I have a gripe with Canadians.

Canadians love to shit on the national airline – Air Canada.

What those Canadian’s don’t know is that Air Canada truly is one of three, current, North American airline to achieve 4-stars from Skytrax – the world’s largest airline review site.  The others being Porter and Virgin America.

How can that be?

Easy – just fly any other airline in North America. United, American, US Airways, Southwest, Delta – they cannot compare to the level of service and professionalism you get on Air Canada.  Save maybe Porter and Virgin America.

United has vastly improved it’s service, and I see it on the way up with it’s merger with Continental.  It remains to be seen what happens with American after the merger with US Airways.

What about Westjet and Porter?  You know what, relative to the US-based airlines, they’re not bad.

Westjet, I really don’t care for because they act like Southwest yet their prices are just as high as Air Canada.  No frills?  Yes and you pay the price.  They don’t even have business class, and their mileage program is not affiliated with OneWorld or Star Alliance so why would I fly them?  They’re just not my cup of tea.

Porter, I’ve only flown once and I really enjoyed their service.  They would be my second choice, though again, their mileage program is not affiliated with OneWorld or Star Alliance.    The service is excellent, I love what they have done with the Toronto Island Airport.  I honestly have nothing bad to say about them.

There was a discussion that occurred today that started with a picture of, what looked like, a great meal in Air Canada Executive First.  Someone pointed out to me this fact after I had said, “And people in Canada like to crap all over Air Canada. They don’t know what they have until they fly on other carriers.” responding with, “…AirCanada economy blows, like the economy class of all other North American carriers.”

Food-wise, I have to say Air Canada is one of the best with Westjet on-par for food.  I heard Porter was really good but I wasn’t impressed when I flew to Chicago over a year ago.  As for the rest of the airlines in North America – this quote from me says it all: “Try any other airline – except maybe Virgin and Porter – who have better food choices. You can’t.”

Now I’ve had some amazing experiences on various airlines – British Airways First and Business class blows any experience I’ve had in business class, away.  Yes, I agree, Air Canada doesn’t compare when flying internationally, but I would hardly say they are sub-par and I wouldn’t say “they blow” like this one person did.

Then it got into providing bi-lingual service.  He was sitting in a section on a Frankfurt to Montreal flight with a flight attendant who was fluent in English and Mandarin.  He implied he wanted service in French and there was no one on board that could provide him with service.

For the record, the Service Director announces what languages the flight attendants can be of service in, and two of those, by law, have to be English and French.  As the official languages act says, service in Canada in Federal offices and on Air Canada has to be provided in both languages.

That’s not an issue, Air Canada guarantees this.  All this guy had to do was speak up and request service in french, and they would have got him a flight attendant who speaks french.

Personally, I don’t expect every flight attendant on an Air Canada flight to be able to speak both languages, but I do expect them to have an appropriate amount. Believe me, I love hearing the announcements in both languages and it helps me to remember some of my french.

Seriously, people, stop shitting on Air Canada.  Take off your blinders and if you’re being self entitled, maybe you need to show some humility.