Canadian Senators travel Air Canada business class between Ottawa and Toronto
 

I'm not one who usually follows political news but political viewpoints aside, this was interesting to me.

"Meredith often flew business class for the short hop between Toronto and Ottawa."

This would have to be on Air Canada in business class. Perhaps this is why that Rapidair route is fairly expensive due to government travel.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...tel-rooms.html

This has been going on since the beginning of time, regarding the tread title.

I used to be on the same Monday morning flights in J as Colin Kenny, Stockwell Day, Preston Manning, etc.

Pretty much all types of politicians... not just senators. But as far as I understood it, this has been status quo.

It seems that most people I meet flying AC J work for the government or have some sort of contract with the government

Do they actually pay J or they use some sort of Latitude FP? It is not uncommon to see some politicians seating in Y on Rapid air routes.

I see a mix in Y and J.

I didn't ask them how they got into J though. :p

Let me guess, they stayed on their HH and said DYKWIA :D

Well, they are entitled to their entitlements. :p

The Senate travel policy can be viewed online. Under that policy, senators are entitled to book business class for flights of any length.

I would be surprised if it was flight pass. One would assume the federal government has some buying power when it comes to air travel and have negotiated some good pricing with AC. However I could also be wrong.

Regulate all MP and senator travel to Y only and watch how fast pax right bill being tabled

They have a special air pass - I'm not sure if it can be an actual Air Canada Flight Pass but it functions basically as such, in Latitude too afaik.

MPs for this trip length would be in Y... seems ridiculous that Senators get J on all flights, but yea... agree with your point on the passenger rights bill ;)

They most likely already have status, so this wouldn't make much of a dent, I reckon. Of the BPs I happened to notice, they have status. Some use luggage tags, some don't.

Ahh yes, will never forget Senator Nancy Ruth's famous Air Canada J-class breakfast of "ice cold camembert and broken crackers".

Couple things:

Many MPs who fly J on that route are connecting to out west which puts them over the 3 hour travel time to use business. Parliament has a latitude flight pass group purchase that MPs use so upgrades are easy. The vast majority of GTA-based MPs always fly in Y.

Yes, the Senate is different, but as someone who travels this route on last minute fares every week, often times the J fare lowest is cheaper than the latitude fare, which is the only Y fare left.

My former MP used to fly Y fairly often on the YLW-YYZ-YOW route, often twice per week. He is one of those populist anti-elite types though, perhaps keen to avoid the optics of flying in luxury* on the public dime.


* there's that word again.