Finally time for the first flight of the trip.
Flight: Air Canada 170
Route: YEG - YYZ
Scheduled Departure Time: 1320
Actual Departure Time: 1332
Scheduled Arrival Time: 1905
Actual Arrival Time: 2021
Aircraft: Airbus A220-300
Departure was a bit delayed, though not entirely certain why as there was no real announcement. This is my second or third time flying in Business onboard this aircraft and I absolutely love it. The IFE screen is really large and very good quality for a seat back screen. The cabin feels very open and airy and the windows are very large.
A quick legroom shot. Tonnes of space for my 5'10". My wife at 5'3" had nothing but space.
A window shot at what was a somewhat sloppy and slushy Edmonton. Though the temperature was above zero in December so no real complaints.
Menus were handed out prior to take off and orders were also taken. They took the orders from front to back but it appears as though everyone got their first choice as I didnt hear any grumbling.
The drinks menu was on the back. Sadly no Captain Morgan in flight for my wife today.
Take off was quick and very quiet. Please ignore the title of the video. Never upload to Youtube when you are mid bottle of wine. It is actually an Airbus A220-300 take off, not a 737 Max 8.
Service started shortly after we levelled off. The first of many packages of almonds we received on this trip.
And what goes better with almonds than a Mimosa. My wife went with a Canadian Club and diet coke. It seemed to hit the spot.
The main course was served next with another round of drinks. Both of us picked the chicken breast option and it was actually really good. I ended up eating all of it. The carrot cake was really good as well although maybe a bit cold which made it a bit more dense than it should have been. The only low point of the meal was the bun which came pre packaged. It was quite hard due to the fact that it was one step away from being frozen. It is too bad they cant heat them up a bit. It would improve it a great deal.
I snuck in my favourite Christmas movie on the flight.
And a few shots of a very snowy Canada on the way to Toronto
I believe this was somewhere over Winnipeg.
We arrived into a very warm Toronto (9 degrees Celsius in December!!!) 10 minutes early however when we arrived at our gate we were informed that there was a plane blocking us and that we would have to wait for it to move. The pilot indicated it would be no more than 5 minutes. Fast forward 20 minutes and we start moving forward only to stop about 20 meters ahead. Now we are informed that there is no ground crew for us due to being short staffed. This was the first of 6 or 7 announcements that the crew is on their way and that it will just be a few more minutes. We had to do multiple circles around to clear out of the way of other planes who had a gate and ground crew. Finally we pulled into our gate at 2021, almost an hour after we had first arrived near the gate.
We let those who had an international connection off of the plane first and then made our way to the baggage carrousel.
Our bags were coming out on a carrousel with 3 other flights, yet multiple other carrousels had no flights at all. This meant 4 flights had to hang around one belt. I have no idea why Air Canada does this but it was a constant on all of our flights throughout the trip.
Despite the priority tags on the bags our final piece of luggage came out at the very end of the bags from our flight. Sadly this was also a constant throughout our trip. We finally exited the baggage hall after waiting 55 minutes for our bags!!! After a quick wait for the shuttle we were on our way to the hotel for the night. All in all a decent flight in the air but the ground experience left much to be desired in Toronto. This experience along with some horror stories of customs in Toronto lead us to change our flights on the way home.