This is a weekend webspecial fare taken as part of a mileage run for Executive Platinum on CP hopefully by Sept 30 in order to get the 5000 bonus pts for early qualification. The fare including taxes was $288.90CDN.

CP 983 YYZ - YVR
Dp 12:15p Ar 2:05p

This is my first trip leaving from YYZ Terminal 2 since CP's move from Terminal 3. The airport was quieter than I expected with short lines at the domestic checkin area and no lines at all at the J class checkin. I arrived at the airport 11:30a and checkin was completed in less than a min with the agent taking a Gray sticker for the upgrade. Got one of my favourite single J seat 1A on CP's 767. Went to the MLL for a quick drink before boarding and the agent wanted to see my EXP membership card before letting me in. One weird thing is that it doesn't show my status on the boarding pass but only the FF number. Lounge was quiet with probably around 15-20 people in there and half of them ended up on my flight. Grab a quick drink then headed for the gate. Stopped by the newsstand to pick up a copy of Toronto Star as for some reason CP doesn't have them on board.

J class/elite boarding have already been completed when I got there and they were just calling for general boarding. The CP concierge was taking boarding passes today and he addresses each passenger (both J and Y) by their first name and wishes them a good trip which is the first time I've seen it happen. As soon as I was onboard, I recognize one of the FA who I've probably been on tons of her flights as she exclusively do YYZ-YVR day return trips. The same concierge then came on board to personally welcome me on board and see whether I needed anything before take off. I hope we see more of these kind of service regularly on both CP and AC, it's these kinds of little service and attitude that makes a trip that much better. J class was only 17/25 full with 1 pilot in uniform while Y class was about 70-80% full.

Door closed right on time and we sat around for 5 minutes before pushback as a UA 737 stopped right behind us. Long taxi to R23 and there were about 5 aircraft in front of us. Flight time today was 4 hrs and 29 mins, crusing altitude was 31000 ft. Took off at 12:40p and I really think R23 needs some maintenance as that's probably one of the bumpiest runway I ever been on. Flight pretty much took us along the CAN-US border, passing Calgary and then into YVR. Drink orders were taken before take off. Flight was very bumpy for the first 30 mins or so causing drink and meal service to delay for 30 mins in Y but drinks were brought out anyways in J.

Meal service (Lunch) commenced shortly after that. Choices in Y if I remembered correctly was Pasta and something else.

Menu for us in J was:

To begin:
Barley risotto with sun-dried tomatoes and crispy cheddar

entree selections:
-Filet of pork complemented by apple, caper and mushroom salsa, presented with green beans and Asian rice
-Breast of chicken enhanced by pesto sauce, offered with saffron rice and Parisienne carrots
-Salmon accented by dill cream sauce, served with Parisienne potatoes, carrots and broccoli

Desserts:
-Mario's Gelati Italian ice cream or sorbetto
-Coffee, tea, herbal tea, liqueurs

I choose the chicken as the pork looked kind of dried when it came around.

The FAs pretty much disappear after the meal service and not appearing til 30 mins prior to departure.

We landed on schedule behind CP 8 who just arrived from HKG and saw QF's 767 parked on the tarmac as well.

We were at the gate at 2:15p.

Overall, service were great as always on CP, friendly crews.

Return trip is Monday.

Hilton YVR Airport
As I only booked the trip on Wed, hotel rates were quite high and since this is a mileage run, I want to keep the cost low. I tried to use the UA 50% off at this hotel but central res told me no availability, so I called the hotel directly and it was no problem. I got a rate of $109CDN for both nights. Originally if I didn't get this rate, I would have stayed at Fairmount YVR Airport at AC's webspecial rate of $107 for Sat night and $127 for Sun night. However, nice to be staying at Hilton instead since it's close to the Richmond Centre. Since I've stayed at this hotel quite a number of time, most of the staff knows me and I was given the biggest suite in the hotel wih balcony (This is an all suite hotel). FYI, anyone booking hotels in YVR should go to www.tourism-vancouver.com, they have great rates available and I've used it many times.. For example, they have the Sheraton Wall centre for $129, Westin Grand for $139.... same rate for both weekends and weekdays.. lot lower than regular rates and they are eligible for Starpoints.

Will post return when I get back to YYZ..

Thanks Empress. Must be great to still have those CP any fare upgrades!

Sounds like the YYZ problems may finally be minimized now.

Empress

Welcome to Richmond! Great report.

Just curious - why not do a back to back YVR <-> YYZ flights for the weekend - you get a couple of extra flights for the cost of the hotel stay and you are a giant step closer to EP?! Why not tag on a YVR-YYJ flight? Are you in it for the miles or the flights?

IsleTraveller

IsleTraveller: I Originaly planned doing a back-to-back YYZ-YVR was a plan but I didn't want to get into trouble for doing a back-to-back. Did you ever do this?

No, but it is a hot topic in the AA forum. In that forum, back2back tickets are not illegal. Are they illegal for CP/AC? What is "illegal"?

CP 572 YVR - YYZ
Dp 12:15p Ar 7:40p

Checked out of the Hilton at 11:00a to take the 11:20a shuttle to the airport. The service I received at this hotel was generally great for my 2 day stay. Housekeeping even folded my clothes when they cleaned my room on Sunday. The originally 5 min shuttle ride took 20 mins because the driver decided to do both pick up and drop off at the same time.

Check in for my flight took less than 1 min, agent didn't check my ID even though I am travelling on an E ticket, took my stickers (I could have given her any color of stickers as she only asked me for 2000 miles worth of stickers). I gave her a gray one. Once I got my boarding passes, went to one of those self serve machine to pay the $10 Airport Improvement Fee and then proceeded to the Security. The security area was so crowded as there was a group of Japanese passing security as a group. I then proceeded to the CP domestic Empress Lounge for 10 mins before proceeding to the gate.

Boarding have already started when I got there. Once on board, I took my second favourite seat 1A on CP 767. J class was full with 3 EXP, couple GLDs and couple AC Elites. Y class was almost 100% full. Looks like CP is doing pretty well filling these seats. Drink orders were taken prior to take off. Pushback took place at 12:13p and we took off at 12:25p. Flying time was 3 hours and 52 minutes at a cruising altitude of 31000 feet.

Something I have noticed on CP recently, prior to receiving clearance for takeoff, there are usually couple "ding" sounds to let the FA to take their seats, but now the FO comes on the PA to say "We have just received clearance from the tower to position runway 26 and should be taking off in 1 minute, would FA please take their seats." This started since July if I recall correctly. Not sure what prompted the change.

Drinks were brought around once airbrone and lunch were served shortly after that. This 2 particular FAs working J class decided to do it the easy way, pulling the whole meal cart out and putting the wine and the buns on top so they can do all 3 at once instead of the usual setting up the wine cart to serve wine first before bringing out the meals.

Menu for this flight:

To begin:
Celery and apple salad with caper jelly

This was quite good and most of the people in J class cleared the plate which usually doesn't happen

Entree selections:
- Classic filet of beef accented by mustard sauce, served with green beans and Parisienne potatoes
- Breast of chicken offered with piquante sauce, accompanied by mashed potatoes with leeks and broccoli florets
- Fillet of Salmon enhanced by herb cream sauce, presented with biryani and carrots

I choose the chicken as salmon was all gone by the time they got to me leaving me only with the choice of chicken or beef for the second flight in a row, one of the disadvantage of sitting in the forward section of J. I sometimes think CP should take meal orders by status!

Movie was then shown. The wrong movie was shown and no body said a word. The movie was supposed to be Keeping the Faith staring Ben Stiller and Edward Norton which should be one of the more interesting movie but instead they showed Heaven can't wait which was aweful as it was a 1978 movie.

The FA came around the cabin occasionally to see whether anyone wants a drink.

About 30 mins prior to landing, Captain Johnson came on the announcement to let us know we'll be landing 20 mins ahead of schedule and warned us that there might be a possibility of "no gates" when we get there and he promises to let us know if that happens and he goes on to tell us about the constructions and integration of CP/AC is causing it..

We landed at 7:20p and the pilots used the maximum runway available on 24L so it was a long taxi back to the terminal. Turns out there was no problem with gates. We were parked at gate 81 at 7:30p, 10 mins ahead of schedule.

Something that really bugged me and couple others on this flight is the guy sitting in 2A and 2C. Guy in 2A is EXP and guy in 2C is GLD. They were travelling together and yet they choose 2 seats that are seperated by an aisle. As soon as they get on, they decided to start talking loudly continuously until we landed... throughout the flight, they exchanged laptops, talking at the top of their lungs across the aisle. They obviously worked at the same company and are travelling together, why not sit together if they are going to work on the flight? There are no excuse as there were couple pair of seats together left prior to departure. Couple guys were readt to turn around and tell them to shut up. Where're people's self-discipline?

Anyways... overall the flight was once again nicely staffed. Great service. Luckily I had no check in bags as the bag claim area was a totally zoo when I passed by it.

So now I am just 1622 Q miles away from 2001 SE/EP!

I suspect the reason CP doesn't carry the Saturday Star on board is that it is so large and weighs in like a piece of slate, that FAs would grieve if they had to carry more than one copy down the aisle at a time. It now makes the Sunday New York Times look like a light weight! Glad all went well. I enjoy the Hilton as well, since the rooms are quite spacious and the rate is hard to beat. Thanks for the reference on hotel bookings. YVR is a very expensive hotel city, particularly on the weekends. This looks like a good way of saving a few dollars. Hope to take advantage of a few of these same weekend specials over the fall so I can work on some more film projects with my Vancouver-based coproducer.