Good afternoon from Toronto-Pearson’s Terminal 1!
My name is Alex, and I’m off across the Atlantic with Air Canada!
It’s been a while since I’ve done the domestic-to-international shuffle here in
Terminal 1, and it sure brings back memories of many past trips to Europe.
Today though, I’m headed to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, with Air Canada’s 787-8
Dreamliner.
Now the last time I flew Air Canada transatlantic was about four years ago, on their 787-9 there
and 767 back.
It’s safe to say that things have changed a fair bit since then, so it’s still worth
a comparison.
The -8 taking me across the Atlantic (wait no, not that kind) is the 7th of the 8 planes
that AC has in the fleet, registered as Charlie Golf Hotel Quebec Quebec.
This one is now about 7 years old, having joined AC’s fleet in January of 2015.
Since their rebranding 5 years ago now, Air Canada’s repainted a good portion of their
fleet.
Most of the Dreamliners though, (especially the -8s) still wear the older “frosted leaf”,
or, more informally, “toothpaste” livery.
This livery is still one of my favourites and it’s arguably pretty timeless.
Although I know of a few A320s that would beg to differ.
The 787s were also some of the first planes to have Air Canada’s Premium Economy when
they started taking delivery of them in 2014.
Incidentally, that’s also what I’m flying in today!
The airport experience isn’t too different on a Premium Economy ticket, since you don’t
get lounge access, but you do at least get to board sooner.
As anybody who flew through Pearson this summer will relate to, getting to the gate involved
wading through the literal sea of people in the international part of T1.
Despite the complete lack of a view, this gate actually had a good number of seats,
and it helped that it’s kinda cut off from the rest of the international gates.
Boarding soon started relatively on time, so let’s go see what Air Canada has to offer
in their transatlantic Premium Economy.
On their 787s, Air Canada’s Premium Economy has 3 rows in a comfortable 2-3-2 configuration,
and my seat for today is 13A.
Waiting there was a pretty basic pillow and this blanket too.
As expected, the legroom is decently generous, although the footrest takes up a lot of it.
Row 13 also has this side-on view of the engine.
Also waiting at the seat was this water bottle, as well as a Premium Economy amenity kit.
I’ll open that up later on, but the contents sound pretty decent.
I will say, the seatback pockets here do hold a lot, and I like that there’s a smaller
secondary pocket too.
In between the seats is a small cutout for loose items, as well as the tray tables.
I also like how they show the flight number and route on the IFE screen.
It actually had me kind of excited to fly a new route that wasn’t Calgary to Toronto
for the millionth time.
Eventually, these menus were handed out to Premium Economy, as well as some complimentary
earbuds.
A common thing I’ve noticed on Dreamliner flights specifically is that the PAs from
the flight deck rarely come through coherently.
Not sure why that’s the case but it reminds me of Flight Sim multiplayer.
(not even the faintest clue of what's being said)
As the light outside faded, we eventually pushed back, and here’s the departure from
Toronto, off of runway 15L.
Flying transatlantic from Eastern Canada, flight times are a lot shorter than you’d
think, and we would only be spending 6 hours in the air tonight.
That’s not a ton of time to sleep, but I forced myself to stay awake anyway so I didn’t
miss the meal service.
While I waited for that, here’s a look at the in-flight entertainment.
These ones were still using the older software from 2014, when they first got the 787s.
It still has the same good selection of content, even if it could be a bit slow to load at
times.
There also seemed to be a bit of a glitch with the moving map, where the terrain was
very low-resolution for some reason.
It still worked well enough though, with plenty of different views to play around with.
As far as power goes, each seat has its own universal power outlet as well as a USB port
underneath the screen.
Interestingly, there’s also a remote that you can use for the screen instead.
I’m not sure why you would since the screen isn’t exactly out of reach, but I’m sure
it’s still useful for some.
There’s also this coat hook embedded in the seat.
The tray table, as you’d expect, folds out from the armrest beside you and sits at a
comfortable height.
Tonight’s meal service started off with a small snack and drink, and I went for the
usual glass of Coke and this bag of pretzels.
Eventually, the meal trays appeared.
I went with the veal for the main course, and this came with a celery root salad, bread
roll, and then this brownie for dessert.
If I have the option, I almost always go with the beef dishes on Air Canada.
A friend told me years ago that those dishes are the most consistently good ones, and today’s
was no exception.
To be fair, the chicken also looked pretty good too.
As far as the rest, the salad was surprisingly good, the bread was actually soft, and that
brownie was a great way to finish it off.
Overall, a really nicely done meal!
I’d say that was worthy of the Premium Economy fare.
Speaking of Premium Economy, in our amenity kit, Air Canada had some earplugs, an eye
mask, a toothbrush and toothpaste, and these extra socks.
With that, it was time for bed, and as I usually do on overnight flights, I slept for maybe
2 hours at best, waking up briefly to the sun rising over the North Atlantic.
I eventually woke up midway through the breakfast service and good thing I did because God forbid
I miss this hearty breakfast of…
A croissant and yogurt.
Content-wise, this is pretty understandable since we did just have dinner maybe 3 hours
ago.
Both were still tasty enough though, but I’d still call this more of a snack than anything.
After that, we still had another hour or so before we landed, so I got up to take a look
around.
Like I said before, Air Canada’s smaller 787-8s have 21 Premium Economy Class seats,
in a 2-3-2 layout.
Further back in normal Economy Class, they have 214 seats in a 3-3-3 configuration.
At the very front is Air Canada’s Signature Class, which has 20 lie-flat seats in a 1-2-1
layout.
One nice thing about Air Canada’s cabin layout on their 787s is that two of the lavatories
actually have windows in them!
These are both located by the second set of doors, and have a ridiculous amount of space!
Since the second door on the left is the one that’s most used for boarding, Air Canada
has a really nice entry-way in this particular galley.
I especially like the lit up lettering here!
Back at the seat, one more thing to show is the seatback pocket contents, and on this
flight, AC just had the usual 787 safety card and a couple air sickness bags.
Before we land in Edinburgh though, there’s one thing I have to mention.
This trip here would not have been possible without the generosity of a good YouTube friend
of mine, Jonathan Winton.
He took the time to drive up and show me around Edinburgh Airport, the city, and his home
county of Northumberland.
If you want to see more aviation from Scotland, Northeast England, and the rest of the UK,
do go check out his channel.
With that, we broke through the clouds with some great views below, and here’s the arrival
onto runway 24!
Well that was Air Canada’s transatlantic Premium Economy!
Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable flight.
Given this was a domestic-to-international connection, connecting through Pearson was
fairly straightforward, and although it was busy, everything thankfully went according
to plan.
The food was delicious, the crew were nice enough, and the seats were decently comfortable.
With the slightly restricted legroom though, I may try the bulkhead row next.
All things considered, Air Canada’s Premium Economy is a very solid product and works
really well when you’re traveling in pairs.
Next time though I think I’d rather try it on a longer route just to get the most
value out of it.
For only a 6 hour flight I think normal Economy would’ve been just fine.
I still had a great time on this flight, and would definitely fly in Air Canada’s Premium Economy again.
Thank you very much for watching this trip report, and I’ll catch you next time.