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| - a. Booking - Air Canada booking process was pleasant. We did receive a 20% off coupon because one of our previous flights had entertainment system screwed up. Better than an empty apology, I guess. Moreover, Air Canada was more than accommodative during Hurricane Harvey and allowed us to rebook our flights multiple times to avoid Houston area.
b. Checkin@Calgary - Horrible experience with Air Canada counters at Calgary airport. The staff was incompetent and rude. Firstly, the online check in process didn't work for us just because we had a visa to be verified, so we couldn't select our seats or get earlier boarding zones. We only had cabin luggage, so we tried checking in at the kiosks; which also didn't let us complete checking, there were attendants there but refused to help and asked us to get in line with check in luggage passengers. There were no separate lines for online checked in/baggage drop off. There was about 45 mins of line for a 7 am flight and staff showed no sense of urgency. Finally we get to a counter and their passport scanner malfunctions, the attendant looked confused, kept asking other attendants on how to operate the screens (typed with 1 finger). When we asked to hurry, she (Karen) tried to blame it on our passports - we have travelled 25+ countries without any issues with the same passports. We stood in line again and went to another agent, who was able to check us in. Turns out, previous agent forgot some key steps to capture our address. Now, the new agent (Carolina) forced us to check in our cabin luggage and charged us $50. That was clearly unfair as all other passengers had equal (if not bigger) luggage. Keep in mind, this was 30min before the flight - so they coerced us to pay without any time to justify or argue. Also, now even loading the luggage onto the belt is a customer responsibility, Air Canada is too cheap to hire a minimum wage porter. We ran to the gate and barely made it to boarding. Of course, there - they were courtesy checking in cabin luggage for all other passengers. When I complained to the gate agent, her response was precisely "Write an email", "I am busy boarding 195 people" & "Whatever". I demand a full refund of my luggage fees ($50).
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