[richjacy]

On August 4th of last year, I was supposed to fly home to San Francisco, departing Quebec City with a transfer in Toronto. The flight out of Quebec was scheduled to depart for Toronto at 3:30 pm but at 3:20 a PA announcement informed that the flight had been cancelled. We were told to return to the ticket counter so after being forced to wait in line for another 40 minutes more (as a result of serious understaffing), I was greeted by a frazzled and disheveled ticket agent who considered routing me to Montreal but finally booked me to Toronto later that night, departing at 6:30 pm. I was told I would need to overnight in Toronto to catch my connection to San Francisco the next morning but this was “no problem” since all I had to do was speak to “any Air Canada Customer Service Agent” to get a hotel and meal vouchers for my overstay in Toronto. Unbeknownst to me (and apparently Air Canada’s own ticket staff) Toronto was still experiencing serious delays and operational problems. My 6:30 departure out of Quebec, after numerous delays, finally pulled up to the gate at Toronto's Pearson Airport at 1:15 am. Exhausted, I went looking for “any Air Canada Customer Service” agent in a darkened and dim Air Canada Service area. What I discovered were long lines of angry and frustrated customers, all hoping to get hotel vouchers, flights rebooked etc., from TWO overwhelmed customer service agents. It took one and a half hours waiting in this line to realize that I never was going to speak to anyone. Air Canada had so totally mishandled this situation that for the vast majority of the hundreds of people waiting in line the (including myself) the only option was to find somewhere on the floor to sleep. After trying to sleep on a ventilation grate for about 3 hours I finally got up and went to my gate for my departure to San Francisco. My initial letter of complaint to Air Canada's Complaint Dept. went unanswered! I eventually had to resort to an anonymous online emial exchange process that felt like I was having an online chat with soemone in New Delhi. As compensation for their incompetence, Air Canada has “graciously” offered me 25% off my next Air Canada flight. What a joke! I will NEVER fly Air Canada again and can only offer my condolences to Canadians stuck with this sad excuse of a national carrier in a monopoly market!