Sep 1

Sep 1 Air Canada Airbus 321 Economy Review - Toronto to Vancouver

Given everyone is basically covering business class on Air Canada (here, here, and of course here on our own blog), I thought it was time to see what the everyday traveler experiences. What was supposed to be an uneventful trip turned into quite the journey due to flight cancellations and crew delays, which is why I will be splitting this blog into the Story section and Flight section. Before reading onwards, a few key resources for understanding your rights as a passenger: a summarized version of passenger rights from Air Canada, along with the longer but more official explanation in plain English of your rights.

Flight: AC 129

Departing: Toronto (YYZ)Vancouver (YVR)

Arriving: Vancouver (YVR)

Operated by: Airbus 321

Cabin: Economy Class

The Story

My journey back home began on the 900 bus route, an affordable option that connects to both Toronto’s subway (TTC) and Toronto Pearson’s terminals. Having not been in Terminal 1 in a while, I merrily strolled up to some doors only to realize that is was…closed.

*Not sure about the logic of forcing people through fewer exits.*

This was despite the fact that travel appeared to be coming back, with hotels, taxis and even buses once again being packed, a completely different experience from my flight one year back.

Upon entering terminal one, I was happy to see that there once again were other carriers flying, notably United and Emirates. Spoiler, one is definitely better than the other, though I haven’t experienced Emirates yet.

*Emirates red is one of my favorite colors!*

We have all seen reports that domestic air travel is “coming back”, but nothing like a demonstration to cement the idea.

As an AC shareholder: nice. As a traveller: ouch — *As an AC shareholder: nice. As a traveler: ouch*

Thankfully, priority check in was still open for Air Canada Elite Status holders, as well as certain ticket types. This was a lot more empty, and I quickly made my way through…until the first disaster struck .

My flight was cancelled due to crew constraints! The reason will be important later on, and one can only receive compensation if the delay is within an airline’s control. While this includes items like overbooked flights, scheduling, flight cleaning and routine maintenance, this does not include emergency repairs and issues outside of the airlines control. Richard had a similar experience, and he unfortunately was unable to get his insurance to cover it.

I was shortly rebooked onto the 8:30PM flight, which meant at first the flight was only delayed by 2.5 hours. Nevertheless, I was still entitled to some food and drink, and asked the front desk for that - the agent kindly obliged.

Funnily enough, while the Terminal was extremely crowded, the security line was short; now we know why! Priority security clearance once again commenced for Business class passengers and NEXUS card holders.

Past security, everything bar the shoe shine stand was once again open. There were particualrly long lines at food outlets, such as Tim Hortons and A&W. I was about to enter, until I saw a $7 breakfast wrap. If that isn’t inflation Tiff Macklem (Canada’s central bank governor), then what is?

Or even more mind boggling a $14 salad. To paraphrase: What are these salads? They cure cancer? The salads did cure cancer, that's the problem, that's why they were so expensive.

While it may seem frivolous devoting such a large part of the article to the ground experience, this is probably the largest part of the travel experience we have not yet covered on the blog. I ended up getting a Pad See Ew from Thai Express.

Storytime: My first time in Toronto was as a high school student competing in a “Reach for the Top” quiz bowl type of competition. Being on a student budget, I couldn’t find anything more appetizing, decided to order this, and hope in the future to be able to afford something better. Well, it turned out to taste pretty good, which is why I kept ordering these even though I somehow turned into a professional. That being said, similar to other restaurants at Pearson, the wait was more than 25 minutes to get served.

One funny this is that while YVR’s water fountains were open, YYZ’s were closed; thus, we can say that the pandemic is more intense in Ontario! Before you judge, the White House has a Waffle House Index for the severity of hurricanes, and the Economist has a Big Mac index for Purchasing Power Parity, so the water fountain index isnt completely unfounded.

*These still give water, though I’m not sure one wants to drink*

It was at this point another piece of bad news came: my new flight was delayed again due to a flight attendant being late. Now, for anyone thinking that flight attendants are just highly paid waiters / waitresses, think again: they are there for people’s safety, and need to go through intense initial training and subsequent refresher courses.

The one good thing is that this pushed my flight over the 3 hour delay mark, which meant that theoretically we could get compensated for our delays.

https://otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/air-passenger-protection-regulations-highlights

There was subsequently another delay, which pushed our flight back to 10PM. Over the PA, there were additional announcements of flight cancellations: passengers were told to keep the receipts for food and hotels to submit for reimbursement. On the bright side, that means more time admiring our plane!

Finally, it was time to board! Only 3.5 hours behind schedule. I am sure everyone was hoping we would leave on time, until…

The flight was once again delayed due to Terminal occupancy constraints causing passengers to be late. At this point, it was getting a bit ridiculous. On the bright side, my friend made this fantastic meme for me while I waited.

During that time, the flight attendants did pass out water and snacks. Let me be clear: as the meme suggests, this is not the fault of individual pilots, flight attendants and support workers, this is management failing to forecast properly. Given that Spirit and American Airlines had cancelled flights in the prior week, this is not an isolated Air Canada issue. However, I do fault them for not planning ahead - should have a hired a CONSULTANT.

The Flight

The plane I was supposed to be on swapped from a 787 Dreamliner over to an older model Airbus A321. While the changes in economy seating were negligible, business class moved from lie flat over to… this.

Economy class seating was arranged in a 3-3 setting, and on this flight literally every seat was full. That’s right, beyond charging outrageous prices, you’ll have to contend with full flights.

The seat itself has ~32 inches of pitch, and for a 178cm male, was absolutely fine.

However, I had noticed that the window had a stain on it; with cleaning clothes no longer being handed out, this was a tad annoying.

As mentioned, sustenance for the flight included water and a granola bar, although Air Canada has once resumed buy on board for both food and drink. As for a classic toilet tour, see below: note that given this was an older model, there was no touch sensor, although there were patches of hand sanitizer.

Not wanting to end the blog off on a picture of a toilet, please see below for a picture of lovely Vancouver.

Conclusion

Air Canada has a flight compensation checker here. However, as consumers we must hold airlines to account. The economy class was adequate: comfortable and safe. Nicholas and I will write a subsequent blog on our attempts at getting compensation for the delays soon.