Overbooking is regrettably the long standing practice of Air Canada.

Missing a holiday of a lifetime is really unfortunate. We’ve nearly experienced more dire circumstances travelling with small children when Air Canada attempted to bump us when we were connecting overseas from a codeshared flights.

Dan Gardner is right to profile his experience. I especially appreciate his underscoring that no matter how many steps he took as a customer - early online checkin 24 hours before the flight, arrival and in person checkin the airport well in advance, he and his son were still mysteriously taken off the flight at the gate at boarding with no explanation. The blithe disrespect that the staff at the checkin and gates have towards the travellers in such situations is one of the things that make flying with Air Canada so incredibly stressful.

Once upon decades ago, Air Canada used to offer vouchers for free additional flights as an incentive for travellers to agree to take a later flight. Now Air Canada feels it has the right to impose significant financial and personal cost on it customers without compensation, recourse or explanation.

Air Canada also starved me on a long flight because they ran out of dinners before reaching the end of the plane. The worst part is, I could see a to stack of food just behind the curtain. Apparently they can't or couldn't buy food in the US, so they had to split their supply in half, for the trip back.

I was not impressed.

Ooh. Air Canada sucking. That's definitely new behaviour.

/s

FWIW JetBlue doesn't overbook in the US and they do Ok

Up until 2019 I flew more than 150 times a year. Air Canada was my airline of last resort because they treat their customers like an inconvenience. They are in the business of milking the Canadian government for handouts. Pretending to be an airline is just how they do that.

I avoid air canada at all costs. I hate it when I fly with them.