Almost all my AC travel is personal/leisure and after having my fair share or delayed and cancelled flights in NA this fall, I said to myself: No more weekend trips till spring.

Well, exactly a week ago I got an email from the Westin Harbour Castle, my favourite Toronto hotel, offering a discounted rate, triple Starwood points and extra 500 spg points for booking on the same day. It cannot get better than that, or so I thought. I was extremely busy at work recently and I just wanted to treat myself to something nice. Let’s get a J/D booking from YUL to YYZ and enjoy. I chose AC413 on E75 to go to YYZ and AC426 on B763 to come back. So far so good, time to look forward to the weekend.

AC413 YUL-YYZ on Nov. 26, 1 pm
Boarding started really early. I left MLL and 12:30 and the front cabin of 9 seats had already 5 occupants, meaning there was no overhead bin space for my one carry on. Ray (in charge) found space above row 12 in Y while lamenting that people bring three pieces. I had one and within the limit. That settled, I sat down to a comfortable 2A. Another J pax boarded (AC captain) and that was it for J: 3 staff in uniform, unsure about another one or two, a guy wearing a Bombardier cap and myself. They were ready to close the door at 12:45 but it was not meant to be. When the catering arrived (an the cold air), the in charge FA found that they brought only 3 meals, starting a lively discussion in the front galley. At the same time, power was going on and off and the captain started making various announcements about programming errors resulting in power going on and off and the delay. It took about an hour to resolve and then there was no ground crew to get us going. De-icing was next. That went quite smoothly and 10 minutes later or so we were on our way. The crew was great and Ray very efficient. I was served first, the Bombardier guy next and the captain in 3A got the last meal. That is what makes me believe that the other two pax were staff as well, bringing the total to 5. I got a nice little tray which included a drink (Ray took the order in advance) and very little to write home about: 3 rather dry pieces of chicken breast lying on cucumber slices and some other vegetables covered with ice crystals to deal with, and a fairly large plastic container with soy sauce. Not very good, not even close. We landed 1 hour and half late.

AC422 YYZ-YUL on Nov. 27, 6 pm

I managed to change from AC426 that went from B763 to B762 (I should not be surprised). That flight was on B767-300 but had a 6 row J configuration with an extra crew seat. The interior looked less tired, and the seats felt relatively comfortable. Again, the flight was late (about 30 minutes) and the crew was great. This time, I was among the first to board and had no problem finding space for my carry-on. Later on, it was another story. The catering was still loading the carts while people were boarding. Is that how it should be? When the actual service started, they did not have much to offer: Calzone or something called greek pizza. There was no tray, it was just brought over in a bowl and utensils handed along. It felt almost like at the Salvation Army counter. The pizza is so dry that you can choke on it, and depending where you sit, it will be a while before the drink cart arrives. The J class service hit another low in terms of what is being offered. The FAs tried their best and more, even being apologetic.

After landing I asked myself again why spend 25,000 Aeroplan points to get delayed flights (NOT due to weather) and food that is well below par. We complain about Y but this is very close to it. I am trying to understand why AC is doing this. I know all about global competition and cost control but there must be something else. J is supposed to be a premium product, and they certainly charge premium prices for that. What we get,however, is less than premium. Perhaps it is time to travel by air only when absolutely necessary, when the cheapest fare is available and then hope for the best?

Do you see anything wrong with my reasoning?