Welcome to my next trip report, a rundown of recent mileage run on Air Canada in order to preserve my Aeroplan elite status. The trip was very quick, but still involved several flights and lounges through Air Canada’s three hubs.
Air Canada Trip Report
I booked my trip to Toronto, traveling via Vancouver on the way out in order to fly the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and Boeing 787-9, then returning home nonstop on the Airbus A321. I booked during a 25% off promotion, securing the journey for about $360 r/t, which I saw as a suitable investment to be able to review these products and keep my Aeroplan 75K Elite status for another year. That status gives me access to United Club lounges whenever I fly United, a tremendous benefit.
I fully planned to do the trip in economy class. But after booking, I discovered that as a 75K Elite I had eUpgrade vouchers, including 20 that expired at the end of January. Because I booked the cheapest fare, a “standard” fare, I was asked for a co-pay in order to upgrade. I crunched the numbers and it actually turned out cheaper to cancel my booking and rebook a “flex” fare for about $120 more, which eliminated the co-pay (and required fewer eUpgrades) and earned more miles.
The upgrades cleared at my 75K window, which was 12 days prior to travel.
Without a doubt, the highlight of the trip was the Air Canada Café in Toronto. This is a wonderful lounge concept that includes high-quality, barista-made coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice and cold-pressed juices, and light food items that are packaged to go. The lounge space is beautiful, the staff were lovely, but the lounge concept impressed me so very much.
In Toronto, I attempted to change my nonstop routing home to a routing via Montreal, so that I could review the new Airbus A220 from YUL-LAX. That request was granted at the customer service desk in YYZ and I only had to pay the additional taxes, which were about 60CAD.
The flights were not bad either, with excellent service on all four segments and a nice treat on the LAX-YVR flight.
Expect the following segments in this trip report:
- Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Los Angeles (LAX)
- Air Canada 737 MAX 8 Economy Class Los Angeles – Vancouver
- Air Canada’s Genius Meal Service Concept
- Transborder Transit Experience In Vancouver
- Air Canada Domestic Maple Leaf Lounge Vancouver (YVR)
- Air Canada 787-9 Premium Economy Class Vancouver – Toronto
- Air Canada Café Toronto (YYZ)
- Air Canada Domestic Maple Leaf Lounge Toronto (YYZ)
- Air Canada A321 Business Class Toronto – Montreal
- Air Canada Domestic Maple Leaf Lounge Montreal (YUL)
- My Eerie Transborder Connection In Montreal
- Air Canada Transborder Maple Leaf Lounge Montreal (YUL)
- Air Canada A220 Business Class Montreal – Los Angeles
Although the Maple Leaf Lounge reviews will be repetitive, each had slightly unique a la carte menus that are worth highlighting.
Although I could have upgraded to business class on the Los Angeles to Vancouver flight as well as the redeye from Vancouver to Toronto, I wanted to review Air Canada’s economy and premium economy seat (respectively) and am glad that I did.
Stay tuned for another mileage run adventure!
Very excited for this, as silly as it sounds. I feel like AC is oddly underrepresented in trip reports given how frequently most Americans fly it (vs say, JAL or Singapore), looking forward to getting some great insight
Great ambition! Last fall I few St. John’s to Honolulu round trip to maintain my 1K status. 3668 PQP for about $1300.
Looking forward to hearing more about the Air Canada Cafe.
I might go to Canada Cafe. just for coffee in side there air port. I like Hudson Cafe to. I like the food health the water and snacks in Hudson.
Suggest adding an index of the trip on each section, Ben style, so you can easily move from one part of the trip report to the next, especially useful for readers joining half way thru
Will do! Thanks Tom. We are working on a plug-in to automate this for us.