Flyer calls out Air Canada for 'uncomfortable' non-reclining seats he paid full price for
An Air Canada passenger has put the airline on blast after he said he paid full price for a flight where his seat didn’t recline.
Ottawa resident Alexander Kats shared his experience on the Air Passenger Rights Facebook group on Monday.
Kats said he bought an all-inclusive vacation package from Montreal to Cozumel, Mexico, through Red Tag. It included a round-trip Air Canada flight.
He told Daily Hive over the phone that when he booked the flights, there was no mention of non-reclining seats and at no point was he notified about it by Red Tag or the airline. Kats said he only found out the seats didn’t recline when he boarded the flight last month.
“The last thing I expected to see were these benches, not seats… and then I found out it didn’t recline,” he told Daily Hive.
In addition to the seats being fixed for the whole flight, Kats recalled them being hard and “extremely uncomfortable” to sit on.
“[Four hours] of flight became torture! I healed my back next two days,” he wrote in the Facebook post.
“It’s probably the worst flying experience in my entire life,” he added in the phone call with Daily Hive.
Kats explained that he was sitting in economy in the middle of the plane and that it looked to him that all of the seats were the same. He said that this was the first time he experienced seats that don’t recline on an Air Canada flight, despite being a regular customer of the airline.
In an email statement to Daily Hive, Air Canada said the flight Kats was on was one of the few aircraft the carrier had acquired earlier this year, which were initially configured for another airline.
The spokesperson said that the aircraft were “put into service immediately to provide the reliable capacity required to serve select leisure destinations.”
Non-reclining seats on Kats’ Air Canada flight to Cozumel, Mexico (Alexander Kats/Facebook)
Earlier this month, Air Canada announced major upgrades to its aircraft cabins in 2026. The carrier’s fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 8 will transition to Air Canada Rouge. Cabins will also get a refresh with 147 standard economy seats, 18 preferred extra legroom economy seats, and 12 business class seats. All of the seats will be reclining and will also include entertainment screens and free Wi-Fi for Aeroplan members.
The Air Canada spokesperson said they’re in the process of retrofitting the aircraft that Kats flew on with the new cabin design, “which includes reclining seats for all customers, personal IFE screens for passengers, and more.”
According to the spokesperson, the airline informs passengers of the scheduled aircraft fleet type when flights are booked.
“This includes a link to the aircanada.com website that shows the different layout and cabin details which may be experienced,” they stated.
Air Canada
However, Kats insisted that they were not notified about the non-reclining seats. He said he wished the carrier had been transparent about the situation and proposed some sort of compensation or discount.
He gave WestJet’s recent cabin upgrade as an example because it offers flyers various seating options at different price points.
According to the airline, the new economy seats will have adjustable headrests and enhanced cushion and back support with a fixed recline design that “helps preserve personal space.” This means that passengers who choose the economy class price point won’t be able to move their seats further back.
Flyers who want the option to adjust their reclining seats will need to shell out more cash.
Although WestJet’s upgrades haven’t been received well by some passengers, with one saying the ultra slim-line seats are “definitely a worse guest experience when the flights are full.”
In a response to Kats’ post, Air Passenger Rights advocacy group President Gabor Lukacs said if the flyer wanted to sue, Air Canada would try to argue that the Montreal Convention is preempting the passenger’s right to sue them.
Kats told Daily Hive that after this experience, he won’t be flying with Air Canada again if he can help it.
“Unfortunately, we are in Canada, and there is not much competition here,” he acknowledged.
With files from Irish Mae Silvestre