Air Canada today announced a comprehensive range of new product improvements to elevate the customer experience. The changes will have something for everyone, including upgraded Economy dining, more in-flight entertainment and connectivity options, and enriched Premium offerings. Beginning in November, customers will see new and restored services in Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges and in Premium cabins onboard, a new Economy Class dining service with a celebrity chef entree internationally plus fresh, new Bistro choices in North America, and in a first for a Canadian airline, complimentary, high-speed Wi-Fi when travelling Premium Rouge. Starting in 2023 (perhaps in time for Read more
Air Canada rouge
It’s a mixed bag today; both discouraging and hopeful. But lots of news today, including updates on when Carnival Cruises will begin again, a new customer safety program from Air Canada and a great Mother’s Day sale from Fairmont Hotels. Oh, and because I feel like, a nice item about a baby manatee being rescued in the Florida Keys. All in today’s FUTURE OF TRAVEL report. It’s been a very rocky couple months for the cruise industry, but the news from Carnival provides a glimmer of hope. The cruise line on Monday said it will resume limited cruising out of Read more
The deliberate crash of a Germanwings flight in the French Alps last week set off alarm bells with many airline customers. Airlines and governments around the world, including Canada, immediately brought in rules to require two people in the flight deck at all times. It is probably an improvement, but some travellers remain uneasy about low-cost carriers (December’s AirAsia crash is still a recent memory). Consumers are naturally attracted to the cheaper prices of airlines such as Germanwings, Ireland’s Ryanair and Florida-based Spirit Airlines, which flies a number of Canadians to the sunny south each winter – by some estimates Read more
HONOLULU – That was fun. Air Canada rouge celebrated the return of non-stop service between Toronto and Honolulu on Wednesday with celebrations in both cities. As a winter storm started to develop near southern Ontario (damn, I hate to miss those), the crew on the first Toronto to Honolulu Air Canada rouge flight was gathering at Pearson International Airport with plastic flower leis, papier mache pineapples and other Hawaiian-inspired goodies to get ready for the 3:55 p.m. departure. They cut a ribbon to celebrate the occasion and generally fussed and fawned, catching a few folks by surprise. “We didn’t know Read more
Pretty cool report the other day from hotels.com showed that Toronto is now the third most booked international city for U.S. travellers. The report, which analyzed bookings on hotels.com, found that U.S. travel types booked the most rooms in London, followed by Paris. Toronto was number three, moving ahead of Rome. Which is pretty cool. After Rome, in position five, was Vancouver, followed by Tokyo, Hong Kong, Montreal, Barcelona and Niagara Falls. It’s a not a definitive study in that it only takes into account bookings on one website. But it’s encouraging for Toronto and Canadian tourism types, I’d think… Read more
