This Air Canada Signature Business Class flight offered on an Air Canada Boeing 787-9 was during an unusual industrial action Gate Gourmet strike impacting Toronto Pearson International Airport. While the airline tried to mitigate some of the food and beverage shortages, they were not very organized in this effort. What would normally be a flight full of Air Canada’s best domestic product, would end up being dry and empty of any food. Further, the flight attendant on today’s flight ended up giving away my food after I fell asleep (groan). Read on to see how this flight ended up being, compared to others…

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

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Review: Air Canada Signature Business Class B787-9, Toronto Pearson International Airport – Vancouver International Airport (Gate Gourmet Strike Edition)

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This flight was the last one of this particular trip. After coming off Air Canada Business Class Ottawa – Toronto, and having a quick visit to the Air Canada Café Toronto, I was all set to get on the last leg of this journey.

At the time of this flight, Air Canada’s contracted catering company “Gate Gourmet” at Toronto Pearson International Airport was on strike. As a result we had received some advance notice by email suggesting that the regular food catering would not be available.

As a result, I stocked up on food as much as possible at Bento Sushi and at the Air Canada Café – Toronto lounge.

Boarding Air Canada Business Class:

After loading up on food, I headed to gate D24 to get ready for boarding. At the boarding time there was substantial queues.

As a business class passenger I was entitled to zone one boarding. I joined the lineup for zone one.

There are a few gates at Toronto Pearson international airport that do not offer a lot of space to board a large wide body aircraft. Gate D 24 happens to be one of them. Perhaps it’s only saving grace is that it’s near the end of a concourse and doesn’t have a lot of cross passenger traffic.

unfortunately, around this time the aircraft started running into rolling delays. Our 10 AM departure time quickly rolled into 10:20 AM, followed by 11:15 AM. They were a few announcements at the gate during this time, and even fewer announcements about the gate gourmet strike.

Eventually, what was determined to be a maintenance issue, resulted in us boarding at around 11:10AM. We would eventually get on board with a newly timed 11:35 AM departure.

Air Canada
AC 107 – Business Class (Z)
YYZ – YVR (Toronto Pearson International Airport – Vancouver International Airport)
April 20, 2024
10:00 AM – 11:48 AM (Actual 11:35 AM – 1:31 PM)
Booked: Boeing 787-9
Flown: Boeing 787-9

On Board Air Canada Business Class:

After our hour and a half delay, we eventually got on board.

I located the Air Canada Signature Class Suite. I was seated on the shady side of the aircraft in seat 4K; this was perfect for westbound travel. With the sun on the south side of the aircraft, the right hand side would be facing north and away from the sun.

the Collins aerospace reverse herringbone business class seat that Air Canada offers for its signature business class product is the most comfortable way for a traveller to enjoy a transcontinental flight.

There is ample space for take away sushi, water, and Air Canada Café to go snacks as seen in the photograph..

The A/V controls are controlled by a wired remote controller. The seat comfort features are also controlled through a touchscreen.

Pre – Departure Services:

Typically, there is a bottle of water waiting on the seat in Air Canada Business Class that serves as the pre-departure beverage. On today’s Gate Gourmet industrial strike action version of this flight, there was nothing waiting for us at the seat.

While we are waiting on the ground before departure, an Air Canada flight attendant came around and to take the meal order. I wasn’t sure exactly what we would be getting given the strike, but I did confirm that there was some form of a meal on board.

I ended up ordering “the chicken “and asked to be woken up to eat if I fell asleep. I had started off at 4 AM Ottawa time, which was 1 AM Pacific Time. As a result I was already getting to be a bit sleepy.

The flight attendant wrote this down on her sheet and went onto the next traveler.

Departing Toronto Pearson International Airport:

Despite our delay, we got underway pretty quickly. From my seat, I had a terrific view of a Korean Air Boeing 787- 800 series, parked over at Toronto Pearson Terminal Three as we taxied to the runway.

Our flight took off over Toronto’s highways. We climbed to altitude as we try to make up time.

It was a smooth climb up to cruising altitude. There was a pilot announcement which described the gate gourmet industrial action and that there would be limited food on board.

The Meal: A Box of Cheese

Shortly after takeoff, I ended up falling asleep as I had predicted. I must’ve slept for about two hours and with no meal card or other crockery floating around the business class cabin it was a pretty quiet sleep experience.

About two hours into the flight I woke up feeling a little hungry. I asked for the meal and was unfortunately told that they had given away all the food. So much for asking to have your food saved…

Instead, I was offered this plastic cup of water and what was left over from the snack basket. I ended up with a Lindt chocolate bar and a buy on board cheese plate and a slice of cake. It certainly wasn’t very impressive, for what is marketed and branded as elevated business class, under their signature class product.

The flight time from Toronto to Vancouver is typically 4 1/2 hours. When you add 90 minutes of travel delay, it was about six hours of travel time with limited food and beverage.

You would normally think Air Canada would offer some kind of proactive compensation voucher for take away food in the Toronto Pearson International Terminal. However, they seemed to be operating on a wholly reactive basis.

Landing at Vancouver International Airport:

With real first world problems (laughing), and a stomach that was gurgling, I made it through the flight and all the way across Canada.

We started our descent into Vancouver International Airport where I made plans to hit the first available fast food restaurant accessible.

We arrived into Vancouver international Airport on runway 8R. We taxied to gate 51 where we disembarked into the terminal. This was among one of the first Air Canada Signature Business Class flights I was happy to get off of, given I was pretty hungry by this point.

Filing for Compensation:

As a result of following some conversations on various social media groups, I ended up deciding to file for some compensation as a result of the lack of food and the delay.

I prepared a very brief complaint of half a paragraph which I sent into the “Contact Us” portion of the Air Canada website.

I ended up getting a response within 24 hours with a 15% off promotion code that was valid for three years. I suppose that is a reasonable offering, considering that I can be leveraged for expensive business class fares. Although I had heard of others getting a 25% promotion code, I’ll certainly take a 15% one anyday.

While it was not the most ideal flight, travelling in a fully flat seat made it a lot more comfortable.

The Bottom Line: Air Canada Business Class B787-9

The Air Canada Business Class on the Boeing 787–9 is an exceptionally comfortable way to fly on a transcontinental flight. While it was not specifically marketed as an Air Canada Signature Class flight, it contained many of it’s features.

Today’s flight was absent any of the usual frills in food and beverage as a result of a gate gourmet strike. Perhaps in a service failure, the flight attendants forgot to save my food when I fell asleep. Well these are real first world problems, the tickets are quite expensive and it’s reasonable to expect a certain level of service when you’re spending several thousand dollars on air tickets.

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If you’ve flown Air Canada Business Class through Toronto during the Gate Gourmet strike, how was your experience ?

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