Recently, my son and I went on a round the world trip, booked with Air Canada Aeroplan miles. The trip was amazing as well as being an amazing deal on miles and points (especially with a 30% bonus transferring from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Aeroplan miles). It included 3 long flights in business class, along with a few shorter flights in economy
- EgyptAir Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner Business Class from Washington DC (IAD) to Cairo (CAI)
- Etihad Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner Business Class from Abu Dhabi (AUH) to Tokyo (NRT)
- Air Canada Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner Business Class from Tokyo (NRT) to Toronto (YYZ)
on 
A Broken Seat
You can read my full Air Canada Boeing Dreamliner Business Class review linked above, but it was a great flight. The service was excellent, the food was solid and I was able to get about 6 hours of uninterrupted shuteye. There were only 2 problems. The first is that a volcano eruption delayed our flight, which made me had to sprint through the Toronto airport to make a tight connection. The other was that the seat controls at my seat (5D) did not work (see picture above). Thankfully, it did recline to the fully-flat position, as well as the fully upright position, but you couldn’t make it do anything else.
Asking for Compensation
The lead business class flight attendant was outstanding, and probably one of the best and friendliest flight attendants that I have ever had. He mentioned proactively that he was filling out a “compensation report” for me, but it wasn’t quite clear what that meant exactly. I didn’t know if he was just marking that it was broken or if he was actually contacting Air Canada on my behalf. But after I didn’t hear anything after a few weeks, I went ahead and contacted Air Canada directly. I shared what happened (including the image above) and mentioned that I thought something like 10,000 Aeroplan miles would be sufficient (I usually specify how much compensation I am looking for when I contact a company).
Air Canada’s Surprising Reply
It was only a few days later that Air Canada replied back.
Dear Daniel Miller,
Thank you for flying Air Canada on 2023/04/13.
We make every effort to ensure that all of our customers enjoy a comfortable flight with us and we regret the service shortcoming you experienced. Please accept this Air Canada eCoupon offer with our apologies.
We appreciate your support and hope to welcome you on board with us again soon.
At first, I was actually a bit bummed to get a voucher rather than miles, and I couldn’t even find the amount of the coupon at first. Then I scrolled down and saw that they had given me a voucher for ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS!! Well, granted it is $1,000 CANADIAN dollars :-), but that’s still way more than I thought was merited. I mean I’m not complaining and I’ll definitely use it – it was just unexpected.
I guess that given how much the seats sell for maybe this is realistic. I mean, if the seat hadn’t reclined at all, then that would have been reasonable (maybe not even enough), but it really wasn’t that much of an inconvenience.
Anyways, time to plan my next trip!
- Booking a (nearly) round the world Aeroplan award for 2023
- Fixing an Air Canada Aeroplan Booking (that included time travel)
- Which is better? “Busy” Travel or “Relaxing” Travel?
- How to get from IAD to DCA (or downtown Washington DC) UPDATED with Silver Line
- How to get tickets to the Washington Monument
- Hyatt Place Herndon/Dulles Airport-East Hotel Review
- United Polaris Lounge IAD Review
- Turkish Airlines IAD Lounge Review
- EgyptAir Business Class 787-9 Dreamliner Review IAD-CAI
- One Day in Cairo Egypt
- Staybridge Suites Cairo - Citystars Review
- Wow - everything is SO cheap in Egypt!
- EgyptAir Alioth Cairo / CAI Airport Lounge Review
- EgyptAir Regional Business Class Review CAI-AUH
- AUH Etihad Business Class Lounge Review Abu Dhabi
- Etihad Business Class Review AUH-NRT
- Comfort Hotel Tokyo Kiyosumi Shirakawa Review
- Tokyo Street Karting Review (Mario Kart Tokyo)
- I'll admit it... I don't understand the Tokyo Subway system
- Tokyo to Osaka Shinkansen Bullet Train Review
- Osaka Hotel Universal Port Vita Review (Universal Studios Japan)
- Universal Studios Japan / Super Nintendo World Review
- Tokyo Narita Terminal 1 ANA Lounge Review (NRT)
- Air Canada Business Class 787-9 Dreamliner Review NRT-YYZ
- Outrageous Air Canada compensation
- How a Volcano Made Me Sprint Through The Airport
- Planes, Trains and Automobiles – Literally The Longest Day Of My Life
- What Is Going On With Uber?
The Bottom Line
I flew Air Canada business class from Tokyo to Toronto and the seat controls were broken. The seat reclined and went fully upright, but nowhere in between. When I asked for compensation, I was shocked when they proactively offered a voucher for CAD$1,000.
What do you think about this Air Canada compensation for a broken seat? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
It’s worth mentioning that these Ecoupons are actually quite useful.
You can use them in conjunction with Aeroplan bookings to pay taxes and fees – including if you are doing a cash plus points redemption.
Wow – that is great to know. I didn’t realize that and you’re right, that does make them much more valuable.
American should learn from AC. Three days ago, after a 15-hour flight delay for my MIA-GIG flight, I got a broken business class seat that would not recline at all on a $12,000 r/t ticket (and I have elite status). AA deemed that worth no more than a $300 future trip credit (which I doubt I will use since I don’t plan to fly AA anymore in light of that response).
You got very lucky indeed.
I specifically booked Qatar QSuites last November using the overpriced Alaska award rate (AA and BA weren’t showing availability for some reason) so that my wife, 1.5 year old and I could fly comfortably in the QSuites family bed from New York to India. The divider would not lock in the down position no matter what the pursers did. Our kid was awake, and by extension we were awake for most of the total flight time and we couldn’t use the QSuites family bed for its intended functionality and use. My wife and I took turns having our kid toss and turn in one of our seats while we sat on that small ottoman these Qsuites seats have or standing. When our kid couldn’t lie down anymore he would climb over the divider back and forth between our seats constantly. We might as well have been sitting in Economy for that matter as this was a full Business cabin so we couldn’t be moved to another side-by-side Qsuites.
The pursers were quite nice overall. When asked for any kind of compensation, they said they couldn’t do anything on board but we should contact the Doha business lounge staff. The lounge said to send an email. 4 months later we got an email response citing the usual corporate fluff.
We got no for of compensation. My wife was Oneworld Emerald while I was Oneworld Sapphire. Didn’t seem to matter clearly.
LOL Air Canada lost my suitcase on a flight from Geneva to New York / La Guardia via Montreal. They never found it. I guess it was stolen.
They offered me less than the maximum; about $1,000 vs. the max allowed of about $1,800. I had about $4,000 of belongings in it.
I sued them in small claims court. Their attorney responded immediately.
They paid the max.