Good evening from Toronto-Pearson International Airport! My name is Alex,
and welcome to another trip report.
Today, it’s back to the archives for a flight that I filmed at the end of 2019, on board Air
Canada’s Boeing 767 in Signature Class! I’m headed south across the border to Orlando,
Florida, back when leaving the country wasn’t considered an act of treason.
Also at the time of uploading this, it’ll be around a year since Air Canada officially
retired the 767s from the mainline fleet, after a storied 38-year history with the airline.
That said, the 767 era hasn’t quite ended for Air Canada yet,
as there are a few undergoing cargo conversion, to fly as dedicated freighters for Air Canada Cargo.
Even so, their time flying passengers has certainly come to an end, and though
I didn’t know it at the time, this would be my very last flight on the mainline 767. It
is unfortunately a night flight, but looking back on this footage a year and a half later,
and me having a bit of a personal connection to AC’s 767s, this flight was still pretty special.
After making my way through U.S. Customs and the ever-fun experience of getting randomly selected
at security, it was off to Air Canada’s transborder Maple Leaf Lounge for a bit.
As you’d expect, the transborder lounge at Air Canada’s largest hub is huge and has
more than enough tables and seats. The food selection that day wasn’t bad either,
and I had a really nice dinner of soup, vegetables, and pasta.
Earlier in the day, I flew into Toronto from Calgary on another 767,
and made this a pretty long connection, thanks to me wanting two widebodies on this trip.
Really though, with the lounge access from the Business Class fare, this was
far from the worst Toronto connection I’ve ever had!
As you can see, it was a pretty busy evening in the transborder part of Pearson’s terminal 1,
with many like-minded Canadians heading south for a break from the cold.
My flight to Orlando was departing from gate F65, which unfortunately didn’t have the best
view of the aircraft. Charlie Foxtrot Tango Charlie Alpha was, at the time,
a 30-year-old Boeing 767-300ER that was originally delivered to Canadian Airlines in 1989.
Today, this 767 hasn’t flown in over a year, with its last flight being on June 5th,
2020, from Toronto to Marana, in Arizona. Unless Cargojet feels like taking on another
30-year-old ex-Air Canada 767, I’m not so sure this one will ever fly again.
Aaaand of course now that I’ve said that, it actually did go for a flight exactly a year later,
under an Air Canada callsign, so who knows what the plan is!
I also wasn’t expecting much in the way of wing views on this one,
but again, it’s a 767, it’s Business Class, I knew this would be a pretty
enjoyable flight either way. Let’s go fly Air Canada’s mainline 767 one last time.
On the 767s, Air Canada has - or had - 24 Business Class seats, which they call their Classic Pod.
My seat for today though is all the way at the rear of the cabin, 8K.
As part of Air Canada’s Signature Class product, which is basically
their way of differentiating Business Class on their widebodies versus the narrowbodies,
waiting at each seat is a pillow, blanket, and mattress pad.
While we’re on the ground and the cabin’s nice and bright, let’s take a look around.
Each seat has a coat hook,
… a pocket for the safety card,
… tray table,
… in flight entertainment screen,
… remote,
… seat controls,
… a reading light,
… a power outlet, USB port, and headphone jack,
… this shelf and cup holder on the left side,
… and a literature package under the armrest.
Legroom-wise, these seats are fantastic, although I am just a bit too tall for the footrest.
These seats are pretty unique on the 767s, since there’s this extra space beside you.
As boarding was completed, a cabin crew member came around with a tray of cold water bottles,
as well as a menu a few moments later.
Just before pushback, the same cabin crew member came back
around taking orders for the inflight service.
Now, having a mainline widebody aircraft on a sun flight like this
wasn’t exactly a normal occurrence. At the time though, Air Canada was still having to
make do without the 737 MAX during one of their busiest winters yet. This flight was
part of a week-long vacation I took in late December 2019, after finding a surprisingly
good Business Class round-trip fare from Calgary to Orlando through Toronto. With Business Class
on all four flights and three of those being 767s, I definitely don’t regret the splurge!
It was one of those classic busy evenings at Pearson, and FlightRadar confirmed that we
had quite the lineup ahead of us. Here’s our departure from Toronto, off of runway 06L.
Shortly after departure, the lights came back on,
and honestly I had no idea how intense this older mood lighting could be!
As we climbed out from Pearson and headed southbound, a cabin crew member
came around with hot towels, and later with a bowl of warm nuts and a drink.
That was followed shortly by the meal tray. I went for the chicken,
which came with an appetizer of salad, a warm bread roll, and a blondie as dessert.
One interesting thing to point out here - if this meal sounds familiar to some of my regular
viewers, that’s because it’s the exact same dish I had on the Rouge 767 on the way home!
I wasn’t a fan of the salad, but both the chicken and blondie were
genuinely delicious. The bread roll however, although nice and warm, was largely just air.
I finished my meal just as we passed over Charlotte, North Carolina, and got a brief
look at Charlotte-Douglas Airport. That was pretty much the only notable sight out the window, but
it got me thinking - I’d never actually flown over this part of the United States until now! Weirdly,
even just putting these videos together after over a year, really makes me want to go see things.
I should also say, the cabin crew were absolutely fantastic on this flight! They
kept coming throughout the cabin with plenty of drinks, and they even handed out some chocolates!
I’ve mentioned the less-than-stellar performance of Air Canada’s older
in-flight entertainment plenty of times already, so I’ll spare you the usual.
If you’re patient enough, it actually has a pretty good selection and does the job well
enough once it loads. Just… make sure you decide what you want to watch before you commit to it.
Air Canada’s 767s had two lavatories up front,
both on the left, and on either side of the entry door.
The furthest forward one had a bit more space, though the toilet is at a bit of a strange angle.
In the literature package, Air Canada had plenty of reading material,
including their in-flight magazine, as well as the safety card for the 767.
After the meal service ended, the cabin crew dimmed the lights for the rest of the flight,
and I ended up relaxing in the fully flat position with the mattress pad on.
I won’t show you the seat moving since it was a bit too dark to do that without
being an absolute nuisance to everyone around me. At least, more than usual.
However, here’s where it becomes clear why this seat is, or was, probably my favourite in the
whole cabin. There’s just so much extra personal space compared to a normal seat.
Although there isn’t as much headroom as a standard seat,
for people who are taller than the bed is long like yours truly,
it worked surprisingly well if I propped the pillow up in the corner.
Despite the drawbacks, I gotta say, this was just super relaxing.
I actually fell asleep for a bit until we began our descent into Orlando. Soon enough,
it was time to say farewell to this 767 as we arrived on runway 35R.
Overall, this was a really pleasant flight with Air Canada!
All things considered, lie-flat business class on a 2-and-a-half
hour transborder flight is really hard to beat! The meal service was great,
the crew on board were super friendly, and the seat still held up pretty well.
These 767s really were workhorses for AC - though the cabins may have had their downsides,
they really did get the job done. Their final months of operations were a little closer to home,
with them mostly operating within North America. Even throughout summer 2019 though,
they were still flying across the Pacific from Calgary to Tokyo!
I do miss seeing these 767s around - it was barely 6 months after this
flight that Air Canada retired these from passenger service.
Similarly, all 25 of Air Canada Rouge’s 767s were retired from passenger service after the events
of the past year, and WestJet’s 4 aircraft have all left Canada to become freighters.
So with all of that in mind, I’m very glad that, a year and a half ago,
I chose the flights that I did!
As usual, thank you so much for watching this throwback trip report with Air Canada’s 767!
Let me know what you thought in the comments, take care, and I will see you next time.