We purposely routed ourselves through Toronto so that we could experience Air Canada’s International Business Class on one of their new 787-800s.
Our flight into Toronto was in First on a UA A319 with just eight recliner seats. But Robby our flight attendant really was the star of the show on the 57 minute flight.
He really took what is a very unglamorous leg and delivered on it perfectly. Used our names throughout and even came to each passenger in the full First Class cabin to thank them personally for flying United today. Such a great job that we shook his hand as we left the aircraft. It was really nice to see the real UA spirit shine through.
Then on to our connection. Making a connection in Toronto from a US origin to an international destination is a really odd exercise. We arrived at gate E73 in the “Hammerhead” addition to Terminal 1, then walked walked walked on what has to be one of the world’s longest moving sidewalks.
At the other end is an immigration officer that stamps your passport and directs you back to where you came from. So you head back to the Hammerhead on an identical and equally long moving sidewalk going the opposite direction.
After a three hour sit in the Maple Leaf Lounge we finally boarded our Air Canada 787, seats 2K and 3K. The cabin looked really promising!
The aircraft had that new car smell! Our flight tonight was just 6h16m. We pushed back at midnight and took off to the east over Toronto.
The aircraft is gorgeous and the Air Canada crew was really quite terrific in that Canadian-casual sort of way. Service was quick because of the late hour, the meal nothing remarkable with the exception of the tuna appetizer.
Sweet, spicy and just generally delicious. The rest of the meal was fine but it didn’t measure up to the promise of the first course.
Now the seat. If I had to sum it up in one word that word would be OUCH. The seat actually hurt to sit in it. It was terribly difficult to find even one position that you would find comfortable. It was just so hard – almost like sitting on a bench and it felt like it was tilted towards the aisle so you had this feeling you were going to fall out of your chair. Very weird and both of us felt the same way.
However the rest of the suite was nicely done. Plenty of storage for stuff, lots of surfaces, and a really nice big LCD TV with a pretty good IFE selection. Though I only ever watch the moving map because we bring our own content on our Gizmo.
Anyway, before we knew it we arrived in London and walked the five or six miles (not really but sure felt like it) to the Heathrow Express station for our 15 minute ride into Paddington.
