wco81

Got an email for a BusinessFirst sale, must book by 3/13, travel between 3/29 and 4/15.

The warmer areas like Spain aren't cheap under this sale so I tried SFO-CPH.

One of the cheaper options was P fare, SFO-YYZ-CPH on AC. The YYZ-CPH is on 787, for $3800 all-in, for early April.

But when I checked for early July, it priced out in the same range.

One thing that seems unattractive is that the YYZ-CPH segment is only 7 hours and 25 minutes so not much time to sleep, after dinner. Doesn't seem the best value for a lie flat.

And one site has a bunch of poor reviews of AC's 787 business class product:

http://www.flatseats.com/Reviews/ac-j.htm

Has anyone ever tried the AC 787 business, especially for TATL out of YYZ?

Wondering maybe it's not the best received so that would explain the relatively lower price?

SparseFlyer

You may be about to get wrecked.

I'm on 787 in a few hours, and looking forward to it.

Everyone here seems to love the new AC J.

Sebring

What's the currency the AC fare is quoted in? You're in the Bay Area, and if the quote is in USD, the Canadian dollar is worth about 0.80 US cents so AC can make a 20% premium, give or take, selling you that seat in USD. It's not unusual for AC to price aggressively in the US market for that reason.

harryhood

I flew the 787 J product YVR-PVG, so a bit longer a flight than what you're doing, but I found the hard product to be excellent. Not perfect, but better than UA, LX and NH (in eac case their new J products). The service is about up to UA standard (so basically ok, not great) and the food is "meh", but I fly in J for the seat room, not the fancy food.

Highly recommend it, especially the 1-2-1 configuration (everyone gets aisle access).

24left

Agree with SparseFlyer. I've been on 10 flights on AC's 788, and 4 more this week.

You might want to take a look at the Dreamliner thread. All kids of info and photos. If you're curious about food, there is also another thread for International Business Class Meals

yyzgigi

No complaints on the 787. You're just benefiting from aggressive pricing by AC for the inconvenience of the connection.

The hard product on the 787 is top notch for me well designed for working, relaxing and sleeping with good VOD. Soft service is acceptable and if you are worried about sleeping on the short flight do the flex meal option or eat ok hot food in the lounge before departure.

wco81

The prices came up on the UA site so presumably in USD.

I guess there aren't that many destinations for the 787 yet, only 4 TATL routes.

The relatively short TATL segment somewhat diminishes the advantage of flying in the premium cabin, presumably to try to sleep.

canadiancow

The site you linked has exactly one (not many) review of the 787, and it was someone 5'6 wondering how taller people would ever be comfortable.

I'm 5'11, and I found it fine. I prefer it to all other AC J products.

King Chung Huang

All the complaints in that link are about the Studio Pods on AC's high density 777. The 787 has brand new state of the art pods.

mrooywg

Note, AC has three different long haul business class seats. The link above is a review for the 777W "Studio Pod" and not the "Executive Pod" on the 788 or the "Classic Pod" on the rest of the heavy fleet. Only one of the reviews is for the 788 seat.

24left

jmottle

Flew on a 787 in December to Paris. I really enjoyed it. Having flown all of AC's other J products, this was definitely the best.

RZR

In my opinion, any new, clean product is an advantage

100,000miler

It is a great bird and I love it.

However, note that the J cabin is considerably smaller than other aircrafts and also has a Y+ cabin.

Given changes in E-UPs, I think most of us on a budget will end up in the Y+ cabin with the new UP/G rules.

Seats are limited there and food and service is less lavish than in J, although I would never consider the J service lavish.

agjil

I think AC's 787 business class hard product is one of the best you can get for TATL flights.
The food and service still have a long way to go, but the seat itself was one of the best among the various TATL flights I took in recent years.