Experiences with Air Canada?

We use AC quite a lot. They are a legacy airline and I would say their reliability is as good as most and better than some. Service seems to have improved a bit in the last couple of years IMO. Their premium economy is quite comfortable, with a good amount of legroom. We usually book this for longer flights when we can't afford business class. If you are booking economy, you can get extra legroom in the emergency exits and bulkhead seats, but I don't think those are available for basic economy ( you can't book a seat assignment in basic).

We recently flew AC from Vancouver to Hong Kong and from New Zealand to Vancouver. We flew premium economy. The premium economy has extra legroom and more recline. Everything was fine; 13 hours on a plane will never be anything but okay for me.

Flights were on time.

Food was okay, which is all I can expect from an airline. Flight attendants were courteous and the entertainment system was working.

There are seats with more legroom in economy for a few.

You can bid on upgrades for some flights.

No reason not to fly AC.

Actually the very best schedule is with Austrian Air, but that
involves a connection time of just 45 minutes in Vienna, which seems
highly risky. Also, I know nothing about Austrian Air.

I once booked a 4 hour connection in Vienna with Austrian because the suggested connection felt too short, but once I got there i realized that I would have made even the shorter connection. Vienna is a small and efficent airport so I wouldn't worry about 45 minutes there.

Just be sure you're getting Air Canada itself, not their low cost version Air Canada Rouge (haven't flown them myself, but I hear plenty of grousing from those that do).

Regarding Lufthansa, their coach seats are nothing to get excited about. I flew Lufthansa from Seattle to Frankfurt some years ago and in terms of seat comfort (and service), it as the worst experience by far that I've ever had with a legacy airline. Maybe I just got them on a bad day but I found the seats so horrible - after that flight, I vowed to never cross an ocean in a coach seat like that ever again (and I've stuck to that vow).

About that short connection on Austrian: if they have more flights that could get you to Rome the same day (in case you miss your connection) I'd worry a bit less about that short connection.

We flew AC to Amsterdam via Toronto last year, and flew them to Toronto (on a small regional jet) this summer. No different experience than any of the big US airlines - Delta, American, or United. But one advantage of flying via Toronto is that it is closer to Europe, so that segment is a bit shorter. The airport has an expedited passport check for transfers. Also I believe we went through US immigration and customs there at the Toronto airport on the return so that helped save us hassle time. But double check to see if its a codeshared flight or actually flown by AC. Air Canada Rouge (?) is a budget subsidiary of AC and a different story.

I use AC all the time to fly over to London (basically because they are the only one to fly direct from our little airport - until the Boeing grounding).

You can get seating with extra legroom but you'll pay for it. For preferred seating, it used to be $50 (cdn) a few years back, but this year I paid from $100-110 for either exit or bulkhead seating. For me, it's an expense that's worth it. (There are other preferred seats that aren't exit or bulkhead, but cost is prob the same). When I booked my tickets, I made my seat selection then. You can wait and pick your seats later on, but of course, selection will be less, as it will be if you are only booking a month or two out.

I had issues with them this year because of the Max 8 planes being grounded and I had to be rerouted. They were really great to work with via Twitter messages. When the plane home got changed and our seats ended up being in the middle of the plane instead of window seats, I asked about being refunded for the preferred seats so I could just get reg seats by the window. Not only did they refund me my seat selection for that flight and let me keep the bulkhead seats, they refunded my seat selections for the other flights AND gave me extra legroom seats for the short flights within Canada - for me and my hubs this was to the tune of over $400. They also gave my mom a free exit row seat for her flight home from the UK (again, because of the Boeing situation, she had to take connecting instead of direct).

We've flown with them something like 9 times since '08. I've never had a complaint. I mean, it isn't incredible, but I've never been treated poorly.

If you're considering Air Canada, I would say "don't let them switch you to Air Canada Rouge"! Definitely not the same comfort - I reluctantly flew AC Rouge twice from Canada to Hawaii - once in Economy and once in Premium - never again! Air Canada is fine in my books - IF they have flights where you want to go.

By the way, have you heard about the new service recently announced by WestJet from Calgary to Rome? You wouldn't be able to use United Miles though, and it starts in May. Below is the notice copied from what they sent to their mailing list.

WESTJET
Starting in May 2020, you can fly non-stop from Calgary to Rome on the 787 Dreamliner.
Seasonal flights are 1x week starting May 2, increasing to 3x a week on May 28, 2020.

Larry,

Air Canada is my preferred airline for flights to Europe, and I've always had good service with them. With their Star Alliance connections they can get to just about anywhere.

I've found on more recent trips that booking Premium Economy seats makes for a much nicer experience on those long flights, although Premium is a bit expensive. If you don't mind paying for P.E., I'd suggest choosing that at the time of booking rather than just before flight time, even if there's an extra charge. If you wait too long, the good seats will be sold out.

Others have mentioned Air Canada Rouge and IMO it's essential to book Premium Economy on those flights as that's also very comfortable. I've flown with both versions of Air Canada so have experienced the difference.

A question that I don’t know the answer to but something to investigate is if you need to be able to enter Canada legally even if it’s all on one ticket. I don’t know if you do or not.

Pearson Airport has great connection info on their website
https://www.torontopearson.com/en/connections

As for the OP question about Air Canada, yes very good airline. My preference out of Canada is Westjet but as another poster mentions, that doesn't help you with points.

I can’t answer to the 45 min connection in Vienna, since that was my destination; but flew Austrian Air in 2018 and it was fine.