Background: On March 12, 2020, I boarded an AC 787 in AMS bound for YYZ to begin what was supposed to be a one-week visit with my parents in YOW. By the time I touched down, borders started closing, flights were cancelled, and we entered the era of corona. Having postponed by return to AMS by over two months, I finally made the trip yesterday, flying a circuitous YOW-YYZ-FRA-AMS on AC and LH necessitated by schedule reductions. I don't usually write trip reports, but given the unique experience, I took a few photos I thought I'd share here. Apologies for the vertical orientation; these were all taken on my phone.
Leg 1: YOW-YYZ on AC 7713; operated by an Embraer ERJ-175; seated in J
Due to new entry requirements, I was unable to check in online with my Canadian passport. Figuring this had to do with needing to present my Dutch residency permit, I showed up at YOW bright and early. After clearing the document check, not having had breakfast or my morning coffee, and knowing that lounges were closed and no food would be offered onboard, I inquired whether any restaurants or cafés were open after security. The answer was no, so I bought some coffee and a croissant from the one open establishment pre-security, a Tim Horton's.
Security was down to a single line (no Nexus or business class line), which was no issue given the deserted airport.
After a temperature check at the gate, AC 7713 boarded and departed on time. The load on this E175 was very light; maybe 15% full. In
response to covid, AC has eliminated meal service in all cabins on flights under 2 hours and reduced beverage service to bottled water only throughout its operations. And so, this '
CleanCare+' package was the extent of the onboard service. The bag consists of a small water bottle, a surgical mask, and a pair of gloves.
Leg 2: YYZ-FRA on AC 872; operated by a Boeing 777-300ER; seated in J
We landed ~15 minutes early at YYZ, leaving me with a 6-hour layover. AC's normal half-hourly / hourly 'Rapidair' service between YOW and YYZ has been reduced to
'up to 4' flights a day. I'm not sure when the other flights run, but there was no flight after this scheduled 11am arrival at YYZ that would have allowed me to make the 4:45pm departure of AC 872 to FRA. And so, I passed the next 6 hours in a deserted YYZ.
The entire international concourse had 2 restaurants open, serving the 4 flights of the day. I was quite surprised to see 2 departures to LHR so close to each other, but assumed that AC 7200 was rescheduled flight from a previous day's IRROPS.
The terminal was so devoid of human activity that nature has started taking over!
At 4pm, I was summoned to the gate for another document check. Apparently the check-in agent in YOW did not enter the correct information. Then we started boarding (no temperature check this time), and I snuck a shot of the cockpit after clearing it with the SD.
Given my luck, my assigned seat of 1A was
deflated. Thankfully, with only 4 J passengers, I had 36 other seats to choose from and opted for 3A.
We pushed back on time only to learn of a mechanical issue. We returned to the gate, had maintenance come on to fixed whatever was broken, topped up on fuel, and ultimately departed 75 minutes behind schedule. This would make my connection in FRA tight.
After take-off, dinner was served. The aforementioned covid adjustments by AC meant no pre-departure drinks, no amenity kits, no pillows, no noise-cancelling headphones, no hot towels, no pre-meal nuts and beverages, no table cloth, no tableware, no beverages other than water, and no choice in dinner options. The SD specifically came by to apologize for the reduced service, which I appreciated even though it was not necessary.
And here was breakfast:
The biggest problem for me was the lack of coffee! It would have been nice to enjoy a hot cup with this gorgeous view:
We ended up arriving at 7:30am, but FRA has implemented a new social distancing procedure where deplaning is only allowed after bags have been offloaded. So it was another 10 minutes before we could deplane. The departure time of my next flight was 8:35am, with boarding at 8:05am. Although AC's FRA Concierge had already protected me on a later flight on KL, I really did not want to extend my stay in FRA (especially with all the lounges closed).
Leg 3: FRA-AMS on LH 988; operated by an Embraer ERJ-190; seated in Y
Once the aircraft door opened, I started the all-too-familiar race through the tangled mess that's FRA. Remarkably, even with so few people traveling, FRA managed to create a traffic jam at security. In the end, I made it to the gate of LH 988 just in time for the scheduled boarding time, but boarding did not commence for another 10 minutes. Boarding was completed in under 2 minutes as there were at most 10 passengers on this flight. Interestingly, LH only advises the wearing of masks whereas AC requires it. On the other hand, LH is still serving food on this ~50 minute flight (a massive cookie along with a bottle of water).
All in all, it was an interesting experience. Obviously, I would not recommend flying during these times if it can be avoided. Here's to hoping we can find a vaccine and return to normal before too long. Hope you enjoyed this write-up.
