V-Flyer

This is my first trip on Air Canada, and I have mixed feelings about this. As youll see, I had zero luck booking anything to Toronto with VS via any of their east coast destinations, so it looks like Ill be flying with the dark side sometime soon. Check in at Heathrow was courtesy of a check in desk at the front of section D. Its apparently a trial theyre running at the moment although exactly what is being trialled, Im not sure... Ive not checked in for Air Canada at any other desk before, so cant comment on the benefits or disadvantages! However, there were 2 desks available and it was a speedy process. It turns out that Air Canada have a 23kg limit on each piece of baggage, even if youre in business class, unlike the 32kg VS allow you per piece in UC/PE. (The allowance is 3 pieces). I was convinced my bag would be over the weight limit, and was preparing to offload some of my stuff into a sports bag that was tucked into the top of my suitcase, but it turns out Id hit the 23kg limit right on the nose at 23.0kg... Hows that for unplanned efficiency! One observation I did make was how claustrophobic the check in desks at zones B-G (?) are compared to the Virgin desks in Zone A. The low ceilings, cramped surroundings, plethora of tensa-barriers and proportion of security staff to passengers makes for a far more stressful check in experience. The new Executive First check in area is at the front of bay D, which means its not quite as bad... but its very small and there is a lack of queuing area at the front of it, meaning if the two check in desks are oversubscribed, it could get crowded annoyingly quickly.

Got to the fast track channel to find exactly no one in front of us... but all the barriers still up ??? So the pair of us race like childish lunatics around the assault course so kindly provided by BAA security services, to much amusement of the waiting security staff. (Imagine how TSA staff might react to the same immature delight in irritating and pointless obstacles). We emerged the other side of the xray and body scanner intact and without incident, which only served to upset my boss when he heard the guy who followed us being pulled aside to have his bag searched. Cue some facetious teasing of the security chap: What do you mean you want to search his bag whats wrong with mine? Well sir, we wanted to search his because his is ... er ... real leather. Thats not important mines made by Tumi. TUMI! Do you know how expensive that is?! Thats more than a weeks overtime on your wages!!!!. Once again, I wonder how the TSA would have reacted to that. In spite of my prompting, the security scanner blokey declined to take my boss aside for a body cavity search to pay for his impudence. (Perhaps because I also suggested my boss might actually enjoy that kind of experience).

Straight through the melee that is T3s shopping mall and into the London Lounge. Not much better than the shopping mall outside, in fact somewhat akin to a branch of Prt A Manger at lunchtime. (Ok, maybe a branch of Prt A Manger thats been redecorated by Ikea). Lots and lots of people heading off to a variety of destinations on a variety of carriers, and hardly a seat free. There is an ok salad bar type buffet, which sadly has nothing on other lounges such as the Star Alliance lounge in T1, the BA Terraces in T5, and of course, nothing like the Clubhouse.

Eventually we realised the only flight they were announcing was the Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi, and that wed been given a false sense of security by the 5 minute updates to the boarding process for this flight, and that in fact our flight was now in the process of closing. Not only this, it was closing boarding at gate 42 the farthest gate from the lounge possible. The aircraft may as well have been parked at Gatwick. Cue some frantic speed walking down travellators past troupes of sweatpant clad grannies, and onto the plane. A pitifully small half-glass of champagne was delivered (real champagne, though!) and preparations were made for departure.

Tis my first time on Air Canada. Their Executive First pod is rather similar to the Upper Class Suite, as others have commented in the past. A few comparisons, then. The seat is harder, and the wall dividers are higher. The materials used to make it are not as flashy as the UCS there is no leather, no metallic paint on the fibreglass, the angles are more abrupt than swooping. There are some nice touches... there is a fair bit more elbow room. There is a cocktail shelf moulded into the aft wall, with a small accessories shelf below it that has a bottle of water waiting. Two pockets contain reading materials, safety cards, seat operation instructions, a proper magazine (gasp!). The table is not as big, but it operates purely on a mechanical spring-loaded mechanism from behind a pull-out panel, meaning there is no electrical catch to go wrong. The table is, nicely, just wide enough to accommodate my laptop as well as a meal tray, if youre willing to put the meal tray around the wrong way i.e. rotated through 90. The finish on the pods is far more resilient to knocks and scratches, meaning they are not going to look tired and in need of renovation so quickly. The seats recline!!!! Ok, when fully down into bed mode, there are perpendicular ridges across the bed where the cushions join, but somehow this isnt a problem... the cushions are firm yet plenty soft enough, and these ridges seem to fall naturally where my bodys ridges fall... legs, body, arms, head all find a comfortable position for my post-lunch slumber. Some people on flatseats.com have complained about the seat cushions being hard, but I find the level of squishyness to be quite good. I am, however, getting quite a sore back now. This is however a common complaint I have with airline seats in business class (less so economy) and has more to do with the shape of the seats. The seat controls are a little daunting, as there are 7 buttons offering 13 different control options that vary the headrest, footrest, recline, bed/seat conversion, lumbar depth and height, and massage options according to your requirement.

There is a bar, however its a self service set of shelves in the galley section by doors 2, and usually is surrounded by cabin crew sitting on the crew seats, meaning its really not conducive to hanging around and nattering in fact there is no facility for doing so. One thing I do like is that the loos have windows in! I got a curious pleasure out of sitting on the throne and peering out at 37,000 feet. The amenity kit is pitiful the Virgin economy kit is better. Furthermore, there are no baskets of goodies with which to top up with things you need like lip balm, meaning all you get is socks, eyeshades (enfused with Thyme to give you a good flights sleep), ear plugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, all delivered in a transparent plastic pouch.

The service is very different to Virgin. At first I was a little unimpressed, as initially it seemed detached and uncaring. As the flight has gone on, Ive warmed to the cabin crew, as they are actually quite attentive and rapid to respond, yet they remain discreet, and the service is not showy or gimmicky. The crew are more mature, and show that quality of service thats common with other legacy carriers such as BA. They create a subtle bond with passengers that shows they are quick to respond to your needs, and are attentive without being overbearingly so. There is no disrespectful chitchat, no over-familiarity, just a quiet and understated level of service that is pretty much right on the nose for me. It might have been nice if they had made a little more effort to address passengers by name it is possibly a little anonymous, but overall its very respectful and attentive. The food is ok, nothing to write home about. The menu is unadventurous, and in fact the food that is served up barely matches the description on the menu card. Shrimp salad (7 solitary prawns scattered on a bed of limp lettuce and rocket, some of which is decidedly dark and past its best), a tasteless chicken breast in a bland wild mushroom sauce with green beans and potatoes, and a tiramisu a sponge cake soaked in liquor and covered in whipped something, followed by a portion of cheeses with some damp biscuits and some cold warmed rolls. The snack before landing (which has just been served and is sharing my tray table with my laptop as I type this) is some small sandwiches, a tiny scone with clotted cream and jam, and wine, soft drinks and tea/coffee. All in all the catering is much on a par with what I had the last time I was in UC, except oh the cabin crew have just been around again with a huge basket of the scones, in case one wasnt enough.

The inflight entertainment is comparatively poor compared to V:Port, although the system does have a few advantages. For starters, the screen is bigger and crisper, and it has touch screen control. In fact, most of the controlling has to be done by touch screen, and this means to you have to lean forwards quite a bit in order to control your entertainment. The choices are not great not nearly as wide as Virgin or even BA, but then again, I compare them to other carriers and actually it aint that bad. I just looked up to see a full screen photo of Will Ferrels penis lingering on my screen, which was a little surprising... Im listening to his stand up routine in the background, but I dont think I was expecting that! The noise cancelling headphones are genuine branded Sennheisers, but they are hard wired into the seat, meaning you cant unplug them and stow them out of the way. They are really not that great in spite of being noise cancelling, there is still plenty of background ambient noise, and the sound quality is not what I associate with Sennheisers. In fact they're not even as good as the unbranded headphones you get in UC on VS. When you board they are naked but there is a packet with some foam pads in, which you have to attach yourself. I tore my first pad when stretching it over the headphones, and its not a great customer experience having to do this yourself, but I imagine it saves the airline a fair bit of cash. There is a socket for plugging in your own headset, and Ive been using my Shure ec3s, as they actually block a lot more noise and sound a lot better. They also make a much better job of highlighting how much electrical noise is generated by the IFE system, which is quite annoying when there is a quiet moment in whatever youre watching. Unlike V:Port, where I have to keep the volume to the bare minimum or risk being deafened, with this system, Ive had it on pretty much full volume the whole time.

The flight is fairly full. The A zone was completely full, and so we are seated in the B Zone, where there are 5 free seats. Im doing my best to ignore the elderly and portly passenger sitting across the aisle from me, which is of course kinda hard given the herringbone layout, but he keeps coughing and clearing his throat in a manner that sounds like gargling vomit, every 30 seconds or so, which is wearing a little thin six hours into the flight.

In all, its been nothing spectacular, but still a darn sight better than economy, and probably better than Air India (which was the only other direct option within our travel budget although we could have had first class with them for less than we paid for business on AC) or flying via AMS or CDG. Itll be interesting to see how the overnight flight home is next week.
Apologies for length, I couldnt help it, too bored due to lack of interesting options on the IFE and no work to do in flight thanks to our clients failing to send over the documentation they were supposed to

Hope this is of some help to anyone thinking of flying AC. Tis a shame there is no option of flying to Canada on a VS partner these days, at least not that I could find. I even called VS to see whether they could route me via one of their east coast destinations, but they seemed remarkably uninterested, and told me that yes they could, but it would take them TWO DAYS to confirm the connection between BOS/NYC to YYZ as it would be on another carrier. Er I thought computers had the ability to talk to each other these days, silly me.
Right were descending. Enough from me.

~~~wavy lines denote small passing of time~~


Toronto airport: New terminal opened since I was last here, and very nice it is too... although much like any other new airport (Bangkok/T5/Warsaw all spring to mind). Immigration officer is friendly and smiley, but does want to know who is paying me while Im working in Canada and how does that all operate... they seem to be very hot on taxation here, as well as rights to work etc.
Baggage collection is a bit of a farce. The baggage belt is the fastest running baggage carousel Ive ever seen, and this extends to the belt that brings the luggage from the depths of the airport. The bags almost fly out of the hatch, and speed past on the belt at a rate of knots that pretty much make it impossible to identify your black 22 rolling luggage against anyone elses black 22 rolling luggage. Suddenly those garish luggage straps or little fluorescent ribbons that have been stolen from your daughters pigtails and attached to handles make so much more sense. I thank the gods for my sense of style, which prevents me joining the masses of 22 black rolling luggage owners, and pluck my bag from the conveyor. Boss is not quite so lucky. Conveniently for him, the luggage is being piled onto the belt so quickly that when coupled with peoples inability to identify and remove their bags, a situation rapidly develops that bears a distinct resemblance to Lagos rush hour. The belt grinds to a halt, baggage personnel mount the conveyor and redistribute whilst frantic travellers scout for their possessions. Bosss bags finally located, we emerge triumphant into the arrivals hall, to be greeted by a live music performance by some MOR rock/pop outfit blasting the waiting crowds. Very surreal.

Interesting read - I've heard other people say that AC are just average...

Thanks for the report, nice to read a different airline that we do not get to read about that often.

Dominic

Thanks for the TR! Nice to hear about other airlines.