My Air Canada business class flight this morning was on Air Canada’s newest short haul aircraft: the Boeing 737 Max 8. The cabin features Air Canada’s newest business class cabin that is designed for function and ease of use. My early morning departure had me relaxing most of the way from Ottawa to Vancouver, along with enjoying an Air Canada breakfast. Come along with me as we test out the features of Air Canada’s newest short haul business class cabin.

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This post is one chapter on a winter work trip within Canada. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Air Canada Aeroplan, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: Air Canada Business Class B737 Max 8, Ottawa International Airport – Vancouver International Airport

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After a great few days of skiing in Stowe Vermont USA, it was time to head home to Vancouver. Today’s travel home was on Air Canada Business Class Ottawa – Vancouver on their newest Boeing 737 Max 8 product.

The Air Canada Boeing 737 Max aircraft is there a newest short haul aircraft, and consequently, has the newest and most up to date business class cabin.

Checking into Air Canada Business Class:

As per usual, I checked in using the Air Canada app through my smartphone. I received my pre-assigned seat (2F) on the shady side of the plane. Consistent with a paid Air Canada Business Class ticket, I was placed into boarding group 1, which was the highest possible boarding group.

I departed the Fairfield Inn and Suites Ottawa Airport, where I was staying the night before. I returned my Hertz rental car to the Ottawa Airport return location at such an early time that had not yet opened for the day.

Since I was travelling with two pairs of skis and their related equipment, I ended up having to check the skis. There was no line at the Air Canada Priority Check In counter, being one of the first times I’ve actually used this particular counter since I’m usually “carry on only”. I was able to get my skis tagged quite quickly.

After checking in at the counter, I was given direction over to the speciality baggage line that was quite long at 4:45 AM. It seems many people leave Ottawa for skiing in February.

There was a sole CATSA agent at the front that was taking a leisurely time inspecting every bag, with about twenty people in line. This process took about twelve to fifteen minutes.

After the skis were dropped off, I headed to the secure side of the airport. My business class ticket had access to the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge – Ottawa Airport. I didn’t actually visit the lounge since we had only 15 minutes prior to boarding time and I didn’t bother burning up one of my Maple Leaf Lounge day passes so early in the year for MrsWT73 who was also travelling with me on a Flex Economy ticket.

I also had access to the Aspire Business Lounge – Ottawa; courtesy of Priority Pass and the American Express Platinum Card, except that it was not open early enough for our 6 AM departure time.

We eventually wandered down to Gate 29, where our flight was departing from.

Air Canada
Business Class
YOW – YVR (Ottawa International Airport – Vancouver International Airport)
AC 341 – Business Class (P)

6:00 AM – 8:39 AM
Feb 18, 2024
Booked: Boeing 737-Max8
Flown: Boeing 737-Max 8

On Board Air Canada Business Class:

Air Canada only runs one or two nonstop services between Ottawa and Vancouver every day. If you’re very lucky, you’ll end up on a widebody Boeing 787–9 aircraft with a nice executive pod.

If you’re just taking an average flight, you’ll end up on a Boeing 737 max eight aircraft like this one, it represents their newest aircraft and newest business class cabin. However it doesn’t feature all the bells and whistles of their flagship widebody aircraft.

I have reviewed the Air Canada Boeing 737 max aircraft on several occasions previously. Please see the following posts if you’d like a little more description of the cabin.

• Air Canada Business Class: Vancouver – Phoenix
• Air Canada Business Class: Calgary – Vancouver

In my case, in order to save my company a little bit of money, I ended up on the first available flight from Ottawa to Vancouver. This flight departed at 6 AM.

The Air Canada Boeing 737 Max Business Class cabin features four rows of business class using slim line seats. The cabin is set up in a 2–2 configuration and features an attractive black and gray colour scheme.

While I absolutely love window seats, I found in my older age I am starting to prefer the aisle seats for longer transcontinental flights of more than four hours in length. I located my assigned seat in 2D and settled in for the journey.

The Air Canada business class cabin offers a somewhat flimsy retractable foot rest that is tucked away under the seat in front of you. Given my large frame at 6’2″, I didn’t find that the foot rest added any comfort to my flight.

Generally, the newer business class cabin on the Air Canada Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft is miles ahead of the older legacy product that you’ll find on Air Canada’s Airbus Series short haul aircraft. The Boeing 737 seats are more comfortable and the cabin is configured to contain and hold electronics while they charge. Accordingly the 737 max is my favourite short haul business class cabin on Air Canada.

Pre Departure Services:

Air Canada continues to simply offers a small bottle of Naya Water which was waiting on the seat. On the odd occasion, there is a purser introduction during the boarding time on the ground. However, we were silent on these introductions this time around.

During the pre-departure period, the flight attendants also passed out a printed breakfast menu. For the most part, Air Canada continues to offer a printed menu, although there are occassionally flights where I do not get them distributed.

While there were not many surprises on the breakfast menu, the regular Air Canada parsley omelet made another morning appearance. The parsley omelette is the unoriginal mainstay of the Air Canada breakfast and has been in the space for about 20 years.

The Meal: Breakfast

Todays flight was about four hours and forty five minutes marked at four hours and twenty minutes gate to gate. After about one hour of flight time, and our arrival to altitude, breakfast was served.

The breakfast service started with a warmed towel service. Air Canada towels aren’t super luxurious. Instead, they are pretty standard variety and more functional than fancy.

I decided that I just couldn’t do another parsley omelette, having done several of them over my last few trans continental Air Canada flights. As a result, I ended up with French Toast served with the fruit compote and vanilla crème anglaise.

Breakfast was served with a firm ciabatta styled warmed roll, īögo yoghurt, along with mixed fruits.

The French toast was a reasonable alternative through outright necessity. However it didn’t leave me feeling as satisfied, as a result of a lack of a meat option included on this dish.

In Fight Entertainment:

During the flight, I played around with the in flight entertainment system. The flight entertainment system offered a large easy to view screen with movies, television shows and a moving map that allowed for great location spotting.

For most of the flight, I pretty much napped, given the early morning departure hour. As a result I didn’t get into the movies that were being offered.

I will provide accolades to Air Canada four including individual seatback monitors for its in-flight entertainment system. Most American carriers like United Airlines, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines have not installed seat back monitors. As a result, this tends to make for a pretty austere and boring flight experience.

Second Service: A Snack Basket

About three quarters of the way through the flight, Air Canada flight attendants came around with a snack basket. There were a few items in the snack basket that were a bit more robust than what you might find on a comparable US carrier.

Today’s snack basket contain Miss Vickies potato chips, specialty pretzels, licorices, KitKat milk chocolate and Lindor dark chocolate chocolate bars. This was accompanied by a bar and beverage service along with warmed nuts.

I ended up with a Canada Dry Ginger Ale. This was followed up by Miss Vickie potato chips and a Kit Kat.

After the snack basket was passed through the cabin, there was an offer of warmed mixed nuts that mostly consisted of salted almonds.

Landing at Vancouver International Airport:

We had a fairly straightforward arrival into Vancouver international Airport. We arrived and I was among the first to disembark. I headed over to baggage claim belt #5, which is the one usually used for Air Canada flights originating in Ontario.

My primary concern was collecting my checked ski equipment. Air Canada has not done so well with keeping passengers connected with her baggage. As a result I use the Baeder function in the app to track the bag, along with an AirTag that I had previously used.

Fortunately I was reunited with the bag without any issues.

The Bottom Line: Air Canada Business Class B737-Max 8

The Air Canada Business Class on the Boeing 737 Max 8 is a pretty reasonable way to get across the country. While it is not a fully flat seat, it’s much more comfortable than flying in economy class.

While the french toast was slightly better than that parseley omelette, Air Canada could do a much better job at varying their food and beverage offerings on their flights. It can tend to get pretty boring as it is.

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If you’ve flown Air Canada Business Class on their Max 8 aircraft, do you find a large difference between this and their legacy Airbus product ?

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