For my first long-haul flight since the beginning of the pandemic, I wanted to do a full review of our flight from Toronto to Santiago, Chile on Air Canada’s Boeing 787-9 in the business class Signature Suite. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, it was time to travel. My partner and myself decided that triple vaxxed, and recently recovered, it was time to go on our first long haul trip. After looking at the countries and cities where I’d have an easily accessible office to work from, I decided on Santiago, Chile. It ticked many of the boxes, dry heat, long days, relatively safe, similar time zone, and affordable points / cash hotels. Even better, Air Canada flies direct to Santiago from Toronto. 

Booking.

Air Canada operates AC92, a thrice-weekly service from Toronto to Santiago, departing Toronto at 10:55 PM and arriving in Santiago the next morning at 10:15 AM (11:15 AM during daylight savings time). The service is operated by a Boeing 787-9 with 298 seats, including 30 in business and 21 premium economy seats. 

If I were to book economy flights on this service, direct flights can be found for a reasonable ~$1240 (I wrote this a month ago, and the flights have gone up by $140 across the board, expect that to be the case across the board), even only a few days in advance. 

That said, this is a premium heavy route (owing to the mining companies in Chile and large mining concentration on the TSX) and business class does sell out. When you can find tickets, they generally are priced at about $5000 for a round trip ticket. 

Instead, I booked my flights using the Air Canada Aeroplan program. Easily accessible to Canadians, this program eliminated pesky award fees in 2020 that plagued the program in the past. While I was able to snag a seat for 56.9K Aeroplan Points and less than $60 (That’s about 4 CPP, not bad value!), the new flexible aspect of the Aeroplan program means that seats can go for over 200k points each way in Business Class. 

Additionally, because of those pesky fees, I had about 70k United Mileage Plus miles in my account that I was using for Air Canada flights prior to the new program rolling out. I decided to book another seat using 69k Miles, so I could consolidate my miles. While it’s great to be flexible with different currencies, in general, United doesn’t open up many opportunities for me. 

The Airport 

While many people don’t enjoy Pearson Airport, I actually think it’s a solid airport. It was pretty quiet for the late-night departure, and the exclusive Air Canada business check-in meant we were able to quickly check-in bags for the flight. 

After going through priority security, we headed to the Air Canada International Maple Leaf Lounge. I’ve done lounge reviews of both Ottawa and Toronto’s domestic lounges, so I won’t bother with another one, but the gist is that you shouldn’t expect too much. In addition to a few snacks on offer, like cookies and small wraps, there were a few hot dishes, that I didn’t try. 

It was rather empty, as it was closing after our flight boarded, but this lounge can get busy. Besides a bar, that had a few beers, including Guinness, on tap, there were a variety of chips out for snacking purposes. After about an hour in the lounge, we received a text that our plane was boarding. 

The Plane 

We were flying Air Canada’s 787-9 Dreamliner onward to Santiago. Boarding started with Zone 1 on time. I got to my seat, 3G, and settled down.  I was likely the only person who had a backpack in Business class. 

My seat had the pillow, blanket, and bottom sheet. 

Additionally, I was given the Want Les Essentials pack when I sat down. The Vitruvi stuff was interesting, as the Vancouver-based company had skincare essentials. What I did like, was the cool glasses towel, that’s a nice, unique, “Canadian” touch. 

I put most of my stuff in the little cubby, with the USB charger, headphone jack, and a Canadian / Europe electric plug. 

The seat was just the same as my seat on my flight to Vancouver (at least my camera has improved), so I won’t go much further on that, but it’s a good seat, but as someone who’s 6’2”, it’s a little bit tight for a guy like me. 

I also went to check out the bathroom, which wasn’t very “business” like. It was messy the whole flight, much like the bathroom for economy. 

Service

While I must say, there is always something like home when I fly Air Canada. It’s the home carrier, and it’s nice to hear the familiar English, French and third language when I’m flying to / away from somewhere. That said, I would call the flight attendants very professional. They got what was done, when it needed to be done. That said, they’re not exciting, or “funny” like you’d get with West Jet. 

Our menu on the flight was as follows: 

I choose the beef tenderloin, which was served about 45 minutes after takeoff on one tray, with the covers on. 

Honestly, the meal was fine. I would say my flights later in the month to Vancouver were better. As they were plated and not served covered. This flight was in early March on the same plane. This is likely the new normal going forward, although I’m disappointed to say the bread still isn’t warm.

The rest of the night was uneventful, after dinner, I fell asleep for over 6 hours. As we approached Santiago, the flight attendants woke me for breakfast, an overly sugary pancake and “fruit” compete. 

The Point

As we cruised into Santiago for the first time, coming in over the Andes, I’m happy to say we were able to take the direct flight on Air Canada’s Dreamliner in the Signature Suite. Arriving at Santiago’s airport with their rigorous testing was a lot better on a direct flight.

Was it a “wow” experience, no, but it’s a solid business class product, with friendly, professional Canadian service. If you’re headed to South America from Toronto, I wouldn’t hesitate to fly with Air Canada again.