Flight Review: Air Canada’s Boeing 777 Business Class

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Summary

Security and boarding were chaotic and time-consuming at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, causing frustration and delays for passengers.
The onboard dining experience in business class was enjoyable, with various menu options and a decent selection of drinks.
The in-flight entertainment provided an excellent selection of movies and TV shows, although the live TV feature and onboard WiFi were not functioning correctly on this flight.

After a few days in Amsterdam, it was time to head towards Toronto, and fortunately for this journey, it would be in business class on Air Canada. Through this review, I’ll go through the highs and lows of the journey across the Atlantic. If you’d like to learn more about the classes available on Air Canada, read about them here. The flight across the pond was AC809 from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) on October 27th, destined for Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ).

Those who have traveled to and from the Netherlands should know how efficient they like things to be; however, in this case, after a quick train ride to Schiphol from Amsterdam Centraal train station, it seemed to all go downhill until we got onboard.

Photo: Air Canada

With security usually a breeze, it was pandemonium, and it took 45 minutes in line to clear security. This left me short of time to experience the lounge, where eligible Air Canada passengers use the Swissport Intercontinental Executive Lounge near gate 41. Once finally at the gate, the flight was delayed 20 minutes, with plenty of people surrounding me, just recovering from the long wait at security.

Air Canada boeing 777-300ER on the ground

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Let’s fly

Air Canada has over 80 widebody aircraft in its fleet, and today, I was onboard the Boeing 777-300ER, Registration C-FRAM (serial number 35250). This 15.5-year-old bird took its first test flight on June 16th, 2008, before being delivered to Air Canada on June 25th, the following week. According to Airfleets, it’s currently configured with 40 business class, 24 premium economy, and 336 economy class seats. Two General Electric GE90-115BL2 engines power the aircraft.

I was seated in the middle seat of row 9, and once onboard, I was offered a pre-take-off drink, either water, orange juice, or a glass of bubbles (wine). While this made me somewhat forget the drama of getting to the airport and slightly delayed boarding, after shuttling down the runway, we were served a warm towel to freshen up, which was also quickly re-collected after use.

Upon deeper inspection of my surrounding storage, I noticed dust in my water bottle stowage, and the bathrooms were closer than I initially imagined; however, as these were small things, I sat back, relaxed, and headed toward home. It’s worth noting that it’s best to book the window seats if you are traveling with others, as the divider between the two seats can come down. This is firmly shut in the middle for privacy, so it is better suited for a solo traveler.

Photo: AK Hiraki | Simple Flying

When it came time to recline for a nap, there was no service from the crew for loading the mattress covers, so I was left to my own devices, which was somewhat disappointing.

Food and wine experience

Dinner was served promptly, and the starter was marinated prawns and seafood salad, served with fresh greens and warm garlic bread. For the main, there were several selections to choose from, which included a beef fillet, green curry chicken, salmon fillet, or tomato penne pasta, and for dessert, it was either a fresh fruit salad or gianduja shortbread.

Meal service kicked off 30 minutes after takeoff, and the hostess was prompt at lowering the tables and adding a cloth. The garlic bread was offered to all business class passengers as part of the bread tray, and I had my appetizer in front of me an hour into the flight. The shrimp and salad were tasty and fresh, and overall, I enjoyed my meal.

As the flight time was around seven hours, the second meal an hour before landing was a smoked chicken breast pasta salad, orange segments, bread, and chocolate. This seemed the same standard as what you would receive in economy, but it was presented in a much nicer format.

There was a modest selection of Laurent-Perrier champagne, Portuguese or French white wine, or Canadian, Spanish, and Austrian reds to accompany my meal. Other spirits were also available, which included a tasty Aperol spritz. Adding to the list, for the beer or seltzer drinker, there was a Blue Moon Belgian White, Hop Valley IPA, Molson Canadian, Coors Light, Heineken, or Vizzy Mimosa hard seltzer.

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Entertainment

I was looking forward to my flight to Toronto, given Air Canada had recently launched a new live TV feature that included CTV and BNN. But unfortunately, for the duration of the flight, it wasn’t working. However, there was plenty of other entertainment to keep me occupied.

In addition to being unable to watch the live channels, the free onboard WiFi took some time to load and was still unavailable after 30 minutes into the flight. WiFi is usually available for messaging, like iMessage or Whatsapp, and can be accessed by anyone holding an Aeroplan membership.

Entertainment onboard was good, and I had a split TV, which meant I could watch a movie on one side while checking the flight status on the other. A mini screen can also pick what to watch next and control the main screen. Apple TV was also available onboard.

A USB A was available for charging devices. I felt the headphones provided to business class passengers had excellent noise cancelation, so much so that I didn’t see the need to get my personal Bose headphones from my carry-on bag. This helped me relax onboard and cancel out other noise throughout the cabin and the aircraft noise in flight.

Arriving into Toronto

Even after departing Amsterdam with a short delay, we made up the time on the flight and touched down in Toronto eight minutes ahead of schedule. The arrivals hall was practically empty as we debarked the aircraft; however, at border security, there was a line for foreign passport holders and an even shorter one for Canadians. Our bags were the first on the carousel for collection, which made it a quick exit out of the terminal and destined for home.

Photo: AK Hiraki | Simple Flying

Air Canada serves Amsterdam year-round from Toronto Pearson (YYZ), with seasonal services added from Montreal Trudeau (YUL). From Toronto, the carrier faces competition with two other carriers, with Dutch airline KLM offering 11 weekly services alongside leisure-focused Air Transat, which additionally provides seasonal services through the summer.

In 2022, Toronto was the seventh most popular intercontinental route, seeing over 426,000 passengers travel between the two cities and the highest to Canada alone.