experience with Air Canada customer service?

They have the option of having a call back rather than holding, and when I've used it the estimated time was close to correct.

My recent experience is calling the customer service number early in the morning (5am)
Someone answered me in less than 5min wait and was super helpful.

Does the original flight still even exist? I assumed many flight changes were due to reduced flights not arbitrary shifting passengers.
At the very least, have an acceptable plan with specific flights or alternatives ready to give the phone agent before you make the call. I have always managed to make a change to something acceptable to me, when I have done my homework first.
Here is their phone number you will want 1-888-247-2262

Just for informations sake, a number of years ago we were able to link flight reservation numbers with our friends and supposedly this meant if there were flight changes we'd remain together. Is this still a thing?

Thank you, everyone! For the phone number, info about the call-back option, and of course the very early morning call (which I think I can manage on Monday!). I'll have my acceptable option in hand.

What's funny is that my mom's seat on the Montreal-->Halifax connection did not get changed, which is what makes me think that the original flight still exists, but I will double and triple check before calling.

Did not even think about linking flight reservations! I'll look into that. Thanks for the idea!

Again, really appreciate it!

Happily, yes, my original flight still exists but I wonder if a price or aircraft change made them bump me... anyway, I'll be ringing them about it! And my willingness to pay for hopefully actually meeting my mom at the right time is probably the fare differential.

I have never paid for flight differences when I was rebooked by AC and then asked for an alternate route. There are also passenger rights for rebooked changes of over 2 hours. I expect a call to them and explanation about Mom's flights should sort things out.

The customer service representative was super helpful and I got my flight changed to an acceptable itinerary :)

Thanks for sharing all your experiences, everyone!

Air Canada should have this thread printed out and framed. It is rare on this board and most others to have a totally positive response about air travel customer service. AC could probably use the positivity after its bleak reputation for covid refunds.