Due to a severe traffic jam I arrived only one hour and 45 minutes before an international flight.
The self check in machines would not check me in. I then wasted 30 minutes after being placed in the wrong check in line by an AC employee who told me not to worry Ill make my flight. After lining up again and again being reassured I would make the flight I finally got to the counter approximately 1 hour before boarding was to start and was told that the flight was now closed. I had missed check in by 5 minutes they said.
After calmly explaining my situation and the fact I was sent to the wrong line the counter staff who were eating doughnuts and drinking coffee (not kidding here) while checking people in said there was nothing they could do. I reminded them that I was an AC frequent flyer and the lady said and Ill quote her verbatim "That means nothing dear". Wow, just wow. Then one of them made the mistake of saying the flight was full anyways. Wait a minute. That meant that AC waits until just before a flight and then sells off your ticket if you don't check in well over an hour before your flight. Thats why the machine wouldn't check me when I got there as the ticket was already sold off.
Due to the no refund policy I was forced to rebook for the next days flight at the cost of an additional $150 rebooking fee plus the flight the next day was $140 more than what I had originally booked. Nice rip off.
Bottom line is AC has the worst customer service ever as they didn't even make an effort to get me on the flight because they had already SOLD MY SEAT before I even got to the airport. You will find far better service on the TTC or GO train than you will with a $1200 ticket on this airline.
I used to fly AC about 4-6 times a year and now I fly them ZERO times a year. Way to go AC, great job by your surly staff at screwing frequent customers.