O'AirCanada, HAM-YUL-HAM
Oct 20, 2000, 9:28 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Posts: 1
O'AirCanada, HAM-YUL-HAM
After reading a million reports at this great place I can finally post my own. Since I travel mostly on personal occasion, I fly only a few times a year. So here we go…
01.10. , HAM-FRA , LH013 , 07:20-08:30 , B737-300
Arriving at the airport at 06:30, after time had not been on my side that morning, I found a crowded terminal building and long lines in front of the LH counter. A little bit worried about making it I took a line and ended up 30 minutes later without a window seat, ready to go. No seat reservation for economy pax on domestic flights…
…don’t like this. Still I was delighted to spot 33A on my boarding pass for the YUL flight.
I had tried to get seats for my mother, her friend and me for months. But, taking a AC/LH codeshare flight has it’s drawbacks. Neither AC nor LH saw themselves capable of reserving seats. AC: " You have a LH ticket with a LH flight number, your not an AC passenger. Try LH." LH: " It’s AC equipment, can’t get in their computer, sorry can’t help you. Try AC." Great!
A travel agency finally made it happen, without guarantee though.
After running through a book store I was off to the gate. HAM is such a nice little airport, few people and a quiet ambience. Flight was already boarding, how nice. Then again we were standing in the gangway for 10 minutes, hmm.
I settled in 16 D and waited. The flight seemed full, at least our middle seat remained empty. Looking through my window neighbour, I had a quick view of some regular guests at HAM such as a BD 735, a SK 736 and a AF 320. Short taxi and off to FRA with a 20 min delay.
Some wake up bouncers as we entered the clouds, could have been more for my liking…
Rest of the flight went very well, as well. Had my standard tomato juice with the attendant kindly asking if I’d take salt and pepper. Of course, there is no meal on a short hop like this, but some brezels or nuts would have been nice. But I don’t want to complain. Some reading in my quick pick novel, a few attempts of x-raying my obviously attractive female neighbour to spot them cloud formations, trying not to be mistakenly thought of as being interested in her apparent outlines or something like that. 
I’d rather have an old gentleman covering the window, since they usually don’t mind looking around them constantly.
Our approach was nice and shaky as we dropped onto the runway quite hard after 50 min, on time. While being bussed to the terminal, as always, I saw our AC A333, how exciting I thought.
FRA was exploding, people everywhere. Hot and loud, like an Oktoberfest Bierzelt. What a contrast. Since I lived near Frankfurt, before moving to Hamburg just a year ago, I am used to FRA, but it seems their terminal capacity has been finally exceeded. I can remember, after the opening of T2, I actually liked FRA for it’s international yet calm atmosphere, but now…
Quickly I shovelled my way through the masses to B41 where I found my mother and friend. A short visit to the duty free and at 09:50 we stepped on LH6856 also called AC875.
01.10. , FRA-YUL , AC875 , 10:00-11:50 , A330-300
A nice aircraft it is. Clean, wide seats, a least they looked like it, and enough space in between rows. Only the green in green interior was not to my taste. Well, as I had somehow expected, the seat reservation for the rest of us turned out to be of no purpose, so a nice attendant worked out a deal that my mother and friend could sit next to me, across the aisle, instead of all over the plane. I took my seat next to a not so small man and got comfortable with the idea of remaining halfway on the chair and halfway inside the window. But at this point I didn’t care, I had a view!
At 10:20 doors were in flight, we taxied by the big boys, had a short wait and blasted away for Montreal at 10:30. FRA’s parallel runways seem to be in a bad condition, as we were riding and hopping along the way till we made it, disappearing in low hanging clouds almost immediately. Some rollercoaster riding and 10 minutes later, the seatbelt sign just switched off, the big rush began. Now, not so clever me hadn’t thought about lavatories when reserving seats…
Oh well, this way I got to see every face on board at least twice and after a few hours of observing I found it quite amusing. Cause now I know the hundred different ways of opening an aircraft lavatory door…
Service on Air Canada is not good!
Service in economy is obviously not so great in general, but AC is truly basic. I’ve been across the Atlantic with LH, DL, UA, SN and some others but AC beats them all.
I’m trying to be as objective as possible. Without any notice, a drink service began about 30 minutes into the flight. There were no menus or any information regarding the available beverages on board. I can recall menus on LH and UA and inflight magazines containing beverage listings on DL. Is it still this way today in economy?
I had a half way filled orange juice, a bag of brezels and anticipated the things to come. Which came in form of an almost cold hot towel with an uninviting scent followed by the meal. Since there were no menus I’ll give it a try at making it look exclusive:
Mixed colourful salads with clear Italian vinaigrette (ok)
Choice of beef garnished on an array of gardenfresh vegetables, or
Turkey breast in a bed of wild rice topped with aromatic tomato sauce (had the later which was horrible)
Emmentaler cheese accompanied by a fresh roll (…)
Light chocolate mousse (ok+)
Obviously, none of this is true, but I made the most of it. As for the wines, there was a choice of Ph. Rothschild Cadet, Vin de pay’Doc red or white, of which the red one I had was undrinkable and the white, my mother had, seemed passable. The best part of it all was the drink service, carrying the wine, came after everyone had finished their meal. Truly professional. Coffee and tea made its way to, I think.
They passed out head sets.
A short 10 minutes of airshow then a recent movie followed by James Bond’s Gold Finger!?
Since when are airlines showing junk like this? All on the main cabin screen, although I had thought of reading about personal screens on A330/340’s at AC’s website. But then, it was not really important.
Uneventful flight until we reached the southern tip of Greenland. An announcement was made and everyone was shifting to the right side, climbing into peoples window rows, lucky me, watching from the left. Still, some minutes of spectacular viewing, thanks to a crisp clear sky.
A drink service of the plain kind followed some time after, consisting of a cup you’d have to grab of the by-rushing attendants which would then happily fill it with some water they carried in a bottle.
At this point I was flying within Russia.
I’m not expecting too much here, but three and a quarter drink services in eight hours? People were running down the galleys for some liquid. The air conditioning was very low, which not exactly relieved the situation. An hour and a half before landing, an atmosphere of multicultural smells had developed, the F/A’s showed up yet again with their cool towels and a box. It carried a roll with one slice of something on it and a candystick. Kindly they poured the last drink service.
Somehow being glad this was over, I followed our plane on the airshow for the last hour. Descending over Quebec on a clear noon, colourful spots of trees and vast areas of farms and spread out communities in between are a lasting impressions. The attendants grabbed our trash and headphones. They all seemed quite young, like my age 23 or even younger, but they were friendly and happy to be on the ground soon. Who wouldn’t after 8 hours of annoying green around and 400 eyes looking at you, every time you pass through the cabin, which, on the other hand, wasn’t very often.
Approach into YUL, what a great sight. Montreal on the left, a city very much to my taste, the Olympic stadium with it’s dramatic tower, many bright little houses and Mont Royal. Some push and pull, the mighty Airbus wings flapping gracefully, et vóila, welcome to Montreal, with a nice smooth landing. AC planes everywhere, one NW 727 clearly disturbing the monotony. I must add, I liked the A330, my first and certainly not my last flight.
No gate again, but therefor I had the pleasure of riding on one of those mobile lounges, of which I have read here will soon be relicts of the past.
Then Dorval, just like Heathrow’s T’s. Old, low ceilings, bad air, very unpleasant, but the Montrealiens know or else would they be charging 10 dollars on your way out? Standing in customs, I figured the return flight might be closer to what I had expected from AC. Since I had no choice, I would see anyway.
For now, we were on the road for some 2 weeks of Montreal, Portsmouth, Burlington, Niagara, Toronto and Ottawa.
And what a colourful fantastic trip it was, being the poor student I am, in the middle of two sweet ladies carrying the CC’s...
...hehe
I think I’ll complete my report with our return flight, but for now this is it. I’m not a very fast writer…
Thanx for reading anyway!
01.10. , HAM-FRA , LH013 , 07:20-08:30 , B737-300
Arriving at the airport at 06:30, after time had not been on my side that morning, I found a crowded terminal building and long lines in front of the LH counter. A little bit worried about making it I took a line and ended up 30 minutes later without a window seat, ready to go. No seat reservation for economy pax on domestic flights…
…don’t like this. Still I was delighted to spot 33A on my boarding pass for the YUL flight.I had tried to get seats for my mother, her friend and me for months. But, taking a AC/LH codeshare flight has it’s drawbacks. Neither AC nor LH saw themselves capable of reserving seats. AC: " You have a LH ticket with a LH flight number, your not an AC passenger. Try LH." LH: " It’s AC equipment, can’t get in their computer, sorry can’t help you. Try AC." Great!
A travel agency finally made it happen, without guarantee though.
After running through a book store I was off to the gate. HAM is such a nice little airport, few people and a quiet ambience. Flight was already boarding, how nice. Then again we were standing in the gangway for 10 minutes, hmm.
I settled in 16 D and waited. The flight seemed full, at least our middle seat remained empty. Looking through my window neighbour, I had a quick view of some regular guests at HAM such as a BD 735, a SK 736 and a AF 320. Short taxi and off to FRA with a 20 min delay.
Some wake up bouncers as we entered the clouds, could have been more for my liking…
Rest of the flight went very well, as well. Had my standard tomato juice with the attendant kindly asking if I’d take salt and pepper. Of course, there is no meal on a short hop like this, but some brezels or nuts would have been nice. But I don’t want to complain. Some reading in my quick pick novel, a few attempts of x-raying my obviously attractive female neighbour to spot them cloud formations, trying not to be mistakenly thought of as being interested in her apparent outlines or something like that. I’d rather have an old gentleman covering the window, since they usually don’t mind looking around them constantly. Our approach was nice and shaky as we dropped onto the runway quite hard after 50 min, on time. While being bussed to the terminal, as always, I saw our AC A333, how exciting I thought.
FRA was exploding, people everywhere. Hot and loud, like an Oktoberfest Bierzelt. What a contrast. Since I lived near Frankfurt, before moving to Hamburg just a year ago, I am used to FRA, but it seems their terminal capacity has been finally exceeded. I can remember, after the opening of T2, I actually liked FRA for it’s international yet calm atmosphere, but now…
Quickly I shovelled my way through the masses to B41 where I found my mother and friend. A short visit to the duty free and at 09:50 we stepped on LH6856 also called AC875.
01.10. , FRA-YUL , AC875 , 10:00-11:50 , A330-300
A nice aircraft it is. Clean, wide seats, a least they looked like it, and enough space in between rows. Only the green in green interior was not to my taste. Well, as I had somehow expected, the seat reservation for the rest of us turned out to be of no purpose, so a nice attendant worked out a deal that my mother and friend could sit next to me, across the aisle, instead of all over the plane. I took my seat next to a not so small man and got comfortable with the idea of remaining halfway on the chair and halfway inside the window. But at this point I didn’t care, I had a view!
At 10:20 doors were in flight, we taxied by the big boys, had a short wait and blasted away for Montreal at 10:30. FRA’s parallel runways seem to be in a bad condition, as we were riding and hopping along the way till we made it, disappearing in low hanging clouds almost immediately. Some rollercoaster riding and 10 minutes later, the seatbelt sign just switched off, the big rush began. Now, not so clever me hadn’t thought about lavatories when reserving seats…
Oh well, this way I got to see every face on board at least twice and after a few hours of observing I found it quite amusing. Cause now I know the hundred different ways of opening an aircraft lavatory door…
Service on Air Canada is not good!
Service in economy is obviously not so great in general, but AC is truly basic. I’ve been across the Atlantic with LH, DL, UA, SN and some others but AC beats them all.
I’m trying to be as objective as possible. Without any notice, a drink service began about 30 minutes into the flight. There were no menus or any information regarding the available beverages on board. I can recall menus on LH and UA and inflight magazines containing beverage listings on DL. Is it still this way today in economy?
I had a half way filled orange juice, a bag of brezels and anticipated the things to come. Which came in form of an almost cold hot towel with an uninviting scent followed by the meal. Since there were no menus I’ll give it a try at making it look exclusive:
Mixed colourful salads with clear Italian vinaigrette (ok)
Choice of beef garnished on an array of gardenfresh vegetables, or
Turkey breast in a bed of wild rice topped with aromatic tomato sauce (had the later which was horrible)
Emmentaler cheese accompanied by a fresh roll (…)
Light chocolate mousse (ok+)
Obviously, none of this is true, but I made the most of it. As for the wines, there was a choice of Ph. Rothschild Cadet, Vin de pay’Doc red or white, of which the red one I had was undrinkable and the white, my mother had, seemed passable. The best part of it all was the drink service, carrying the wine, came after everyone had finished their meal. Truly professional. Coffee and tea made its way to, I think.
They passed out head sets.
A short 10 minutes of airshow then a recent movie followed by James Bond’s Gold Finger!?
Since when are airlines showing junk like this? All on the main cabin screen, although I had thought of reading about personal screens on A330/340’s at AC’s website. But then, it was not really important.
Uneventful flight until we reached the southern tip of Greenland. An announcement was made and everyone was shifting to the right side, climbing into peoples window rows, lucky me, watching from the left. Still, some minutes of spectacular viewing, thanks to a crisp clear sky.
A drink service of the plain kind followed some time after, consisting of a cup you’d have to grab of the by-rushing attendants which would then happily fill it with some water they carried in a bottle.
At this point I was flying within Russia.
I’m not expecting too much here, but three and a quarter drink services in eight hours? People were running down the galleys for some liquid. The air conditioning was very low, which not exactly relieved the situation. An hour and a half before landing, an atmosphere of multicultural smells had developed, the F/A’s showed up yet again with their cool towels and a box. It carried a roll with one slice of something on it and a candystick. Kindly they poured the last drink service.
Somehow being glad this was over, I followed our plane on the airshow for the last hour. Descending over Quebec on a clear noon, colourful spots of trees and vast areas of farms and spread out communities in between are a lasting impressions. The attendants grabbed our trash and headphones. They all seemed quite young, like my age 23 or even younger, but they were friendly and happy to be on the ground soon. Who wouldn’t after 8 hours of annoying green around and 400 eyes looking at you, every time you pass through the cabin, which, on the other hand, wasn’t very often.
Approach into YUL, what a great sight. Montreal on the left, a city very much to my taste, the Olympic stadium with it’s dramatic tower, many bright little houses and Mont Royal. Some push and pull, the mighty Airbus wings flapping gracefully, et vóila, welcome to Montreal, with a nice smooth landing. AC planes everywhere, one NW 727 clearly disturbing the monotony. I must add, I liked the A330, my first and certainly not my last flight.
No gate again, but therefor I had the pleasure of riding on one of those mobile lounges, of which I have read here will soon be relicts of the past.
Then Dorval, just like Heathrow’s T’s. Old, low ceilings, bad air, very unpleasant, but the Montrealiens know or else would they be charging 10 dollars on your way out? Standing in customs, I figured the return flight might be closer to what I had expected from AC. Since I had no choice, I would see anyway.
For now, we were on the road for some 2 weeks of Montreal, Portsmouth, Burlington, Niagara, Toronto and Ottawa.
And what a colourful fantastic trip it was, being the poor student I am, in the middle of two sweet ladies carrying the CC’s...
...heheI think I’ll complete my report with our return flight, but for now this is it. I’m not a very fast writer…
Thanx for reading anyway!
Oct 20, 2000, 12:59 pm
#2
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Sweden
Posts: 5,645
Very intresting trip report. I was on a LH flight to and from PHL a few weeks ago, I was flying eco and didnt see any kinds of menus what so ever. I will be on my first AC flight in less then a month from YVR via YYC to FRA and I am looking forward to it.