[joaocarlos.jcla]

Verbally abused by an Air Canada employee



On june 27th I arrived at 1 pm at Pearson Airport to catch the 4:20 flight from Toronto to Quebec. We printed our boarding passes but were unable to print luggage tags. We were informed that Air Canada´s systems were down and we'd have to wait in line to get our baggages dispatched.

The security member working the floor was constantly rude to passengers. At one point he told a costumer she'd loose her flight and it wasn't his problem. He repeatedly made irritated remarks to those in line. At one point, my 3 year old son peed himself. He kept begging us to take him to the bathroom, but as there was only two persons in front of us in line at the time, I was afraid to leave the cue and miss my turn and the flight.

After waiting for about two hours in line, we finally managed to have our bags tagged.

The person who assisted us apologized for the inconvenience and I responded that I understand that problems sometimes occur but that one of Air Canadas ground team members had been disrepectful to the passengers. I never even mentioned his name, because his name tag was covered.

I ran with my family to get through security as we were already very late for our flight, eventhough we had arrived at 1 pm at the airport.

What followed next was the most humiliating experience in my life. Air Canada´s employee approached me and ordered me to step out of line. I obeyed the command at which point he started yelling at me. He was very agitated. He told me I had no right to complain. That I was at his working place and he would not accept people complaining against him.

As he grew angrier, I replied that I wouldn't stand there and be yelled at. I told him I was late and had a plane to catch. As I turned away, he ordered the security person not to scan my ticket and threatened to call security. He ordered my wife, and kids to step out of line as he continued to berrate at me in front of dozens of people. He then ordered me to follow him to security. I told him I wouldn´t move and that I would wait for security where I was. I asked to see his name tag because I was going to file a complaint against him and he refused to show me. He said he wasn´t obliged to reveal his name because he was a security member of Air Canada.

Threatening to file a complaint made him stop yelling and he finally walked away and allowed my Family and I to check in.

It was an urreal experience and one I hope I´ll never experience again. There I was, in front of dozens of people being yelled at. In front of my wife and two kids. Obviously, in the eyes of those watching, I must have done something wrong. I felt like a criminal. It only lasted for about 5 minutes, but it ruined my entire vacation in Canada. For two weeks I felt angry, embarassed, humiliated. I was so upset, that I tried to convince my wife to take a train from Montreal to Toronto, eventhough we already had our air tickets paid for. I simply did not want to have to ever fly Air Canada again.

I hope Air Canada takes the necessary steps to identify the employee and the verify all that I reported above. All it has to do is request the videos from the security cameras from the screening area, around 15:30 pm, June 27th.

Best regards,



João Carlos Ambrósio
Posted via Mobile Device