For my long haul flight back home from Athens my connecting flight was on Air Canada. Athens had a nice medium sized airport and I was rushed thru getting to my gate which was already boarding.

At the boarding gate they were checking passports again for North America passport control to avoid airlines getting fined for passengers without proper documentation. I had an interesting exchange with the airline official.

She asked where I went so I replied Skopje, Ohrid, Thessaloniki and I was travelling the Balkans. Her startling reply was "Why did you goto Skopje, Ohrid, Thessaloniki?? I would never go. Too many wars there, why don't you go somewhere nice??!!"

Wow, locals dont appreciate what they have and are too caught up in the history. I found that really quite amusing. This was my fourth time in the Yugoslav countries, second time in both Macedonia and Greece, and by no means my last.

This was my first time in mainland Greece having only been to the island Kos before. Everyone was very friendly and hospitable and none of the worrysome news reports of the Greek financial crisis of rioting, protests, and bankrupt businesses.

The big surprise of the trip by far was Albania. On all my Balkan trips I made a conscious effort to avoid that country, so dire was its reputation from BBC News of being "Europe's poorest country" and Michael Palin's "New Europe" portraying it as a backwater. Albania in fact is more modernized than its Balkan neighbours and has had a better economic recovery in recent years then its neighbours.

My guide book calls it "Europes last and best kept secret" and they didnt exaggerate. I'm already planning more trips back to Albania to visit places I couldnt fit on this trip. I made it thru the three land border crossings without any mishaps despite the lack of reliable online information for getting into Macedonia on the refugee route, and getting out from Lake Ohrid.

Getting back to my long haul flight, Air Canada Rouge is in fact a 'no frills' type carrier for this long haul route. The staff were all young and wore jazzy uniforms with smart hats. Their nametags also had their hometowns.

Upon taking my seat first discovery there was no tv, for a 12 hour flight!! I tried to use their onboard wifi but it wouldnt connect. After take off they didnt serve any drinks as they normally do. First priority was to block aisles with carts to rent ipads and charge each passengers credit card.

Guess what, they ran out 12 rows ahead. Nothing to drink, nothing to watch, I was furious. This is a very poorly planned service on a long haul route that was full of a lot of seniors that dont even get a glass of water.

I wrote a letter of complaint to Air Canada.

--Message--
Subject: Very Poor Planning for Rouge In Flight Service for Long Haul

Message: I recently flew Air Canada Rouge long haul from ATH to YYZ a 12 hour trip. I was seated on the back in seat 48k. I was looking forward to selecting a movie, brought my own headphones, and expected a drink after take off. Instead there was no tv and i was wondering what i was supposed to do for 12 hours?? A while later they announced they would be renting out ipads for $10. Fine. They started at the front and slowly came thru the aisles taking their time to charge each credit card and print the receipt. Towards the end of rows 30s they stopped. I was wondering if they would bring back more. I while later i asked an attendent what was going on with the ipads. The wifi on board also was not connecting. I got mixed answers that they ran out of ipads/ not fully charged/ system is not fully booted from take off. i and other passenger were still waiting for a drink. I"m only asking for a glass of water not wine. it seems the priority was to go thru each row slowly charging credit cards to rent the ipads while leaving everyone parched. There were many seniors on this flight. you have the passenger list with DOBs so you can see how many elderly. it is reasonable to make everyone wait almost two hours just for a glass of water while you rent out your ipads, which you obviously didnt anticipate for and have enough to begin with. only with meal service 2 hrs into flight were we given personal water bottles. I didnt know you had to rent ipads. when booking on expedia there was no message or option to upgrade for $10. nor was any email sent asking me the option to upgrade either. This would let you anticipate the # required and have the correct # on the flight. I wanted to ask the attendent if they were fully charged and what happens if they battery runs out but didnt get the chance as you ran out of ipads.I had cheaper flight options with British Airways, Air France, or American Airlines, but i PAID MORE for a direct flight as i didnt want long connections. despite paying MORE i recd INFERIOR in flight service than i would have on any of those national carriers.

you can see on my aeroplan in April i flew YYZ-FRA-LED // ARN-FRA-YYZ. These are competing Star Alliance long haul flights. i have never experience this type of service on a long haul flight with nothing to drink for two hours and trying to run each passengers credit card thru while leaving rows 38 onwards with no in flight entertainment.

as you can see i am a frequent traveller. if you want to provide this type of service on long haul flights, compete with Star Alliance and other long haul carriers, and expect me to fly again with AC Rouge, then you can provide me with a free ipad for the inconvenience everyone in the last dozen rows, many of them seniors, experienced. your Execs only look at spreadsheets, making poor decisions, thinking they can charge $10 x 48 rows for $3000+ in extra revenue, when they dont anticipate the logistics of having the correct # of fully charged ipads. this is a poor decision looking at profit over quality. if you want to run a 'budget no frills airline' on long haul 12 hour routes full of seniors where your priority is to make up revenues by renting ipads instead of offering water on take off, this model is sure to collapse. NOBODY does this by not providing even a glass of water for 2 hours wiht a plane full of seniors. this is a VERY POORLY PLANNED SERVICE FOR A 12 HR LONG HAUL FLIGHT. I am an active travel blogger with a global readership (google me) and i will be writing about my experience. you can provide me with a free ipad if you expect me to book agian for long haul with this type of service, never mind tracking down all the seniors to give them a free water bottle!

Here is the response I received from Air Canada

Thank you for your email regarding Air Canada’s leisure carrier, Air Canada rouge. We appreciate the opportunity to address your valued feedback.

Air Canada looked carefully at the routes we were flying and which to operate with our leisure carrier Air Canada rouge. Air Canada rouge will service new routes and continue to service routes converted from Air Canada to take better advantage of those markets.

The mainline Air Canada product cannot make money in these routes given the competitive offerings and pricing. Rather than abandon the routes entirely, Air Canada rouge can provide a competitive product at competitive prices offering a a highly enjoyable travel experience with new, comfortable seats and options for food service and inflight entertainment. We regret that the ipads did not make it past row 30, as you have mentioned and assure you it is not our intend to upset passengers in any way.

We expect our in-flight crew to be readily available to take care of our customers' needs in a helpful and courteous manner. Regretfully, from what you have told us, this was not your experience.

Please be assured that your comments have been forwarded to the In-flight management team for internal review.

As a gesture of goodwill, we are pleased to offer you a one time saving of 15% off of the base fare on your next booking at aircanada.com.

To receive your discount, enter the one time use Promotion Code in the Promo Code box at www.aircanada.com when you make your booking. This offer is valid for one year from today.

This means the booking and travel must be completed within the year. It is available on a new booking only and applies to a maximum of two passengers, provided both passengers are booked at the same time.

The promo code applies exclusively to undiscounted published fares on Air Canada, Air Canada Express and Air Canada rouge. Some of our previously discounted fares, while not eligible for the promotion, may be lower than the final price of the undiscounted fare to which the promotion applies. Flight pass purchases are not eligible for the discount and promo codes cannot be combined with other discount codes. Please note the fare displayed on the Select Flights screen will reflect the discount rounded to the nearest dollar.

Thank you once again, for taking the time to share your experience. We value your business and your loyalty and we hope for another opportunity to provide you with a more pleasurable travel experience in the very near future.

Sincerely, Customer Relations

So it does pay to complain if you have valid grounds. Too bad an otherwise unspoilt trip had to end on a sour note. Time to plan the next trip to make use of all my air mile bonuses and now an airline booking credit!