Well let's see in order of importance. They don't crash (pilots seem older), they are mostly on time, they don't lose my baggage, they reward me with upgrades every now and then, the lounges are not bad with showers and not bad food, the staff are 99% of the time polite, and the only times I've seen them flustered the pax deserved it. Business class with the pods is fantastic! Way better than the side by side so I'm disappointed with the new 777 seating but that is a nice plane.Air Canada is a national main carrier....lets compare with NATIONAL carriers. So you guys want to compare AC shitty service against Lufthansa, British Airways, Finnair, Alitalia, LOT?????!!! Please be my guest and go ahead and give me points that point at AC being as good as the European counterparts. I'm not even going to go to the Asian carriers such as Cathay or JAL because thats out of this galaxy in comparison.
Air Canada is the worst compared all other international carriers in its CATEGORY. Yes they might have a cool and new fleet but god does the way they treat people suck beyond acceptable limits.
US airlines etc. constantly loose my baggage and the lounges are nowhere near as nice, but prices are cheaper, but they don't usually have entertainment systems except on long haul, but they had Wifi over the US early which is rather nice. No comparison to Air Canada. I avoid US airlines when I can. Don't care if it costs me a few hundred more for AC.
Lufthansa .. very tightly packed but I guess Rouge is going that way too. Food .. yikes.. and service .. well a bit germanic, boarding planes in the rain from busses.. come on. no entertainment systems most of the time (very young pilots).
Air France - don't recall any entertainment systems for flights in Europe. food was not bad, service not too friendly.
German Wings .. kinda fail my first criteria (took them a week before their 'accident')... very young pilots.
British Airways - ok on par with Air Canada I guess but Heathrow .. yikes.
Singapore - very nice, better than Air Canada, the 380 is lovely, charming hostesses, fantastic entertainment, superb lounges.
Emirates - very nice, better than Air Canada, the 380 is lovely.
Malaysian - well they fail my first criteria
Quantas - very nice no problems loved the 747s.
So in AC holds up very well compared to the other big carriers and frankly if you are grumbling I think its because you simply don't have enough experience travelling and are making judgements based on a single incident. Also I think if you make any judgements on anything based on what the media says you are really naive.
The bottom line is that travel sucks .. even with a good airline it is a horrid experience, all they can really do is make it a bit more tolerable and Air Canada does just fine in my opinion.