Do NOT Fly CanJet

Normally I will write a complaint letter and get a response and move on, but this time I am angry and with each response back and forth with CanJet and their poor customer service I get angrier.  So for anyone who cares to read my blog this is why I am angry with CanJet and will never fly with them again.

On December 15th, 2013 my husband and I flew a code share Air Transat/Canjet from Ft. Lauderdale to Toronto.  We had just gotten off a beautiful cruise and had been dropped off at the Ft. Lauderdale airport from the Air Transat transfer.  So far all had gone smoothly but that was about to change abruptly.  The group of us lined up at the Air Transat counter even though not a single employee was at the desk yet.  Everyone was chatting about the cruise and friendly so far.  We waited and waited and not a single employee arrived at the ticket counter.  Then suddenly the sign for Air Transat went out and a few counters away the CanJet light light up.  Very orderly the entire line moved over there but still no employees were around.  Finally a short while later a few people stood behind the Air Transat counter.  A few people went over to ask where we should be standing to check in for our code share flight.  The young woman was busy chatting up a guy also behind the counter and didn't seem to want to be bothered and didn't address the passengers directly just gestured with her hand to wait back we were standing.  Soon more people asked as well and I asked the lady what was going on.  All we wanted was some information.  She didn't want to speak to me until I asked for a supervisor.  Some folks started another line at the Air Transat counter and were assisted immediately.  Our line was getting fed up.  A manager came over and ushered us all back to the Air Transat counter without a word of apology for the confusion. We were finally checked in.

All went well until we looked at the two side by side departure boards.  One board stated that our flight was on time to leave at 12:55 p.m. and the other board right next to it, with the same fight number and airline said 2:20 p.m..  Again there was nobody around to ask which one was right.  When 12:55 came and went and the plane hadn't even arrived yet we knew we were in for a very long wait.  Finally someone from CanJet was behind the counter but she had no clue why the two boards differed and when or where the plane was.  Um maybe call and ask someone would have been nice.  Not only did the time change but our gate changed twice without even an announcement.  We knew that there was a snow storm in Toronto and Montreal so we weren't surprised that our flight was late but giving us information would have been nice.  Finally a CanJet plane arrived and the supervisor again shows up to expedite the deplaning Montreal passengers and our boarding.  Can you really service a plane in 20 minutes?  No.  When I got to my seat I found someone's reading glasses in my seat pocket.  Nice cleaning folks!  I called over the flight attendant and gave him the glasses.  He seemed bothered that I had done this.  This should have been a red flag as to events yet to come.

So we were ready to take off, we watched the safety video and all of the sudden the captain comes on and says there is a problem with the engines and we would have to wait for maintenance.  Hey when there's a problem with the engines you take as long as you need to fix the problem.  Get it right because I do not want to crash.  This took over an hour to fix.  So the plane is all ready to go once again.  We are taking off at the time we should have been landing in Toronto.  My husband made a quick call home to tell them not to go to the airport yet that we were just taking off.  Or so we thought we'd be taking off.  Once again we got the safety video, because after an hour I guess they thought we forgot what we had just watched.  We taxi out to the runway, the engines revv up and then silence.  The engines die, the lights go out as does the air conditioning.  We are just sitting there on the active runway with no power.  Our take off had been aborted.  We had to be towed back to the jetway for another mechanical person to come out to fix the plane.  At this point confidence in the safety of this plane is shaky at best and some folks want to get off and take another flight.  I have to admit so did my husband and I.  They opened the door at the front of the plane to let the mechanic back on as did the same supervisor.  One older gentleman got his fishing pole and carry-on bag and wanted to leave.  The answer NO.  None of us were allowed to leave.  The plane is getting very hot and stuffy and people are very nervous.  The captain comes on and tells us this time it was a computer problem.  Again it was another hour waiting.  Two of the flight attendants at the front of the plane started handing out water from the front of the plane to the exit aisle.  The two guys at the back of the plane were too busy chatting with one another but after being asked repeatedly they begrudgingly did.

Once again we were all set for take-off but the flight attendants didn't bother collecting the cups that they had handed out before we took off.  That's and FAA no no.  We're finally in the air and to make up for the over 5 almost 6 hour delay they are giving most of us free headphones to listen to the movie.  The two flight attendants didn't hand them out in the front of the plane unless people complained.  Then comes the biggest slap in the face......are you ready for this......we have food you can buy.  They've held us hostage on the plane for over 5 hours now and we can buy food.  Are they joking?  Apparently not.  If we had a delay of over 3 hours and we had been on the ground they would have had to provide us with a food voucher.  That's why they didn't let us off the plane when we had the two problems.  As the flight progressed the flight attendants were getting more and more openly belligerent towards the passengers.  There was a long line to use all of the washrooms and one flight attendant actually pushed a passenger out of the way.  We were all shocked.  I asked one of the male flight attendants for a cup of water and his response to me was stop bothering me.  What?  I'm interrupting  his conversation with his co-worker to ask for water.  Wow!  We were preparing to land and this flight attendants had not walked through the cabin to collect the trash so I gathered ours up from our row and proceeded to hand it to our flight attendant as he walked by.  He was angry and said he was busy and walked away.  I'm sorry busy doing what exactly?  I took my trash up to the flight attendant area at the front of the plane and was told where the bin was to through the trash out and complained how her co-worker had just spoken to me.  She apologized.  A few minutes later the male flight attendant marched up to the front and must have been balled out.  As he passed my seat he said so that everyone could hear.....if you want to complain about me I'll give you a comment card.....I replied yes please do that.....I never did get a comment card.  We landed in Toronto a short time later and as we are leaving the flight it is customary for the flight crew to say bye and thank you for flying CanJet.  Not one word was said.  WOW!  That's some customer service....NOT!  I guess we should be lucky that the RCMP did greet the flight as we all know how sensitive flight attendants can get these days.  After all of the delays the arrivals board at Pearson airport was never updated so there were friends and family of passengers waiting at the airport for hours.

So the next day when I got a chance to call my travel agent to tell her about this flight, she gave me the e-mail address of both Air Transat and CanJet.  I wrote to both.  I got absolutely no response from Air Transat.  But I have since gotten two snarky e-mails from CanJet saying basically things happen.  No apology and no explanation.  My husband and I often fly various airlines and we have never ever seen a flight crew that unprofessional ever in our over 40 years of travel.  I have sent the latest response to our travel agent and we shall she what she does with this.  I am not about to back down on my complaint.  I'll let you all know what transpires.  If you are going into our out of Canada avoid CanJet.  They are an unprofessional airline with terrible customer service.