Air Canada Rouge

As one of their great flight attendants told me on a flight earlier this year "it's sort of the economy version of Air Canada."

Google "Air Canada Rogue reviews" and you will find your answer.

I flew Rouge from Edinburgh to Toronto a couple years ago (flew into LHR on regular Air Canada). Flight went OK, nice friendly crew, on time, nothing to complain about.

They have no real 1st class or business section. The Premium seats (where I sat) are like domestic 1st class on small planes. OK as long as you are not planning on sleeping. Food was acceptable. But reading recent reviews, looks like things might have changed just not for the better.

If you're flying out of the Bay Area, have you checked into flying nonstop into Gatwick or Stockholm on Norwegian Air Shuttle from Oakland International? You may can transfer to another flight to get to your final destination.
They're also going to be flying non-stop to Barcelona starting 6/7/2017, and to Copenhagen starting 3/28/2017 from Oakland.
We've flown them into London Gatwick and Stockholm in the last year, and the price was half that of the legacy carriers.

The thing to remember about reviews is people are way more likely to post negative reviews because we all like to complain. I see people complain about the regular air canada flights all the time and I've used them without issue for all our long haul flights.

That being said, a coworker of my husband used rouge to fly to europe and he wasn't overly enamoured. I believe he found the seats to be rather uncomfortable. He's a larger man - height and weight - and leg space wasn't good (but honestly, are any of them good unless you pony up for premium?). And not sure he was pleased with the food.

My friends and I went to Athens last October. My flights were booked through United with plane change in Toronto to Air Canada Rouge. It was the worst flight I have ever been on. The overhead seat lights did not work. Some came on later, other passengers were given battery book lights. If you wanted to watch a movie you had to rent an ipad. (No seat back entertainment screens) There were no free alcohol drinks (not a biggie for me, but every other international flight I have been on offered them). The overhead bin would not hold the new luggage I bought matching the Air Canada sizing requirements. (Luckily the plane was not full and I was able to put it in sideways.) The flight attendants were not answering call buttons. They also did not collect trays after the meal. Passengers stacked their dirty dishes and trash on tray tables at unoccupied seats. The trash remained until preparation for landing. As someone pointed out to me this could have been dangerous if there had been turbulence.

This was booked through United, and I had no idea that this was a minimal or budget service airline. The fare was not cheaper. My roundtrip ticket returned me to states via a United plane and the difference was amazing. I did complain to United and received a small credit towards a future ticket. I will never travel Air Canada Rouge again.

We flew AC Rouge in July from Halifax NS to Calgary AB in very cramped seats. My husband is 6'3" and complained it was the worst he's ever experienced. No entertainment system in the seat, you can download an app to access a limited range of entertainment options on your own device. As this was within Canada, of course there was no food. They came around once with water which is definitely not enough for a flight that's 5.5 hrs long ...

For us, the timing of the flight worked better than other available options but otherwise it's not an experience we'd be eager to repeat.