Air Canada is trying to make amends—with more free booze
If there’s one thing that makes us want to book air travel, it’s the prospect of drunker seatmates
It’s no secret that things have been tense at Air Canada. Back in August, employees briefly went on strike, grounding 130,000 daily passengers as flight attendants protested what they said were low wages and having to work without pay. Last month, staff voted against a new wage offer, saying they’d still make less than minimum wage, leaving travellers wary of being stranded (again) in the event of further disruption.
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The country’s biggest airline seems to be making an effort to win back the public, though, sharing in a press release this week that economy passengers can now order beer and wine for free on all flights. Previously, flights to Mexico and the Caribbean required passengers to pay for alcohol. (Complimentary beer and wine have been offered on flights across Canada and the US since 2024.)
The airline is also adding a little oat bar to its menu of complimentary pretzels and cookies, as well as those ginger wellness shots you get when you’re deathly hungover but want to convince your body it’s going to make it.
“These upgrades offer something for everyone and proudly showcase Canadian brands so that our customers can sit back, relax and kick-start their travels no matter where they’re going,” read the release.
“Where they’re going” does a lot of lifting here as a reported tens of thousands of people await refunds for cancelled flights. Maybe some free house red will help them forget.
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
