After a month back in Vancouver, I said goodbye to my amazing parents and my beloved gym and had to go home to pick up my favourite shirt from dry-cleaning.

In order to alleviate my parent’s concern that I would not be adequately distanced on the plane (as airlines recently have ceased blocking the middle seat) and for this review, I decided to fly business class back.

TDLR: While the hard product obviously remains mostly the same, the soft product has been substantially downgraded to adapt to the pandemic.

Disclaimer

A reminder that as of writing, the Canada – US border remains closed to all non-essential travel until the end of July, and that the Government of Canada has issued an Official Global Travel Advisory advising against all non-essential travel outside of Canada. Those who are returning to Canada from outside of its borders must quarantine (self-isolate) for 14 days, regardless of symptoms or lack thereof. Concurrently, several of Canada’s provinces/territories have asked travellers self-quarantine upon arrival. As of this flight, neither Ontario nor British Columbia has asked travellers to do so.

Flight: AC 118

Departing: Vancouver (YVR)

Arriving: Toronto (YYZ)

Operated by: Boeing 787

Cabin: Business Class (Air Canada Signature Suite)

Booking

Air Canada revamped its business class in 2018, introducing their new signature class service. I had previously flown their old, intra-North American business class, and was not impressed: it was just a bigger seat with a slightly fancier meal, and most certainly not worth its retail price.

Thus, when booking, always look for: “Includes lie-flat seats”, and let that website widget earn its money.

Check-In

As opposed to the desolate wasteland that was YYZ in June, YVR in July was beginning to reopen, albeit still at a scaled-down pace.

Still not quite a busy summer day at the Vancouver airport

Similar to many airports, YVR has mandated travellers must wear masks in public spaces, except when eating or drinking. As a cost-saving measure, YVR closed down the domestic terminal and combined all flights check-ins into the international terminal.

This did result in that terminal being a bit busier than expected, with long lines forming at the economy check-in, and a small line forming at premium check-in.

Pre-departure, there was quite a few open spots to grab food, though all non-food related shops were closed. Interestingly Tim’s was still open, otherwise this would have been a true Canadian apocalypse!

FYI: Tim’s is owned by RBI, of which Warren Buffet and a Brazilian Private Equity Giant maintain substantial control. Now you know who to blame for the lower donut quality!

Security

Screening was modified to accommodate the substantial decrease in demand, resulting in the decommissioning of the expedited lines for Visa Infinite (none for American Express Platinum card holders in YVR!), Nexus and other frequent travellers. Pre-security, all passengers were subject to a brief temperature check; expect security to be around 5-10 minutes, and be prepared to scan your own boarding passes.

Post Security

Post security, there were even fewer take out options available, though there was a newsstand open. Unfortunately, all lounges in the airport are understandably closed until further notice, and concurrently all Maple Leaf Lounges worldwide were closed.

So to compensate, please see below for a picture of one of my favourite lounges, the AMEX Centurion Lounge in Hong Kong. (Editors note: The wine bar at the American Express Centurion Lounge in San Francisco is great for an evening layover!)

Ahh, the old days were you could pretend to be sophisticated by snacking on Dim Sum, Macarons and fancy cakes, and then following up with several hand-made custom cocktails. Now even the water fountains are closed at the airports (as an understandable health measure).

The duty free was also closed, which meant I couldn’t purchase my $3,920 bottle of alcohol that I was going to open at my next housewarming party.

Boarding

As passengers already went through temperature checks are the gate, the boarding process involved having passengers lower their masks for identity checks and submitting their ID/tickets.

After entering the aircraft, I was directed to my seat, and noticed that there was the Clean Care+ package that had been so frequently advertised by Air Canada.

Inside was a bottle of water, hand sanitizer, two cleansing whips, a pair of gloves and of course, a face mask; please don’t mistaken the water bottle for a giant hand sanitizer dispenser like I did.

I did take a peek at the other classes, and noted that they were actually less full. I would estimate that business was at ~80% capacity, premium economy was at ~40% capacity, and economy at ~50% capacity. It did not look like anyone was forced to sit next to a stranger, although I am sure that in the coming weeks airlines will be making this uncomfortable decision.

Premium Economy – You might get fed and watered

The cabin featured 40 lie flat seats split into 2 sections, 24 recliner seats in premium economy and 336 economy seats. The business class seat was a Rockwell Collins Super Diamond Seat, with a length of around 2m long, or as the Canadian government likes to say, the length of a hockey stick.

I picked seat 9K at the recommendation of some fellow flyers: while is it closer to the service area, the bulkhead provides extra room for you as you get 2.5 windows as opposed to 2. I personally quite like the seat: it was spacious, well designed, and contained practical features like a reading light, individual air nozzles and multiple charging outlets. The one issue was the design of the tray table, which does take a while to get used to (there’s a latch on the bottom to move the table).

People whose travel companion isn’t their omnipresent Lenovo work laptop should be open to the middle seats, as there is a nifty divider that can be raised/lowered during the flight to ensure privacy.

The middle seat isn’t bad at the front of the plane

Special praise goes to the designer of the seat covering/filling: it was so comfortable that even without a customary blanket and pillow, I accidentally fell asleep before waking up to finish this review. That being said, the seat is a little bit less responsive than others I have been on, and so you’ll need to wait a bit before it adjusts.

Air Canada has maintained an onboard entertainment system for business class, and the screen looked quite sharp and was a touchscreen as well. As a more mainline carrier, Air Canada displayed its technological superiority over WestJet by displaying a very multicultural safety video on its entertainment system.

There is also Wi-Fi available on all Air Canada planes, provided by Gogo. Wi-Fi is $6.50 for 60 minutes, $21.00 for the flight and $65.95 for a month. Air Canada 75K and 100K Elite members can select free Wi-Fi as one of their qualifying privileges, although there are much better things to pick, such as gifting someone AC 35K.

Service

The crew performed quite well given the circumstances, remained efficient in their service and thought to minimize contact. That being said, especially as a premium class passenger, I did feel like the airline could have done a better job with the meal service (see later).

As so, we were off! Only 30 minutes behind schedule, which is quite impressive since almost no one is flying these days (this was actually due to a few late connections, not the fault of the crew).

The atmosphere on board was generally a bit more relaxed than my previous flight, though precautions were still being taken as everyone was wearing a mask and limiting contact with each other.

Around 30 minutes into the flight, meal service commenced. Now, different airlines have taken a different approach to this conundrum:

Turkish Airlines, famed for its on board chef and Instagram worthy display trolleys, has opted to create boxed lunches, though theoretically they would taste as great as their previous iteration.

Lufthansa and Emirates however, have made relatively few changes to their onboard catering service in business and first class: meals will be served together, with an increased use of single use packaging/utensils. Emirates did close down its onboard shower and bar though, so that’s one part of the experience that will be sorely missed.

Air Canada has gone to the extreme in terms of cutting down their onboard catering and beverage offering. Business class passengers were offered…well this: a chicken wrap from the Bistro, snacks, some overly sauced “salad” and water, pretty similar to what Nick received on his Air Canada Premium Rouge flight to Punta Cana. On the bright side, it was better than the water and biscuits that were offered to economy passengers (WestJet has similarly cut economy to water and biscuits).

I did inquire as to what beverages besides water were offered, and was told that there was...only water. So be warned overworked consultants, bankers, and other frequent flyers, there’s no reasons for you not to focus on work while on the plane. This runs a bit contrary to the Air Canada website, which promised actual meals and a reduced, but still existent, selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

Air Canada usually serves Laurent-Perrier Champagne, and usually offers several delectable dishes, designed by acclaimed Vancouver based Chef Hawksworth, in business like braised duck leg. While health concerns are most certainly a valid reason for cutting down on the service/catering options, I do feel like some overzealous consultant suggested this as a way to cut down on costs and conserve cash (Well, they are in desperate need of cash, as Nick argues in this article).

The bathroom on the plane was well maintained, and did not seem to see much use throughout the flight; one of the flight attendants did catch me taking a picture, and thankfully didn’t say anything. Air Canada’s washrooms did have a touch sensor sink, something that WestJet lacked and was great for ensuring cleanliness.

The flight attendants did come by twice during the flight to collect any garbage, and once more to distribute additional bottles of water.

Despite our late start, the flight was only 15 minutes behind schedule, dipping into Toronto’s dark skies for a smooth descent. Because I forgot to take any descent pictures, here’s a picture of why you should visit Vancouver when it’s safe to do so. (And maybe redeem your Marriott Bonvoy points at some of the many options socially distant friendly options)

The Point

Having been given 3 months to adjust to the new reality of flying, I would say that Air Canada has done quite well: never at any time in my flight did I feel like I was unsafe, nor did I feel like there was anything besides catering (a trivial matter given the current situation) that could have been changed for the better. Air Canada still has an excellent hard product with a great number of features, and the soft product is adequate for now. That being said, for anyone needing to fly right now, economy is more than an acceptable option for domestic hops, particularly given the toned down service offerings across the industry.

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