"Ladies and gentlemen we started our decent towards Toronto. We'll coming
by to collect any final items which you like to dispose of."
Good afternoon and welcome back to another video. Today we're going to complete the Toronto Ottawa
Montreal triangle. We first started flying on the A220 from Toronto to Ottawa, and then we took VIA
Rail from Ottawa to Montreal. Today we're going to be flying back to Toronto with Air Canada Rouge.
Now originally I was supposed to fly with Air Canada Express to Toronto City Centre Airport and
I wanted to bring you that video because that's the only route Air Canada flies to the downtown
Airport. But that flight was suspended or canceled and I've been placed with Air Canada Rouge. To
make things more interesting we got a backtrack to Quebec City before ending up in Toronto.
So we have two flights today and we have some time to kill so come along as we go from A to B.
Once again welcome back to another video and my third consecutive travel day.
I had a great day in Montreal seeing some of the sights and eating some delicious food.
I'm rarely if ever in Montreal, last time in 2015 for connecting flight off to London.
Anyway it was time to return to the centre of the universe,
or the six, Toronto, hog town, Leaf Nation, Toron-To, or whatever name you please.
And I'll give credit where credit is due. Air Canada gave ample notifications about
the canceled flight and provided an easy avenue to select another available flight.
I presume the cancellation had to do something with demand and the post-pandemic struggles as
all flights to Toronto were to YYZ and I couldn't find another flight to Toronto City Centre.
The choice of this particular itinerary was so I can get two
birds stoned at once. We can check out the domestic Air Canada Rouge product
and I get an additional flight segment by having two flights this day... win-win.
Yul has one terminal which facilitates flights to America, international, and domestic destinations.
The airport was quite lively this day and the domestic area was reasonably crowded.
Unlike other airports in the country, YUL lacks the openness with its low ceilings and we'll see
this throughout the video. Street side didn't appear to have too much beyond the standard
check-in facilities and with the security line this long I figured I might as well jump in.
EE: Security took about 20 minutes + they swabbed my PC =/
I was pleasantly surprised though by the domestic gate side of the airport.
Sure the passage is relatively narrow and confined but there is a solid selection of shops
and restaurants throughout and for those able to use the Maple Leaf Lounge it's located by gate 3.
One gate over is our gate for the first flight with our little A319 waiting outside.
This would be a full flight and even with a small jet like this you can really see
how crowded a gate can get especially when social distancing was still being emphasized.
While on the topic, I think it was a poor showing with airline staff blatantly not complying with
the federal mandate to wear masks. You can see many passengers doing the same.
Like it or not at a time when passengers were warned to wear masks or face end quote 'financial
penalties' and YUL charging three bucks for them it was a bit ridiculous to see staff not comply
it was the law at the time and appeared no one wasn't forcing it.
On a happier note, I was happy to have Zone 2 boarding so I
can quickly jump on board and have a few minutes to take a peek outside.
I had to endure a middle seat for the first flight. Less than ideal but for a 32-minute
flight it was bearable. On a flight like this, they quickly offered water but I didn't bother.
I spent the time counting the seconds down and wondering what the business
class experience could possibly be on this short flight. Think it's worth it?
All right so the first flight is over. 32 minutes - I think the shortest flight of the year. But I
think that leaves it up to a challenge. I can probably find a couple islands in Tokyo that
are maybe a 15 minute flight or something... we'll see. Anyways for the second flight it's the same
aircraft, same gate so just got off the plane, I'm gonna wait here for a bit and then back on we go.
With the initial flight being about 15 minutes late it was a very quick
turnaround maybe 20 minutes if that and for the second flight we're in 27F at the rear
of the aircraft and hey I got a whole row to myself and a window much better.
With the quick turnaround and the flight not being terribly full we managed to push back on time.
These two flights were on board a 25 year old A319-100 delivered way back in December '97, one
of 20 in Rouge's Fleet. There's 136 seats on board in two classes one less compared to the new A220.
The aircraft has three laboratories two at the rear and one in the front.
Our flight's going to take us back West over Montreal
along the North coast of Lake Ontario to Toronto.
The economy cabin has 21 rows in a 3-3 seating configuration with a grey interior.
Simple red curtains separate economy from the premium Rouge class.
Seats are dark grey with a maroon seat belt and an adjustable headrest.
The seat also provides a minimal recline as well. Seatback contains a pocket for a magazine, the
tray table, and the pocket beneath for the safety card. Seat pitch is 29 inches, the same as JetStar
Japan so things can get a little tight. There are no power outlets, USB slots, or headphone
jacks on Rouge's A319s or their A320s. So if you're flying Rouge on longer flights be sure to
have your devices charged. The table is larger than what we saw on the A220 and is adjustable
and above each passenger has access to their air control and reading light.
Air Canada Rouge aircraft are Wi-Fi enabled. There's also a streaming service on board.
The selection appeared to be less than the IFE on other aircraft, however, it was much quicker than
the older in-flight entertainment systems. And of course as we gaze outside the window I invite
new viewers to jump on board and subscribe for continued aviation and travel related content :)
On this flight there was a quick drink service offering water or orange juice and pretzels.
Rouge does offer Air Canada's Bistro menu on flights longer than 90 minutes so a
flight like this is really kind of on the cusp between this service and the full Bistro menu.
[Music]
The lavatory in the back is what you expect for a 25 year old aircraft and was clean and tidy and I
guess should you need to charge your device this may help no idea if it actually works or not lol.
Rouge started as Air Canada's low-cost carrier branch back in 2012, hence the lack of power
outlets, physical IFE, and the narrow seat pitch. They service Sun destinations in the
Caribbean and in the States and used to fly to Europe with their now retired 767s. Personally,
I don't see the 'low-cost' part of them anymore especially compared to other low-cost carriers.
They're integrated into Air Canada's network so domestically speaking, for a given route
one flight may be with Rouge while another flight may be with Air Canada's main line
or AC Express... it all depends. But for a small two / three hour flight I think they're
a perfectly acceptable option. I guess my limit may be how long the battery on my phone lasts!
The flight time was about 70 minutes the cost for this one-way economy ticket came up to $155.
Keep in mind my original itinerary was from Montreal to Toronto City Centre and this
flight was an alternative to that canceled flight.
So that's Air Canada Rouge Regional domestic flight and the flight from Quebec I actually
thought it was very similar to a regional flight in Japan on like a Solaseed or Skymark.
You kind of have that smaller drink service with the with the fewer options and there's
no inflight entertainment system on the seat although I did like the the streaming on board
to to my phone. I actually thought it was faster than some inflight entertainment systems that
that we've seen so I really like that. And it was nice smooth evening flight to Toronto and
hey! we're back at gate D31 where we left two or three days ago so overall a nice it was a
nice fun little trip. Thanks for watching them let me know what you thought about
Air Canada Rouge domestic product. Thanks for watching and I'll see you around next time :)