Air Canada Makes Basic Fares More Restrictive, Cuts Carry-Ons

I thought United's joint venture with Air Canada was only as part of the transatlantic JV with Lufthansa/Swiss/Brussels/Austrian and specifically not cross-border US-Canada? Has that changed?

Nuts. Once again, taking away what used to be just normal courtesy to the flying public, such as one or two check-in bags, 1 carryon and a personal item. I realize the cost of everything has gone up in the past 30-40 years, but to be punitive to the point of punishing the pax because he or she might want a different seat in the SAME CLASS OF SERVICE at time of check-in is ridiculous. I have no need to fly Canadian Airways, but even if I did, I'd find another airline. However, what this does is SET THE PRECEDENT for ALL OTHER AIRLINES to follow suit. Thanks for punishing EVERYONE because of greed. For sure you lost a possible customer and I'll tell 10 others to not fly Canadian Airways. Maybe if everyone did that (as possibly feasible), you'd lose money. Making money hand over fist and STILL GREEDY! Horrendous. No thanks!

oh good maybe now more than 50% of the planes will be on time... lol.. who are we kidding... garbage airline

I wish all the fare aggregation websites like Kayak and Google Flights would do better at allowing non-basic economy searches. You search for what looks like a good price, then you find out it’s likely to be a middle seat next to the lavatory, with an extra $80 fee if you want to bring some clothes with you. I’d rather search for the lowest price for a regular economy seat, and I wish all the seat-swap beggars could make that search too.

But UA BE crossing US-Can allows carryon.

Couldn't agree more. They are failing us.

If AC was truly competitive from a consumer's point of view, they'd leave well enough alone & market these features as unique, compared to its competitors.
These companies operate in virtual lock-step, monkey-see-monkey do and I don't even view them as truly 'competing' with one another in various aspects.
But, then again, they aren't charities and their supreme obligation (above God & country) is to their share holders & board of directors, exclusively....
PS-Maybe this decision was a result of a survey/feedback from their 'most valued' Basic Economy pax !

Far from a shock from one of the worst airlines in the world. The government has protected them far too long, and they've become far too greedy.

I can't recall the last thing Air Canada did right...genuinely.

You can on google flights. There's a drop down menu for carry on baggage. If you choose one bag, it will eliminate basic economy fares that don't include a full size carry on.

I like the fact Air Canada serves free wine in economy on US routes. Thumbs up from me.

Then you would like Porter even better, they serve free wine in economy on intra-Canada flights (except short sectors and night flights).

True, Air Canada is certainly not an airline that woes customers with their service, but they run with the (North American) pack and are prodded by what the competition can get away with.

I find the inflight part, again by North american standards, not too bad, but it is the ground part that shows how disgruntled and/or overworked their ground staff seems to be.

The race to the bottom continues…

B.

Aligning Basic Economy to Porter /WestJet / United is fine and dandy, but AC's standard economy fares is not competitive vs. UA and other US airlines. AC's standard economy fares charges for seat selection, and does NOT have free changes, cancel for travel credit. If UA/DL/AA/B6 can offer free seat selection and free change/cancel on their standard coach fare, why can't Air Canada??

That is an excellent point - one that most (even the best travel bloggers) tend to overlook.

The new carry-on restriction for Basic Economy is an excellent move on the part of Air Canada, and will align the carrier not only with its domestic competitors, but also with alliance partner United Airlines.

It is the last fraction of the overhead bin scrounge that delays flights, so this change should have a tangibly positive effect on orderly and timely departures on ACA flights going forward.

I've also thought it strange that most bloggers including Ben overlook this point. Not being able to select free seats ($30-$45 CAD for a regular coach seat 🙁 ) even in standard coach fare or be able to change/cancel for credit is a huge disadvantage vs. US airlines. Recently, I booked EWR-YYC, YYZ-EWR, and LGA-YYZ tickets on AC metal thru United.com as a codeshare. Same fare, but booking thru United I'm able to get free changes/cancellations. Really stupid on AC's part to not align fare rules with United.

With these kinds of restrictions, I'd rather change planes and stay on a US carrier. Air Canada (and others) is shooting themselves in the foot.