tcook052

Given that virtually all of us are grounded due to circumstances I thought it would be nice to relive some memories about your first Air Canada flight if you can recall it. Pictures and visual aids are welcome.

My first flight was as an AC flight as a 16-year-old from YXE to YYC in early 80's and while I don't recall the specific aircraft believe it was a jet rather than a turboprop so perhaps a rugged DC9. The flight was barely an hour long and with the 1-hour time difference remember thinking how funny it was on my ticket to see arrival into YYC be 2-minutes after YXE takeoff. On the return there was some snafu with the paper tickets as apparently the YXE GA pulled the wrong coupon so that had to be fixed but otherwise a smooth but short flight. Sadly I didn't keep any of the ticket stubs and didn't take photos so the trips remains only a memory.

I was a frequent visitor to YXE back in those days as my father traveled for work several times a year and back then you could walk right up and put your nose on the big windows that looked out onto the apron and gates. The aircraft came right up close so it was a unique experience as a kid that's seldom found with more modern airport design.

Anyone else care to share their first Air Canada flight memories?

Stranger

First AC flight was mid-1982, I believe YVR-YYC, on a DC-9. I don't beleive I flew AC again until 1991 or 1992 ehen I flew SFO-YYC on a 727, but around 1986 the whole family flew YVR-SFO on CP, 737 obviously, courtesy of ICBC.

However, first flight was in 1962, DC-4 I believe, BRU-ATH. Followed by a bunch of CDG-ALG, BRU-ALG, ALG-AAE, MRS-CZL, then FRA-VCP, and a bunch of CGN-REC on aging RGs 727-100s, which consistently departed from VCP instead and consequently would arrive three hours late. But yes, we still ended up married. :-)

Bohemian1

Slightly OT, but I grew up in Saskatoon and remember (as a kid) going out onto an outside viewing deck that was up some stairs and looking at the planes.

But my first flight on AC was much later and was before I graduated from the U of S and flew to YOW for job interviews. I'm pretty sure that one of the flights was AC157, but can't recall if I routed through YYZ or YUL. But I think it was a B727-200. IIRC, my potential employees might have even put me in Concierge class or whatever it was called back then.

rankourabu

FRA-YYZ in December 1999 as a youngun - in "hospitality class". Boarding pass I had seat 33J - and I have it written down as a 767.

All I remember is how much better the outbound on LH was. Didnt fly AC for 3 years after that, and longhaul not until Jun.2008.

Edit: Found the ticket and boarding pass - geez, flying in 1999 was expensive, but taxes were oh so low!

Phosfor

My first AC flight is also my first flight, and also one of my earliest memories. I would have been 3 or 4 at the time, in the late sixties. The flight was a "Christmas Light Flight" over Winnipeg, the aircraft was an Air Canada Vickers Viscount. It's difficult to imagine such a thing now but there were short flights over the city lasting maybe 1/2 hour just to look at Christmas lights! I seem to recall a lot of people at the airport waiting to board and I think there was more than one aircraft doing this at the same time, and sitting beside that giant round window behind the wing enjoying the view.

Heffeh41

Mid/Late 90's YYZ-MCO on a 747. Probably the 1st time I can recall being on a plane. I think it was on Canadian though.

lcohen999

I have broken memories of it all.

The old Terminal 1 in YYZ, with the private security screening for international departures right into the MLL.
Flying as a U/M rapidair to see family over holidays.

A few flights back in the day where the cockpit door was left open

Log Drivers Waltz
The Cat Came Back short


edit:
and


That weird baby with the eyes before the next feature started.

That is my 80s/90s AC

expert7700

Aah, the classic flight that turned into an addiction. Zero interest in AC, happened to find a route on 787routemap website published by Boeing.. Drove 3.5hrs to YYZ . First time we drove to or entered Canada in a decade.
​​​​​
1st AC flight Jan 25, 2015 YYZ-YUL $ 74.41 CAD per person, Tango, bought T-20 hours before flight

This was also our:
1st Widebody Aircraft
​​​​​1st Dreamliner (+ tour of upstairs crew rest area)
1st Lie-Flat Pod ($99 paid J upgrade)
1st Airport Lounge
1st Flight with an oven, glassware, utensils
1st in flight "meal" - hot meatball appetizer

​​​​​​2nd AC flight Jan 25 2015 YUL-YYZ (immediate turn)
$97.41 CAD + $17 preferred seat fee (for row 14, now sold as PY)

It bugged the heck out of me that a very rude YUL gate agent would not explain or sell me an upgraded seat on the return flight that had empty J seats!!

So I decided to learn how it all worked.....
------ fast forward < 6 months

July 20th 2015 - received Super Elite 100k welcome email
then
August 18th 2015- wife and 6 year old received their Super Elite 100k welcome email
​​​​​
​

Bohemian1

That's what got me riding in so many AC cockpits (pre 9/11 of course) and what turned me onto FT.

Jebby_ca

My first Air Canada flight... AC149 YYZ - YVR on August 2, 2002. Marked down as a 767-300, seat 22K. Don't remember anything from it.

My first Air Canada flight memory... well, it was supposed to be a Tango flight... AC6035, YOW - YYZ on Dec 19, 2002. There was an equipment swap, and my seat was no longer available on the new plane. I tried checking in on the kiosk (back then if I remember correctly kiosk boarding passes were a different colour?) and then checked in at the counter. Check-in agent gave me seat 1A... boarded to find out it was swapped to a mainline A320, so I enjoyed my first ever business class seat, at Tango prices, for an hour.

krayZpaving

January 2010 (~6 months after I moved to Canada) - YVR-YUL. Unfortunately no record of the aircraft type but presumably an A32x. Not much memory of it, as it was well into my flying life, but there was a group of us travelling together on the flight so I'm sure there was quite a bit of beverage-enhanced fun!

canadiancow

I must be odd here in that I was on flights at least annually from birth until I was a teenager, so I don't have specific memories of my first flight.

I recall a YYZ-YOW on CP when I was 7. I recall not getting my first choice of Y meal on YYZ-DFW on... some airline... at some single-digit age.

I remember my first LMU, which was on YYZ-SFO in 2012, on the flight that took me to a job interview that resulted in moving to SFO. 3 hours in the MLL due to a delay. Empty seat beside me on a 320. Two cookies of different types!!! That experience, combined with now living 2254 miles away from where I grew up, got me addicted.

karachi

first AC : sometime in late 80's .. Singapore to London on a DC10 IIRC

first flight .. 1973 or so, PIA Boeing 707 KHI-KUL and then Aeroflot KUL-KHI. Aeroflot was awful.

tcook052

I didn't know AC flew SIN-LHR.

Admiral Ackbar

YUL-MIA in First in the nose of a 747 around 1984 which was also my first flight ever and where my expectations were set . Roast beef and beige Aeroplan stickers!