In February I flew from Toronto to Sydney on the daily direct flight with a 2 hour stop in Vancouver. My partner and I were split opinion wise on how to fly. I favoured AA via LAX. My partner won the day with the AC direct flight with the mantra - what could go wrong and I'm 50k so it will make a difference??!! Well the answer is - PLENTY!!
After booking the flight, we found (and it's kinda logical being wiser after the event) that it's one flight number and so one boarding pass and one seat reservation. The flight is sold both as a YYZ to YVR flight (and popular in PE with Biz people) as well as a hub flight from YVR as all points of AC converge in YVR and shuffle the customers for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Japan. The consequence was no twin in a 2-4-2 formation available for both legs though different twins were available for either leg. We weren't allowed to change seats. The gate in Toronto suggested we ask in YVR and YVR gate said we should have asked in YYZ!! We boarded late in YYZ on the 777-200LR which in economy is 10 across. (see below). Drinks and an improved entree showed the rigidness of service. only 24 meals loaded - a mix of veal stew and veggie pasta. In the second row i didn't get my meal choice as the total meals loaded = PAX and so the split is never going to be good for the last row - or in my case the second row!! Drinks are only served with the meal. (Boo!!) I personally like a fast drink, before the meal service. Upgrades for both legs were bid at the max allowed and we didn't win in either direction. The bid is for both legs only, as are upgrade credits - so you can't even upgrade one sector. We left Vancouver with space in Biz too - so annoying. 16 hours is a long time, and after the main meal leaving vancouver I had a long long sleep. I woke excited that I must be near the end, but we still had 12 hours to go! A sandwich wrapped in cling film served mid flight (same as economy) as was the breakfast. I walked back to Y and the 10 across on a 16 hour flight is just inhumane. Legs and arms spilling into the narrow aisle with PAX literally wedged in - particularly in the middle seats.
On the return flight - we managed to get a twin for both sectors. The flight was delayed 5 hours as on the aircraft was delayed de-icing leaving YVR and the crew ran out of hours. it ran later with a scratch crew. same service with a improved first meal and then the morphing into economy. No meal vouchers offered in SYD despite the delay being over 4 hours. As we departed and landed 5 hours late in Vancouver, we were amazed to find (but only once on the ground) that the second leg ran on time with a substitute dreamliner so we missed our own flight / second leg. (if you follow my logic) We were put onto a new flight with split seats in PE - but on the original aircraft so we could see the seats we vacated 90 mins earlier but with other people in them. The inflexibility of the flight and it's fragility make it a bad choice from YYZ to SYD. Better for sure if you're hubbing via YVR as it is two flight numbers. I still follow the flight out of curiosity on the AC app and flightradar 24 and it's on time - esp from Sydney perhaps once a week, with the YVR to YYZ often cancelled if it runs too late. On the plus side, the sydney leg has senior crew who were a bit grumpy but very competent and fast. (they do two YVRs to SYD a month and they are pretty much done hours wise.)
The moral victory on why we should have gone AA (which we hear is a superior PE experience) was hollow for me, with the decision jointly made NEVER to do this flight again. You have been warned!!