"As you prepare to deplane please check to ensure you have all of your personal electronic devices"
Good morning from Toronto! Today we're going to be flying with Air Canada on
one of their new A220's in economy class to Winnipeg, Manitoba. If you follow this
channel you know it's been about two and a half years since I was last in Canada
and back then the A220 wasn't part of Air Canada's fleet white yet. And while we're at it we'll check
out the Canadian airports. There's been lots of news about lost baggage and delayed flights.
So we'll poke our head inside and see what's kind of going on. My flight's not until 9:55
but it's already been delayed by half an hour 'till 10:25 so I have a little bit of extra time.
So come along let's check out the airport and enjoy the A220 as we go from A to B.
My day started by taking the bus to Viscount Station which is a parking garage and last
stop of the LINK train at the airport so a quick jump on that would take me to terminal 1
which mainly Air Canada and other star alliance members use. As we make our way
in I should clarify, the screen at the start said 'A320' and during my introduction I said 'A220'.
I've been aiming to fly on the A220 - the newest addition to Air Canada's fleet.
But with unpredictable aircraft changes, today happened to be the older A320 which I wasn't
aware of until the plane showed up at the gate. In fact we'll see this will be a recurring theme this summer.
It actually took me several flights to finally fly on the A220. But it's coming, I promise.
Prior to returning to Canada, there have been plenty of news on the dismal state of air travel
in the country. Everything from long lines, to baggage issues, to cancelled and delayed flights
and overall chaos at the airports. In fact for July 2022, YYZ was the worst airport in the world
for delayed flights… at least we weren't the worst for cancelled flights. Nonetheless
I wanted to see for myself. I made my way upstairs to the checkin floor and lo and behold there was
well... nothing!
Everything appeared to be working as intended it certainly did not look
like what I had seen on the news. I was able to quickly drop off my bag and be on my way.
"Ok, your gate is D35"
"Thank you"
There's not too much in the airport street side
in terminal one. So next up is the security check.
EE: I was still trying to get over my jetlag from the trip from Tokyo this day...
I learnt the Japanese for jetlag is "jisaboke", which translates to "time difference stupid" ...so true.
All right so I just made it through security and it only took about eight minutes to get from the
line to the other side and it's one of those things you kind of have to help yourself with.
Make sure all your liquids are in a bag, have your computer out all ready to go, make sure
if you have a water bottle there's no water in the bottle and it just makes everything smoother.
If your bag gets to that secondary screening then it's going to take a lot longer to get through.
But one thing I did notice is there's a lot of CATSA (CDN security staff) staff just scanning boarding passes. You
scan to get into the line and then you scan at the conveyor belt so if there is an issue with the
CATSA and the security screening and long lineups perhaps it's more just an issue of allocation of
staff. I really don't understand why there has to be two people or more or encountering two people
to scan the same boarding pass twice. Anyway we're on the uh the main floor of terminal one
and our gate is D35 so we have some time so let's saunter over to the gate and
uh maybe get a coffee because it's still pretty early so let's go ahead and do that.
Gate 35 is located towards the end of the terminal and tucked in the corner off to the right side. By the
time I got there, the aircraft still hadn't arrived yet so I decided to hunt for that morning joe.
So the lineups for the coffee depositories are pretty pretty long... a little too long for
my liking. I checked the Timmy's over here and the two Starbucks
throughout the terminal but it is 9:30 in the morning. But this is where canned coffee comes
in handy. Anyway the aircraft is here, it's about 9:35 now so I think we'll start boarding in about
15 minutes so I'll just wait and jump aboard and I'll grab a coffee or or something up in the air.
"...And you're all set" "Thanks!"
We're in 28F for our hop over to Winnipeg. The flight was already delayed, rescheduled to
depart at 10:20. However, 10:20 came and went and cargo was still being loaded at 10:30.
I had a connecting flight in Winnipeg with an initial connection time of 70 minutes,
which I thought was more than plenty. But by now I was starting to be mildly concerned
as this flight finally pushed back at 10:56, an hour late. Will I make my connecting flight
and will my checked bag make it too? Only time will tell.
Today we're on a 20 year old A320 delivered way back in 2002, one of 17 in Air Canada's fleet .
The aircraft has 146 seats in two classes with a seat pitch of 32 inches. The economy class seats
are a bit roomier compared to the Dreamliner we flew on, and there's three lavatories on board.
By the way just before we take off, on the right in the distance
you'll see an Antonov 124 owned by a Russian cargo company.
It just so happened to fly in the day before a Canadian airspace closed to Russian aircraft.
Now unable to leave Toronto it's now subject to the over $1000 per day parking fee.
Our two and a half hour flight would take us over the great lakes,
across Ontario and into Southern Manitoba. Economy is in the standard 3-3 seating configuration.
The cabin sports blue fabric lined seats with light grey seat backs. I enjoy these older seats
as they're more cushy and roomier than some of the economy seats found on newer aircraft.
Seatback houses the monitor. USB slot and power outlet.
There are two power outlets per row and those seated in seat F
don't have one... lucky me! Though I had a USB slot, it didn't work when I tried to charge my phone.
and here you can see the screen can rotate to provide a better viewing angle and below you have
the table and seat pocket. With that extra inch of seat pitch compared to the Dreamliner we flew on
there is enough space to comfortably keep your belongings below and you can see the window seat
provides you just a bit of extra space. And the pocket contains a safety card, air sickness bag, and
current credit card promotion. And above you have the reading light and of course the air control.
The inflight entertainment system is well over 20 years old
and is no doubt showing its age. What was once considered fast and state-of-the-art
is now sluggish and finicky at best, but it shows you how far we come along with the IFE.
My screen wasn't calibrated as you can see the the mouse pointed far from where I touched so
it was difficult to access a show to watch or anything else. Though sometime later for
whatever reason the touch function corrected itself and functioned more or less as intended.
If you noticed the big red sticker when I boarded the aircraft then you'll know that
this aircraft is equipped for wi-fi, one of the few upgrades to this aircraft over the two decades.
Again, there are a selection of plans to choose from but like most of my flights
I didn't bother. And as always this is the part of the program where if you're a new viewer
I invite you to subscribe for more aviation and travel related content.
As this flight is over two hours Air Canada offers their onboard bistro service.
Being late morning or early afternoon depending on the time zone
the caesar for $6.50 looked mighty tasty so I ended my quest for that morning coffee. One of the many
tough decisions in life. Even though the IFE may be subpar, the weather was nice and not too overcast
so I was able to enjoy the wonderful summer colours below to accompany my cocktail.
The flight was full a good sign for the airline
so I checked out the lavatory earlier on when I boarded.
It contained all the essentials complete with that dingy yellow light. Another sign of the past.
EE: Winnipeg is roughly located in the longitudinal cente of Canada... There's a sign on the highway just east of the city!
Overall it was a nice smooth summer's flight over to Winnipeg. The staff did a great job
they were friendly and interacted with the guests, keeping us safe, and informed us of updated times.
This was the first of two flights as I had a connection in Winnipeg to Calgary.
So the cost of this one-way Toronto Calgary itinerary came up to $292.
Even though the A320 isn't their newest aircraft, you know, the seats are comfortable and you get
a bit more space than in other economy seats. These planes have been flying for a long time,
so this is the economy product which comes to mind when I think of Air Canada
as I've experienced this particular product countless times over the past 20 years. If watching
entertainment to pass the time is your thing I would recommend to have content on your device
for the off chance your ife doesn't work or it's prohibitively finicky.
We land with about 15 minutes to spare before the flight to Calgary was set to depart
luckily that flight was the next gate.
There were nine of us on this flight which had the connection and the staff did a great job by
allowing us to deplane first as quickly as possible. So I'm going to end it here.
I didn't have time to conclude in the airport so let me know what your thoughts
are about Air Canada's older economy seat on a domestic flight. Thanks for watching
and I'll see you next time where we find out if my checked bag made it... or not.