CP 572 YVR - YYZ
Dp 12:15p Ar 7:40p
Checked out of the Hilton at 11:00a to take the 11:20a shuttle to the airport. The service I received at this hotel was generally great for my 2 day stay. Housekeeping even folded my clothes when they cleaned my room on Sunday. The originally 5 min shuttle ride took 20 mins because the driver decided to do both pick up and drop off at the same time.
Check in for my flight took less than 1 min, agent didn't check my ID even though I am travelling on an E ticket, took my stickers (I could have given her any color of stickers as she only asked me for 2000 miles worth of stickers). I gave her a gray one. Once I got my boarding passes, went to one of those self serve machine to pay the $10 Airport Improvement Fee and then proceeded to the Security. The security area was so crowded as there was a group of Japanese passing security as a group. I then proceeded to the CP domestic Empress Lounge for 10 mins before proceeding to the gate.
Boarding have already started when I got there. Once on board, I took my second favourite seat 1A on CP 767. J class was full with 3 EXP, couple GLDs and couple AC Elites. Y class was almost 100% full. Looks like CP is doing pretty well filling these seats. Drink orders were taken prior to take off. Pushback took place at 12:13p and we took off at 12:25p. Flying time was 3 hours and 52 minutes at a cruising altitude of 31000 feet.
Something I have noticed on CP recently, prior to receiving clearance for takeoff, there are usually couple "ding" sounds to let the FA to take their seats, but now the FO comes on the PA to say "We have just received clearance from the tower to position runway 26 and should be taking off in 1 minute, would FA please take their seats." This started since July if I recall correctly. Not sure what prompted the change.
Drinks were brought around once airbrone and lunch were served shortly after that. This 2 particular FAs working J class decided to do it the easy way, pulling the whole meal cart out and putting the wine and the buns on top so they can do all 3 at once instead of the usual setting up the wine cart to serve wine first before bringing out the meals.
Menu for this flight:
To begin:
Celery and apple salad with caper jelly
This was quite good and most of the people in J class cleared the plate which usually doesn't happen
Entree selections:
- Classic filet of beef accented by mustard sauce, served with green beans and Parisienne potatoes
- Breast of chicken offered with piquante sauce, accompanied by mashed potatoes with leeks and broccoli florets
- Fillet of Salmon enhanced by herb cream sauce, presented with biryani and carrots
I choose the chicken as salmon was all gone by the time they got to me leaving me only with the choice of chicken or beef for the second flight in a row, one of the disadvantage of sitting in the forward section of J. I sometimes think CP should take meal orders by status!
Movie was then shown. The wrong movie was shown and no body said a word. The movie was supposed to be Keeping the Faith staring Ben Stiller and Edward Norton which should be one of the more interesting movie but instead they showed Heaven can't wait which was aweful as it was a 1978 movie.
The FA came around the cabin occasionally to see whether anyone wants a drink.
About 30 mins prior to landing, Captain Johnson came on the announcement to let us know we'll be landing 20 mins ahead of schedule and warned us that there might be a possibility of "no gates" when we get there and he promises to let us know if that happens and he goes on to tell us about the constructions and integration of CP/AC is causing it..
We landed at 7:20p and the pilots used the maximum runway available on 24L so it was a long taxi back to the terminal. Turns out there was no problem with gates. We were parked at gate 81 at 7:30p, 10 mins ahead of schedule.
Something that really bugged me and couple others on this flight is the guy sitting in 2A and 2C. Guy in 2A is EXP and guy in 2C is GLD. They were travelling together and yet they choose 2 seats that are seperated by an aisle. As soon as they get on, they decided to start talking loudly continuously until we landed... throughout the flight, they exchanged laptops, talking at the top of their lungs across the aisle. They obviously worked at the same company and are travelling together, why not sit together if they are going to work on the flight? There are no excuse as there were couple pair of seats together left prior to departure. Couple guys were readt to turn around and tell them to shut up. Where're people's self-discipline?
Anyways... overall the flight was once again nicely staffed. Great service. Luckily I had no check in bags as the bag claim area was a totally zoo when I passed by it.
So now I am just 1622 Q miles away from 2001 SE/EP!