[trinidad]

I had a hugely negative experience with Air Canada this summer, in particular with their check-in manager Elaine at YVR. Mentally traumatic experience for me as I keep recalling that day every day. On July 20th 2017 I arrived to the end of the baggage drop off line at YVR. This was 1 hr 20 mins before scheduled departure time of my flight YVR-Calgary—Toronto-Havana (AC204, AC142 and AC1752). I checked-in online the prior evening and just wanted to drop off my boxed-up bicycle. The line moved slowly as, while there were not too many passengers in the line, there were only 2 Air Canada reps at the baggage drop off, one of them soon leaving for a chat. When it was my turn to drop off my box, 55 minutes before scheduled departure time, the rep told me that the drop off for my flight to Calgary is now closed and she is going re-route me to Havana through Toronto only (instead of Calgary AND Toronto), said she is going to confirm this with manager. I didn’t argue, though was somewhat surprised because, according to the boarding pass I had, check-in closes 45 minutes before domestic flights. This is when I first met this inadequate Elaine, Air Canada check-in manager at YVR. She said I’m going to have to pay $200 for changing flights. No matter how I tried to explain to her that I arrived on time, that drop off should still be open according to the boarding pass, that she managed the check-in process poorly (only a single rep checking-in everyone, while others just chatting), Elaine did not acknowledge those arguments and only became more and more irritated and rude. I asked her to confirm with her own reps that I was here on time (they knew), she said she wouldn’t and that I was late, full stop. She wouldn’t provide a single evidence or reason-based argument for refusing me the flight, instead just saying irrelevant things like “it’s summer busy travel period yeah?”. Yeah, but doesn’t mean you can refuse flight to passenger who arrived perfectly on time. At some point Elaine started being rude, screaming me to go away or pay for the re-route. I feel I need to share my Air Canada experience on as many media resources I can because of the way the airline reps treat their customers. I recommend people steer clear of the airline to help avoid the kind of stress and disappointment I experienced with this check-in person / Air Canada. Problem is not so much in paying extra, but in that nobody could, with evidence in hand, explain why I was charged extra, and in their inadequacy. I suspect the airline had overbooked the flight, this being the genuine reason for not admitting me for the flight I booked.