CloudsBelow

Yet, here you are. Still booking and flying Air Canada.
Seems you value Elite perks/AP points more than you're concerned about the risk of 777HD service.
If only there were another scheduled carrier flying every domestic sector the HD flies multiple times each day. Guess we can dream, maybe someday
It's not.
Oh, You went from Paid J on an AC widebody to Y on HD? Assuming so from your knee-slapping analogies

Mauricio23

Absolutely not. I fly AC when it offers a superior product to the competition. That (still) happens with any flights operated by A320s, E190s, and the old 77Ws. For routes that are exclusively operated by the 777HD or Rouge, I take my business elsewhere. That (together with the tango/flex differentials) explains why I dropped from E75 to E50 this year, and will further drop to P25 next year. Elite perks are worth very little to me - in fact, I now buy tango and pay for preferred seating, rather than submit to price gouging for aeropesos and the opportunity to pay hundreds of dollars in upgrade add-ons. My spend on AC this year is running at a quarter of what it was two years ago, with the same BIS miles flown across all airlines. United, American/US Airways, KLM, LAN and Lufthansa are laughing all the way to the bank. I never considered them before precisely because of the once valuable and now worthless Elite Perks and AP points and the new knee-crushing AC cabin configurations. Please take your unfounded assumptions elsewhere.

The YVR-YYZ route is a crapshoot. With careful planning, in most flights you will have a seat that beats the competition. Occasionally, you will have a much inferior one. In this instance I chose to take the risk of a substitution because I would then be guaranteed to fly a much longer segment on a 77W anyways. I got screwed, but I always knew the possibility of getting screwed was in the cards. The poster above asked whether it was possible that AC would substitute a 77W for a 777HD on the YUL-CDG route. The answer is "absolutely yes", and if avoiding 777HD seating is important to him, he should book elsewhere. What I choose to do is completely irrelevant to his calculation.

Now feel free get back to your regular program twisting the meaning of other posts, and to spewing apologetics in general.

winnipegrev

Which aircraft does AC fly YYZ-YVR which is worse than the competition?

Even 777HD offers same legroom, same seat width, free good AVOD, and more overhead bin space per pax (so said Ben) than a WS 737.

Mauricio23

Have you actually sat in an Y seat in the 777HD? The seat cushion is so short that if you are anywhere near 6 feet it leaves you dangling on the edge and cuts circulation to your legs. The only comfortable position is sitting bolt upright - now try that for 5 hours (or 10, as the case might be). WS has the same legroom, but longer seat cushions, hence more comfortable seats.

Also, should you end up in the middle block of four seats, the seat legs are misaligned. No floor room for your baggage, and barely any for your feet. These are the worst designed seats on the market right now (though the UA domestic seats give them a run for their money).

I work on planes, so I couldn't care less about AVOD, but I do care about the ability to shift positions in my seat. The 777HD gives me none.

CloudsBelow

Twisting nothing. You're here to exaggerate the horrors of the HD subbing for your 77W on a route the HD is deployed daily.
You have the option of WS but you've decided to roll the dice with AC. You made an adult decision to invite the risk of 777HD operating your flight when other non-HD options were readily available.

Mauricio23

Whatever - I'm done trying to explain easy concepts to those who clearly do not possess the capacity to comprehend them. My post was replying to a specific question, and I'm sure the person who asked it understood my reply. Feel free to carry on now.

yyznomad

Perhaps s/he never experienced a wide body flight down gauged to a 762

yyznomad

So the 777HD still sucks right?
I still avoid it except for redeyes. But then again, I try avoid redeyes.

The Lev

Interesting. I have yet to fly the HD in Y, so can't make the direct comparison, but one of the many reasons I tend to avoid WS is that I find their seat cushions to be too short (compared with typical AC).

I haven't taken out a tape measure, just my "feeling".

Sean Peever

Actually, in my situation I don't mind the 777HD (Wait, don't burn me at the stake yet).

I am often a flex fare flyer. With PE being the same (or very very close) to Flex, I get far better comfort and 125% miles between YVR - YYZ and YYZ - YVR.

Yes, if I am planning to upgrade I go on 33/34 for the pods. If I'm not upgrading, I'm happy to sit in PE and get 125% miles for the same price as Flex and in Y on the other flights.

guessaaa

Is there any way to upgrade one segment from Y to PY in a multi-segment AC only ticket?

Ie. AC102 YVR-YYZ is B788 this November/December, but I'm flying YVR-YYZ-YOW r/t. Fare difference between Flex (G) and Premium (N) for AC102 o/w is about $100, which I'm willing to pay. But I get no PY options for YVR-YOW on AC.com. Can I change the booking class for the one segment via an agent?

Nitehawk

I'm actually interested in that. Since I'm YYJ based, and am often going onward from YYZ, It's hard for me to book just the YVR-YYZ portion. That being said, the transcon is often the "main event" and I'd seriously consider booking PE if it was available. To make matters worse I usually fly on a transcon flex pass if i'm going east, and eup the whole thing. If I could purchase a PE ticket that might change. Maybe not, but it would be nice to have the option. Or even to buy up to the PE cabin on my flight pass ticket at time of booking.

Sean Peever

The phone Agent should be able to, they have for me before. The only caveat I can think of in your case is that it's the 788, if they are not confident on the delivery they may not be selling / blocking the PE cabin on that one.

dpolites

Just wanted to give my opinion on a couple flights I recently took return from Vancouver to London Heathrow on the 777 HD configuration.

I decided to book Premium Economy, and no matter where I looked online I couldn't get a good take on what the seat and service was like.

First thing I noticed was the seat was quite comfortable and plenty of room. I am a big guy in stature and height (6'5, 250lb). I had no complaint at all about the seat or legroom which for once is a good thing.

The Premium Economy cabin isn't curtained off from regular economy, so you won't get that feeling like you do in business where you are "special".

As for food, it is definitely better than economy, however not sure if the same as Business or not. Going to London I had a Beef tenderloin which was awesome and tender. Not a huge amount of food, but enough. The one thing they do in Premium Economy is the same as in Business.... The flight attendants have a list and go person to person based on the economic importance of the customer to Air Canada, and dole out the reservations for meat or vegetarian. Not sure what the exact measures are, but they don't go in order because they don't have 2 of everything. Once they go through the full fare passengers and I guess Elite points status passengers then they go through everyone else. I ended up getting the last Beef and my neighbor who also wanted Beef was told they were out. So the more you pay, the better chance you get what you want to eat. Fair? But that is what it is, just as in Business class.

I did doze off a bit on the way there, but never noticed any snacks at all. Just dinner then 8 hours later they came by with an individual yogurt and packaged slice of banana bread for breakfast. The breakfast was a definite let down. I think they could do a little better on that front.

Coming back to Vancouver from London, same drill in taking food orders in order of priority. The food was no where near as good. The chicken breast was tough and 3 half nugget potatoes. They did have a snack break though with little ice cream cups and package of almonds along with drink service. Before landing in Vancouver they served a small heated Sandwich wrap, and a couple Irish chocolates and coffee/tea in styro cups as they said they didn't load enough china cups.

The amenity kit that you receive is very minimal, with some socks, foam ear plugs and toothbrush I think. But at least there is one.

Last piece is the extra premium features this seat comes with... Priority Check-In, Boarding and Baggage....

Priority check-in can be tricky as many reps don't seem to even realize that Premium Economy is entitled to Priority Check-in. Once you find the strangely located Premium Checkin location at YVR then it is fine except there was only one agent so took 10 minutes even there.

Priority boarding worked fine, got bag in overhead well ahead of the 398 people in cattle section to the rear.

As for baggage, my bags were tagged in London with the Priority red tags, yet one of my 2 bags was almost the last offloaded off the plane. And that says a lot as it takes a long time to offload luggage of 468 passengers. So that benefit in my case was very useless.

All in all, I would take the 777 HD again as long as it was in Premium Economy. The cattle section did not look comfortable at all when I looked back...

Anyways, this was my long opinion of Air Canada's Premium Economy on the 777-300ER HD.

upgradesecret

When standing in a premium cabin and looking towards the rear does it look comfortable, ever?