Or: It's a Christmas Miracle!

* Disclaimer: The following section details experiences with London Heathrow that have been determined to be unique to the poster only. Please do not attempt this sort of travel at home. *

Despite my worries about the weather and the upcoming transit, what transpired next can only be described as a series of Christmas Miracles. Having already checked in for the flights that day, I got dropped off outside T3 departures and meandered my way into the AC check-in area to see how the line was doing. Surprisingly, it had slowed down significantly so I headed up the escalator to the security line, bypassing the optional queue point where people line up to be asked if they have any loose definitions of a liquid. Instead, I just breezed on past to the boarding pass check queue or, rather, the complete lack of queue! Past the boarding pass check, the security hall was just as empty. From curb to through security it took a grand total of maybe 10 minutes.

That's not to say the terminal was empty. It was still the last weekend before Christmas. Beyond the shoe scan T3 was as busy as ever so I made tracks to the London Lounge to have a bit of coffee and use the internet for a while. I had some of the usual pre-takeoff drinks as well, and basically took it easy until the flight (now delayed, of course) was called for boarding. As I was on the list for Aerolotto today and with J5 showing four days out, I thought the odds were good and headed out to see if my luck would hold.


Air Canada B767 waiting for the trip back to snowy YYZ

For the first time in my memory our flight boarded from gate 17, the part of T3 that makes the perma-construction pier without ceilings near gate 23 look like T5. In true fashion for LHR, boarding was announced on the screens far before actual boarding commenced, so we ended up standing around in the hallway near the holdroom doors. We then continued to stand in the hallway until a few more passport checkers decided to help the situation and the line started moving more quickly. At the gate, I was welcomed by the agent and directed to another desk to talk to the agent in charge of loads, as he'd be doing the waitlist as well. The second agent took my boarding card and mentioned it was going to be a full flight, but he'd let me know when the flight was closed and they could process the upgrades so I could take a seat in Contestant's Row and relax with the rest of who I thought were upgrade candidates. Three of us had a great chat, watching as every so often a new person would show up and be redirected to the desk and talking about our odds as they changed. One girl was just trying to get back to Toronto, so she had another option later that day (which I knew from compulsively checking KVS was more open) although the other guy was trying to get to YVR to see his son for Christmas, flying on a staff pass. I really hope he made it, given everything that would happen to YVR in the coming days. Eventually, though, boarding started, there was some movement behind the desk, and the second Christmas Miracle of the day happened; I won the aerolotto and was handed a new boarding card for 1K. By this point, the holdroom had mostly emptied and as my partners on Contestant's Row were actually just looking to get on the flight, not necessarily an upgrade, I bid them good luck either on that flight or the next and boarded.

21 Dec 2008
AC849
LHR-YYZ
Boeing 767-300 C-FCAF
Seat 1F

Today's flight was absolutely packed full, and it took a little while to process all the oversells and nonrevs. I spent the meantime with a pre-departure OJ and read the December issue of EnRoute while the plane filled up. Soon we were loaded up and pushed back, assumably taking off via 9L if the runways had changed since Dim Sum. Once the roll had finished and the seatbelt sign turned off, I was able to recline and start a few movies before the crew came around to take lunch and drink orders. I had hoped for a Sleeman's, however apparently they were off the menu since the last time I was up front and the FA came back with a Canadian instead. Normally I'm not a terribly big fan of Canadian, but she'd already opened it and I don't often say no to beer unless it's particularly bad, so I had it anyway, along with a dish or so of the warm nuts.


Temporarily empty 1K on the 763, on a very full flight to YYZ


1H legroom in ExecutiveFirst on the 763

Dinner consisted of a rather excellent Moroccan lamb starter with what appeared to be a cumin seasoning on couscous, followed up by an unfortunately average chicken with a potato and leek side, and something that I can no longer recall (although the vegetables were the better half of this course). Cheese and port followed with coffee and constant top-ups of water. Apart from the chicken, the service was better than average. Cookies and ice cream came later on to round out the meal for the flight.


Moroccan Lamb with couscous


Baked chicken with potatoes, leek, and some other vegetable

I attempted to stay awake for the majority of the flight, however at one point I did accidentally take advantage of the comfortable reclining pods and woke up about 20 minutes farther into the movie. While rewinding, it struck me that even then the crew was refilling my water constantly, probably coming around every half hour whether we needed it or not. They may not have been the most talkative crew that I've had with AC, but they certainly knew their job and performed it without a hitch. It was the kind of thing you didn't really need to ask for, which was definitely a nice change.

Another nice change, and Christmas Miracle #3, was that for once thew new Thales IFE had the moving map enabled! For anyone familiar with AC's Project XM, the moving map has been a fault of the system since day 1, and even if the whole system needs fewer reboots, I've only seen the moving map work once since the project started three years ago. As far as the airshow goes, it's definitely a huge improvement over the traditional airshow, apparently akin to the NZ system, although I can't quite understand who at Thales or AC decided to okay the suggestion to put famous shipwrecks on the world map. That sort of thing just seems like it might cause undue thoughts of disasters. Video quality is, however, a substantial improvement over the old system.


The "new" enRoute IFE on board the 767-300. And a good thing, too, since I have a middle row and no window access.


Over the middle of the Atlantic, according to Airshow

After a brief play around with the airshow, I was back to watching a few more movies and otherwise just reclining the seat like it was a La-Z-Boy and making the most of this time. I did notice that the row 1 pods on the 767 have a few places where they don't fit as nicely into the rest of the plane as they should, with a bit of foam sticking out in odd places. I guess they just aren't quite as polished as the 777s which came with the pods first. Beyond the few little quirks, I quite liked the centre row on the 767, though, and found it a bit more private than the 777 centre seats. I can only suspect the A seats on this plane are even more private, with nobody facing you directly at all.

After three movies and an episode of Mythbusters, though, there was just time to play with the airshow until we landed in Toronto, only slightly behind schedule. The weather had apparently improved during the day and all the worry of the past few days about weather delays vanished. Just a bit of blowing snow remained which hardly had much of an effect on the 763. We pulled up to gate 713 in the T1 hammerhead and soon were disembarking into the terminal.


Just about back in YYZ, before the IFE is turned off for landing

Thoughts on the flight: This flight, filled with Christmas Miracles, was an interesting AC experience. I can understand that some people (read: people who aren't me) have bad experiences with AC and dislike the service standard they set. An aspect of the service today came across that way at the beginning, where the crew seemed a bit unfriendly and/or aloof in their job. By midway through the flight, however, my opinion had changed for the better, after some friendly chats with the crew and the exceptional service. I understand it's not the same class as one would expect from an asian carrier, however everything was already happening when you realized you wanted it and some things were done before you even realized you would have liked them done, which I think makes for a great flight experience. You don't have to ask, it's just done and done well, which I find more relaxing on a longhaul and much more valuable than the "seat and a smile" that you might look for in short-haul Y. The trip was incredibly relaxing as my first westbound in ExecFirst. In some ways, it was better than the eastbound (as will be compared later) just due to the slightly longer flight time and the different requirements for the westbound. I had more time to play with the much-improved IFE and airshow, and the feeling in the cabin was different, with more people opting to stay awake and more light for that reason. I also enjoyed the 763 pods immensely, quality control aside, but I'll have to wait until the 333s are finished before I can claim a favourite pod configuration (hopefully this year I'll have the chance).

Upon disembarking, I took the quick walk down to immigration and walked straight into Christmas Miracle 4: there was absolutely no immigration queue at YYZ at all. It was a case of go straight to the front of the room and be directed to a desk before even arriving at the yelow line. I did take the time to comment to the agent how great it was to travel today and she basically commented "that's great to hear, but you should have been here five minutes ago!" and she was right. The baggage hall was a zoo. Almost every belt was packed with people, mostly infrequent travellers from sun destinations by the look of it, crowded around the belts like cattle at a feedlot. Luggage suffering from missed connections crowded the walls behind every belt. Sadly, our belt was no exception and again I was treated to an amazing display of humanity in action as hordes of people swarmed the belt, many apparently on humanitarian missions; pointing out to the person standing next to them that yes, that was their bag that was coming along. I can only imagine how these people survive in life, apparently being unable to differentiate their own property in the midst of the unidentified items of total strangers. And thanks to the efficiency of YYZ baggage handling, I was treated to the directors cut of the experience, waiting through most of the procedure due to my bags being offloaded near-last thanks to the early check-in. But if this is the worst thing that happens to me today, I'm going to sound like an elitist jerk when I get to compare stories about trips back home over this holiday.

I sound like an elitist jerk a lot lately when I talk about my AC experiences.

Anyhow, with my patience with humanity firmly at an end, I plow through the hall and out to the connection belt, marvelling at how long it takes some people to read a sign and put a bag on a belt with the wheels up when you are directed to only one of two belts and the sign is in very large print. Thankfully, it takes five people to sufficiently block the intra-Canada transfer belt and there were only four today, and they were so badly organized that they even didn't have time to spread out to block the 80% they could have. I was able to sneak by on the far right and put my bag back in the hands of the YYZ handlers before heading back up to security, now fast-tracked for my convenience.

Next time: Canada Domestic and finally home for Christmas