World Traveller 73 
Review: Air Canada Signature Business Class B777-300 ER, Toronto – Vancouver
My returning flight home from this particular trip was on Air Canada’s Signature Business Class Boeing 777 – 300 ER product. This aircraft offered Air Canada’s best Business Class seat that is typically used on international flights. This cabin is marketed as Air Canada Signature Class on some domestic routes. For some strange reason, this was the cheapest flight of the day, likely due to it’s first in the morning departure time outside of the usual business travel hours.
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Review: Air Canada Signature Business Class B777-300 ER, Toronto Pearson International Airport – Vancouver International Airport
My returning flight home departed early in the morning from the Toronto International Airport – Terminal One. Today’s flight was on Air Canada’s Signature Business Class on their Boeing 777 – 300 ER product. Air Canada markets its best domestic flights as Signature Class; these flights include a fully flat reverse herringbone seat.
After having a late night and early rise at the nearby Westin Toronto Airport hotel, I travelled back to the Toronto International Airport by rental vehicle. I had an early 8 AM flight leaving Toronto, so the airport was just getting going at the early hour when I pulled into Hertz at 6:05 AM.
I was pretty tired at this point, having driven over 625 kilometres across southern Ontario for a series of business meetings. I was looking forward to getting on board and relaxing all the way home.
Checking into Air Canada Business Class:
As per usual, I checked in using the Air Canada app through my smartphone about 23 hours in advance. The Air Canada Business Class cabin on the Boeing 777-300 ER is split into two separate cabins. The first cabin stretches from row 1- 7, whereas the second cabin stretches across 4 rows between row 8 – 11.
I received my pre-assigned seat (10K) on the shady “non sunny” side of the plane. I usually prefer to travel closer to the front of the aircraft in the larger cabin. This second cabin seating made for a nice change of pace.
Consistent with a paid Air Canada Business Class ticket, I was placed into boarding group 1, which was the highest possible boarding group.
After checking in through the Air Canada App, I was able to see the upgrade lists. The popular Toronto to Vancouver flight has gotten exceptionally hard to upgrade on with Air Canada E-Upgrade Instruments, unlike when I flew this route during the pandemic. Today, there are often 15 or more persons waiting for an e-upgrade; competing for a single digit handful of seats.
There were also a fair amount of standbys waiting to get aboard. As a result of this being a wide body aircraft that would be more likely to go out with empty seats.
After getting to the airport, I was travelling with my work colleague for this particular flight. We had a bit of baggage to check as a result of traveling with trade supplies. Heading over to the dedicated Air Canada Business Class check in located on the far right hand side of the airport ,we used my complimentary 2 free checked baggage allowance that was included with my business class ticket.
After dropping the bags, we headed through security. There’s typically a very large security screening line at the Toronto International Airport. Although I had priority security screening with the Air Canada Business Class ticket, and was able to use the Priority Screening Lanes courtesy of the American Express Platinum Card, there was also a Nexus Lane available in addition to the general boarding lane. The Nexus Lane ended up being the shortest of the four lanes, whereas my colleague ended up in the general line as he was flying in economy and didn’t hold any of the memberships or nexus card(s).
After security, we briefly stopped by the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge – Toronto Domestic to pick up a quick coffee. Since I had reviewed that lounge before, and it’s a regular stop on my travels, I won’t review it again. I had complimentary access with my Air Canada Business Class ticket, and I ended up using a Aeroplan Elite Maple Leaf Lounge one time day pass for my colleague, since I had several expire last year.
Boarding Air Canada:
At about thirty five minutes prior boarding, we left the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge and headed down to the gate. Regretfully, we found a massive amount of people standing around the gate area, which quickly meant that there no plane ready to go.
We had a gate announcement that the assigned aircraft had gone mechanical. Air Canada was in the process of towing over another substitute Boeing 777-300 ER to our gate 128. Given that Toronto Pearson is such a spread out airport, this took a little time to get the aircraft towed up to the gate.
We had a further delay waiting for the ground crew to cater and load the plane with food, followed by the usual baggage delays in loading all the cargo onto the aircraft. The delays ended up being approximately 75 minutes. Given Air Canada’s on time performance being ranked lowest of the major carriers for 2003 at 63%, I’ve come to expect these sorts of delays when travelling with Air Canada.
Air Canada
AC 189 – Business Class (Z)
YYZ – YVR (Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminal One – Vancouver International Airport)
Sept 20, 2024
Scheduled: 8:05 AM – 10:04 AM / Actual: 9:16 AM – 10:54 AM
Booked: Boeing 777-300 ER
Flown: Boeing 777-300 ER
On Board Air Canada Business Class:
A few times a day, Air Canada frequently flies it’s largest capacity aircraft on a domestic route between Toronto and Vancouver. Today’s flight was on the second highest capacity Air Canada Boeing 777- 300 ER. Thankfully, I was not flying in the back on the Air Canada High Density Boeing 777 – 300 ER, which is incredibly unpopular.
Like most other Air Canada aircraft, this aircraft features the Collins Aerospace Business Class seat, which offers a reverse herringbone fully flat seat. The suite offered a reasonable amount of personal space to allow for relaxing and working.
There was a pillow and blanket waiting for me on the seat when I arrived. I ended up settling into seat 10K. Given that I was in the second cabin, there were no travellers that ended up across aisle from me in 8G and 9G.
I was initially assigned into 9K, which was located in the second cabin bulkhead. Since this was close to the galley and washroom, I ended up moving myself back a row during seat assignment at purchase. I don’t particularly enjoy the bulkhead seats or the noise from the galley. I was happy to move myself away as much as possible.
The Air Canada wide body cabin still looks great after being in service for many years. The whites, blacks and greys look contemporary and professional and far better looking than United Polaris Business Class’s grey’s and blues, in my humble opinion.
The Air Canada Business Class cabin seat offers a compartment for storage and charging of devices. The compartment also contains a wired remote which can control the in flight entertainment system.
The compartment is a generous size, and it easily swallows up my wallet, cell phone and computer chargers. The compartment contains a standard empower plug in, along with USB – B charge ports.
The seat itself also offers a large 18 inch monitor, which is touch screen. It’s typically easier to control the entertainment system through the touch screen.
The Air Canada Business Class seat is super comfortable. The space is functional and fits well on an ergonomic basis. Having a spacious reverse herribone seat is much more comfortable when flying five hours on a trans continental flight than an upright barca-lounger seat. If you can find a wide body aircraft for your transcontinental flight and the price is right, I highly recommend the upgrade.
Pre Departure Services:
While most United States carriers offer an open bar pre-departure beverage, Air Canada usually offers a small bottle of Naya Water. On today’s flight, there was a small bottle of Naya water waiting at the seat.
However, given the fact that the plane was already 75 minutes behind schedule, activities were kept to a minimum. There was no further purser introduction aside from the usual menu presentation.
Air Canada has modernized the Air Canada Signature Class business class menus to make them a little more contemporary.
Given the morning hour, the menu consisted of the usual breakfast items. Air Canada is well known for it’s familiar parsley omelette, which made it’s usual appearance along with golden brown pancakes as the alternate option.
The breakfast menu also featured a number of Signature Class domestic wines. While there was no champagne on offer, there was a Crémant de Bordeaux Brut made entirely from Semillon which looked appealing. The whites consisted of Riesling from Germany and Rioja from Spain.
The list was rounded out by a Rosé from Côtes de Provence – France and two reds: a less than exciting Pinot Noir from Niagara Peninsula, Canada and a Dāo red wine from Portugal.
I can appreciate that a Canadian airline should be highlighting Canadian products but I have yet to find a Canadian wine that I’m over the moon in love with. Given the early hour of the flight being at 5 AM from my home Pacific Standard Time Zone, I didn’t get the opportunity to indulge.
The Air Canada Signature Class menu also offered a number of spirits. For the first time, there were a few very simple cocktails listed on the menu. This was rounded out with the usual soft drinks and juices. There was also a list of snack basket items.
While the wine and spirit was much larger than expected in Air Canada Signature Class in comparison to a narrow body flight, the product wasn’t over the top exciting as a result of the fairly mainstream labels.
Departing Toronto International Airport:
We departed Toronto International Airport as the sun rose up for another day. We had a pleasant cruise up to altitude without many bumps.
I can never get over how flat Ontario is when compared to my home in the Pacific Northwest. It’s always very apparent when ever I’m in a plane and I get a great view of the area.
In Flight Entertainment System:
During the climb, I fiddled with the in flight entertainment system. I located the flight map, which had us on a straightforward track across Canada.
The Meal: Breakfast
After about an hour and a level flight at altitude, it was time for breakfast.
Per the usual Air Canada service procedure, a towel service was offered. The Air Canada towels certainly aren’y luxurious and spa standard by any meals, but it’s a nice old school touch.
Given that this was a longer flight, the first breakfast tray was presented first. This consisted of mixed fruit, a warm ciabatta roll with butter and jam, and a chai seed pudding.
I was then presented with my one hundredth’ and one parsley omelette. This version was presented with pan fried chicken sausage, Parmesan cheese, spinach and roasted potatoes and tomato cumin chutney. Today’s potato cubes were pretty soft and moist with crisp being very far away on the spectrum.
The breakfast service was pleasant for a medium haul flight. As I have been travelling on many short haul flights, I appreciated the extended nature of the breakfast and not being served everything at once. The food was enjoyable, but not super memorable.
After the breakfast, I pretty much fell asleep for the majority of the flight. The early week of wake ups of being in Central Time Zone had taken their toll on me, knocking me out and wiping out my ability to stay awake.
Landing at Vancouver International Airport:
Our descent into Vancouver International Airport had us on a track over the water with a medium arc turn back towards runway 26L. It was a bright and sunny day when we landed back in Vancouver about fifty minutes off schedule at 10:51 AM.
We ended up pulling into gate 48 at Vancouver International Airport. Even while seated in row 10, I was off quite quickly.
I ended up bidding “good bye” to my work travelling colleague, with another Air Canada flight and work trip finished off in the books.
The Bottom Line: Air Canada Business Class B777-300 ER
The Air Canada Signature Business Class on the Boeing 777 – 300 ER remains an exceptionally comfortable way to fly on a transcontinental flight. Although we were given a usual delay departing Toronto, I’ve grown not to be too surprised about these delays.
The best part of the flight was the comfortable Collins Aerospace reverse herringbone business class seat. While the food was better than you might expect on a narrow body flight, and the wine list was more extensive, both the food and the wine were fairly average and not super exciting in flavour and taste.
Still, there remains no more comfortable way to fly across Canada. I would happily return to an Air Canada wide-body aircraft in Signature Class any day.
World Traveller 73 
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