Going the Canadian Way: To Chicago with Air Canada
LHR-YYZ-ORD-YYZ-LHR with Air Canada
Previous trip reports at the end of this report.
So once again, and a bit later than normal this year, it’s time to head off to the Windy City, and it seems every month this year so far, I’ve had one trip. Which is nice. However life in the back continues - that means all the usual things you’re accustomed to should appear. In other words, bad commentary, economy food, economy seats and of course - GhettoIFE systems... or lack of thereafter... 
However this time it's something slightly different as I’m travelling a different airline to my normal Chicago Trip. Which is nice.
Going the Canadian Way (Yup Buddy, it’s the introduction)
As I type this, this will be the 10th trip to Chicago in a matter of 5 years with me actually stopping in the city more than 10 minutes. Which means I'm getting used to the place still. And during that time I’ve had some great experiences in the air... and some downright godawful ones (most of which are documented amazingly from 2007).
As it’s the Spring, tradition says I go “East” on the way home and do an East Coast Trip, rather than my traditional “West Coast” Autumn trip.
Originally, I was set to book a lovely run through the East coast via EWR as I tend to do for this run, however, my trip with home from Vancouver with Continental has soured my thoughts with the airline.
Considering I’ve also been through Washington Dulles once too often recently (I’m considering twice in a year too often - as much as I love the dilapidated Bus station know as the A Gates and the “one day we might replace them” C and D Concourses, Dulles isn’t the hottest place on the planet even though there are branches of “Five Guys” there).
And of course, just taking the direct route to Chicago and back is boring (I’m not even discussing US Airways. Regular viewers will understand why).
So my eyes turn to the neighbour from the North, and what they can offer. And thankfully as everyone is in a Joint Venture, prices are pretty uniform. I’ll freely admit that I was holding off buying this ticket until the Vancouver run to make a decision, and I want to give Air Canada a second shot - least of all I want to see how they perform on a shorter leg, but to see if the service they delivered can be repeated many times over.
For this trip, I used Opodo to book the ticket as there was a lovely £35 off voucher. By the time you took the fight and Amex fee off, that turns into £25 off. But it still money in my pocket rather than in someone else's. Also by using the multi-city feature, I was able to force the booking engine to cough up a long stopover in Canada (10 hours or so).
Thus, it’s a competitively simple LHR-YYZ-ORD and back. By my standards - this is a simple trip, routing through one airport and taking the same route back all one carrier. Mad eh?
Map Generated by the Great Circle Mapper -
www.gcmap.com
So a few new firsts for me - going through Toronto and flying Boeing 777-300ER’s (which I’m still amazed I managed to avoid for so long). Of course, for the ORD<>YYZ legs, Air Canada prefer to use Regional Jets, but thankfully, they prefer Embaer ERJ-175’s for this run - which as we all know is a better option than the CRJ’s that some regional airlines prefer to fly.
So with that, lets go the Canadian Way....