandwidth here relating all the gory stories but if you really are interested PM me and I will tell you some. These would be of personal experience, not “I know a guy” stuff.

I truly hope that AC can come through their current problems and return to what was once upon a time a proud and great carrier.

Cheers,

[MarkD]

thanks for all that. Am a loyal BA customer (upgrades will do that to you) so have never flown AC before. Am used to 32x from Ireland to UK but don't know what 5.5hrs in a 319 will be like for someone 6'2" (bird is 5'6 so won't be too badly off).

As for St.L - we'll be doing the cheapest DomRep holidays for the next 30 years what with mortgages and sprogs in the future so we're doing the full-on Sandals thing this time :D