"Seatbelts and no smoking signs are located throughout the aircraft
please comply with them at all times"
Good morning and welcome back to another video! Wow I can't believe the day is finally here.
Two and a half years to the day of my last international flight I finally had the opportunity
to fly home for a couple weeks and wow... two and a half years, I don't even know where the time
went...so much has changed! Today we're going to be flying with Air Canada on their Tokyo to
Vancouver route in economy class and this is the first of two flights for myself today as I'm going
to continue on to Toronto from Vancouver. Right now I just got to Narita airport and in a few
moments I'm going to drop off my bags. So come along let's check out Narita airport in 2022
and Air Canada's trans-pacific economy product as we go from A to B.
Narita is a solid 75 kilometres from the south end of Tokyo. There's many ways to
reach this large but rural airport and my go-to is a 1000 yen or ten dollar bus.
However as of July 2022 that bus service continues to be suspended and so I went with my next best
option which is this limited express for Narita airport from Shinagawa station for both 15 bucks.
EE: If you don't use a direct train, like this, you can take a local train. Change at Aoto.
I checked in online the night before so all I had to do here was print off my baggage tag.
For flying into Canada all travelers must download the Arrivecan app
and follow the prompts completing this will provide you with a receipt and QR code.
For the two Air Canada flights departing Narita I was surprised at how
empty check-in was. In fact the whole terminal
wasn't busy at all. At least that the departures board looked reasonably populated.
And as always I welcome you back to another video. This was July 5th 2022 and my last international
flight was my return trip to Tokyo back in January 5th 2020. So I was excited just to enjoy a longer
international flight and to visit home for a bit. I enjoy living in Japan and it does me well,
but the comforts familiarity and ease of home is something that's always looked forward to.
Anyway after checking in I decided to wander by the shopping area
between the north and south portion of terminal 1 and I was surprised that nearly all the shops
were still closed and it looked like some uh went out of business where they shut their
doors. I...I really didn't anticipate this before I came. It was about 1:45 now so I
decided to head upstairs to grab a nibble and this Lawson's convenience store was a perfect stop.
All right so we finished the check-in and the baggage drop off and it went
very smooth and I made my way up to the fifth floor. There's a Lawson's here - a nice little
convenience store so I picked up a little bit of lunch because it's around two o'clock now ...
came out to the observation deck they have this uh patio furniture where you can relax on although it
is pretty windy outside so I'm not gonna spend too much more time here it's about two o'clock
so I'll finish up and then I'll head through security and immigration and all that fun stuff.
All right so I just made it to the gate. The immigration all that stuff was easy peasy. There
wasn't really anyone there. And we're at gate 38 today and looks kind of kind of sad. The monitors
aren't really on and it looks kind of small for a wide body aircraft so hopefully you'll brighten
up in a little bit. And uh yeah looks like we have about 90 minutes to kill before we start to board.
And as it got to the gate I noticed the 40s gates are as closed off which is kind of kind
of unfortunate. Air Canada used to depart from the gates back there and there was kind of a
nice little café in the middle where you can buy drinks and ice creams and snacks and I
always liked going there so I had to find somewhere else
to get a snack. Hunting down a snack turned out to be slightly more challenging... even the
McDonald's was closed but at least the 7-11 was open gate side seemed a lot more busy. It
appeared many were here for their layover before continuing to North America on the evening flights.
By the time I got back to my gate it was much more lively but still not an ideal gate for
a wide body aircraft but not too long after it was time to board. With my status with Air Canada
I get the board in zone 2 so I'm able to toss my bags in a close overhead bin once on board.
Today we're in 22H for the long haul flights. I prefer the aisle
over the window for the easy . access throughout the flight
Today we're on a six-year-old 787-9 delivered back in 2016. The aircraft has three classes
and economy yields a 31" seat pitch and there are seven laboratories on board.
By the way I think they did a great job with their new creative inflate safety video.
EE: I had a huge headache this day...luckily it subsided before we landed!
Our nine-hour flight will take us up to Alaska before turning back south towards Vancouver.
The economy cabin is in a 3-3-3 configuration with Boeing sky interior lighting and dark blue seats.
Monitors are positioned on the bulkheads which display the flight map and safety video.
The seats have a headrest and came with a pillow and blanket.
Seat back houses the 8.9" monitor and headphone jack and USB slot and
we'll look at the IFE in more detail after dinner. There's the table and pocket below.
Again with the 31 inch seat pitch, it's a good fit for economy and you can comfortably have a
personal bag down below with enough legroom to spare. The seat pocket contained the safety card
and the current credit card promotion. Both pieces of literature had seen better days.
The tray table is adjustable but lacks that locking feature which holds the table in place
which I've seen on other aircraft and above you have the reading light and air control.
One thing I like to do on these long-haul flights is when you see the seat belt sign
goes off I like to come to the washroom. I have another set of clothes that you can change into
keeps your normal airport clothes a little bit fresher and it's a little bit more relaxing in the seat
for the duration of the light. It's only about 45 minutes in and seat belt sign just went off so
I just jumped here and I do that usually first thing but yeah time to go back and watch a movie and have dinner.
Dinner options were beef or chicken and I went with the latter. It came with a bean salad,
bread roll, and an orange mousse cake. Overall, great dinner the salad was fresh and bright
and the main course was delicious and not overcooked. and to drink I went with Canadian
the first one in two and a half years! Tastes like home I was in a happy place :)
The IFE was quick and responsive and there's just such a wide variety of shows and movies
to choose from I didn't even know where to begin. I've been out of the media loop for
a while so if you know of any new dramas or comedies I should watch leave a comment below.
Air Canada also provides wi-fi on these aircraft. They offer a variety of options depending on
your need you can either purchase for the entire flight or just an hour though I didn't bother to
connect to the internet this flight. And of course this is part of the program where I invite you
to subscribe if you haven't so you don't miss any of my travel and aviation related content :)
Once the dinner service was complete the cabin lights were turned off and it was time to relax.
and get a few hours rest. Another reason I didn't choose a window seat is because it's impossible
to look outside since the dimming function is locked on the Dreamliner.. plus it's nighttime.
I woke up as we were cruising south of Alaska. Note the IFE was not reset to our destination (oops!).
Feeling a bit peckish I headed to the back galley. On these long-haul flights there's
always snacks and water in the back where passengers can help themselves. I grabbed a
few cookies and some water and headed back. With a hour and 40 minutes until we land
the lights came on for the breakfast service. I like how the led lights on these aircraft
slowly brighten up over a few minutes it's just so much easier on the eyes.
Breakfast options were udon or an omelette which I went for
and was accompanied by a fruit and bread roll. And since it was morning it was coffee time!
This breakfast service was timed nicely leaving enough time to change back into airport clothes
and to freshen up before landing.
This flight was part of my Tokyo to Toronto return ticket which came to C$1760 for the
three flights on this itinerary. All right so I got through immigration and I did the security
for my next flight and yeah that's a look at Air Canada's trans-pacific product and overall it was
a great nice smooth flight food was good very uh it was enjoyable and kind of what you expect for
economy class and got a little bit of sleep so overall it's good flight uh one thing that i saw
that could be improved on is the literature in the pocket it looks like it had seen better days so a
new copy would make it look a little bit nicer but let me know what you thought about air canada's
trans-pacific economy product thanks for watching and I'm gonna start the next video right...