Air Canada Rouge Review

I'm writing a review about my experience with Air Canada Rouge. Because I have unlimited characters, I can write a long review, which is GREAT.

For those who don't know (like me), Rouge is a bit different than Air Canada. They are the "budget" airliner. I didn't find out till after I landed, and I can understand and see why they are the budget airliner. Air Canada itself is already a nightmare (most of the time). Rouge is like the diarrhea that you will struggle with for the rest of the month.

Recently I flew to Las Vegas with AC Rouge. The flight there was a bit delayed. Flight time was 0915. Now, my friends were there at 5am because they got an early ride to work otherwise there would be no other convenient way. I had arrived just before 7am. Once I arrived we headed straight to the security to get our stuff scanned. This is where all the confusion began.

In Terminal 1, there is the USA part where you line up to get scanned. That's around area 6 or so. There was a huge line already. That's not the worst part. The worst part is when they told us line up began all the way at the BACK of the terminal. It was like a holding area where people would wait until they get called.

My friends and I go there to wait. And wait. and wait. At 7am, they were calling for people with a flight time of earlier than 0840 to start lining up. Everyone else has to sit down and wait.

I kid you not. Time travels pretty fast. It was over an hour that they were stuck at calling people for flights earlier than 0840. It took an hour before they said "those who have boarding times earlier than 0845 can start lining up." RIDICULOUS.

Now it turns to 0850. And they have not called any other people, except for those earlier than 0845 boarding time. So this is the part when people are hitting the fan and freaking out. Eventually they suddenly started calling people with a 0915 time or earlier, and now you see a bunch of people lining up. We got through customs, which still took some time as well. By the time we reached our gate, people were already getting into the plane.

The flight got delayed to beyond 0940 because people were late and what not due to the idiots who did not know how to count time back at the security.

The flight itself was uneventful. AC Rouge has no inflight entertainment but you can download an app with all the entertainment on it and run it from your own iPad or phone or whatever. Or you can pay $10 to rent an iPad from AC-R. No thanks. I already pay enough for seats and fuel so why do I have to pay for entertainment. Then again, it is a budget airliner.

Food service is available, but you have to pay. Instant cup noodles cost $3, which I could easily get at an Asian supermarket for less than a dollar. A chicken wrap is $7.50, same with a tiny box of pizza. Bowl of nuts is $3. And you can only pay by credit card. This is for a flight that is just under 4 hours.

I flew from Amsterdam to Frankfurt via Lufthansa airlines, which was 1 hour and 15 mins flight time at most. They not only served drinks but they served a mini meal as well, with the whole tray and all. AND IT WAS GOOD! I was impressed. My only flight with Lufthansa and service was amazing.

It is no wonder Lufthansa Airlines is one of the best in the world. Props to you Germans.

Now, back to my awful experience.

Flying back is a bit of a different story, and this is where my review comes in with devil horns.

Flight 1854. Red eye flight out of Vegas. Boeing 767-300.

Initially when we checked in online, 3 of us were seated at the very back of the plane. The last row. My friend has bad motion sickness, so sitting at the back would be a complete nightmare. We opted to move up. Online, we saw all 3 of our seats move up to the middle of the plane, and it was confirmed.

Now we go to board the plane and I hear my name being paged overhead. When I was at the front of the massive line already, and I had to walk to another area to see what the hell was going on. Not happy. Initial thought was "sh*t am I going to miss my flight?" No thankfully not. But there was a problem. Another passenger had MY NAME on his ticket with his seat number. My name was double booked for some reason, but hey that ain't my problem. I don't run the show.

So after some clarification, I boarded the plane with my friends. It is then I saw that we were on completely different areas on the plane. They were at the middle, as what they saw online last night. But I was all the way at the back, as if I didn't change. Maybe I moved up a row or two but that was it. I had hoped that whoever was sitting with my friends would kindly switch with me. However as I approached the seat, there was a woman there. Her husband was on the other side of the aisle and someone else was at the window. They had messed up their configuration as well. I figured it wouldn't be cool to separate this old couple from each other and have the wife sit all the way at the back, so I bit my tongue and just moved to the back.

I had the aisle seat, the window seat beside me was empty at that time. Because everyone at the back had boarded earlier, there was very little room to put my carry on luggage. I was looking at the overhead compartments to see if there was any room or if anything could be moved around, but nope. I asked the flight attendant (don't know her name) if she could help. The only thing she offered was "oh you'll have to look up front if you want more space" and basically walked away. The passengers didn't do much either. Just minded their own business or stared at me as if I was retarded.

I look a bit up front and found a space. I tried to position my carry on to see if it would fit properly. The first time it hit something on the side, and at one point I almost lost my gripping. For someone with a weak wrist, yeah it's a struggle. I think I nearly got hit in the head with my own luggage (and by no means was it super heavy). I took it down to reposition. This is when I expected some help from the FA or anyone near me but nope. It was the most useless flight I've ever been on.

Flashback: I had boarded a red eye flight coming out of Vancouver last year, and the AC flight was packed. This wasn't Rouge, but just the regular AC flight. I waited until everyone had put their stuff away before having to put my long, giant poster tube. It didn't require a lot of space, but it was a long tube, so yes other carry on luggages go first. Not only did the FAs help look for a spot, but even the passengers offered to help as well. The people around me were friendly and helpful. And this is what helps make the world a better place.

Now, back to reality.

I go back to my seat. At this time there is a nice lady by the window and her boyfriend/husband was at the back. It was then that I offered my seat to him if she wanted him beside her, and she was more than happy. Small things can go a long way.

So here I am, at the very last row again. Beside the door. Can't see anything out the window.

Didn't think too much of it, until I started smelling jet fuel. Now I've flown many times in my almost 30 years of life and I have sat at the back of planes before. Never in my life have I ever smelled fuel on board. The couple beside me expressed the same concern to the FA. The FA (the same one who told me to basically do their job) told us that it was normal, very similar to when we first start our cars, the fumes can be overwhelmingly strong.

Ok lady, if you can smell fumes from your car when you're inside of it and all the windows rolled up/doors closed, that's an issue. Get a new car for God's sakes. I can understand if you're in a closed garage and starting up the car, then yes fumes can get deadly. But this plane was not parked in a garage. There is no reason for the smell of fuel to be going into the jet unless there was a crack or improper seal somewhere (although it is most likely due to the ventilation system and how it works on a plane). It was a very strong smell. It's bad enough the washroom is there, but that with the smell of fuel is overwhelming.

So now with that paranoia in my head, and not being able to see anything except to feel the jet taxiing to the runway, and the engines slowly starting to roar, a lot of things go through the mind. What happens if the door blows open? Sh*t I'm going to get sucked out and die.

I don't think it would have happened if I smelled jet fuel, but the fact that I did set off a mental chain reaction, resulting in pretty much a panic attack. This is the first panic attack I've experienced on a plane.

Thankfully one of my friends decided to switch his seat with me and move me up to where my other friend was sitting so I wouldn't be completely alone back there. I debated with him but he insisted on switching, so we switched.

This is the most annoying part. We knew we were at the back and requested to move up online, which we did. The fact that 2 of them made it up, but one was still stuck at the back is ridiculous. Not only that, but the lady sitting beside my friend was also double booked with someone else. So that person was also confused as to where they were going. Somehow my name was double booked onto two different tickets too. This is the company issue, not mine. People were scattered everywhere from each other.

This is why I don't rely on staff or other passengers to do things because they are completely useless. You can be nice to a certain degree, but in the end when you don't get a nice feedback, then what's the point of doing it in the first place?

I paid for the services and fees. FAs have a responsibility of lives on board, yes it s a huge thing. They are also responsible to help people when they need it, and I felt like they failed on that part when I was struggling. You don't just stand around and watch someone struggle. I might as well stand and watch someone struggle to breathe, when I know what I can do to help them but don't actually help them because, well they're adults. They can figure it out themselves.

If you get paid to wipe ass, then you wipe ass. If you get paid to help people store their belongings, then help them store their belongings. How hard is it to follow a job description? Apparently for some people, it's too much to ask for. Those are the people who shouldn't be in the job because their hearts are not in it.

By the way, the FA was not tall. She also looked like she needed to shed many pounds. So that's probably why she refused to help people. If that's the case, why is the airliner hiring people who are not fit to do the job, or don't meet bare minimum requirements? The airliner is wasting money on someone who can't do the job properly, when there are others out there who meet the requirements.

Don't even get me started on the leg room and how uncomfortable the seats are. That wasn't my priority though, but yes there is limited space to stretch your legs. If you have lower back issues, sitting in any plane seat will be a nightmare.

There is also a blog by Johnny Jet, who says the FAs filled out the flight info on custom cards if you are flying out of country, that they fill out the flight info for you (Johnny Jet). Nope, not on ours. Ours were too lazy to help with our luggage. You think they would pre-fill out our custom cards on the flight number? You would have higher luck winning money in Vegas.

Would I recommend AC-Rouge? Hell no. I would give it zero stars. Avoid it like herpes. Just stay away from it.

It's gotten to the point that if Rouge was the only airliner to go to that specific destination, I would rather drive or take the train. Or swim across the ocean to get there, than rely on a lame, fuel smelling airliner like Rouge.