Review of Air Canada flight from Los Angeles to Toronto in Business

Welcome to the continuation of another Aeroplan adventure!
Here’s the rundown:
AC541 YYZ-SEA 2/8/2016 - http://flight-report.com/en/report-13308.html
NH177 SEA-NRT 2/9/2016 - http://flight-report.com/en/report-13330.html
NH835 NRT-CGK 2/10/2016 - http://flight-report.com/en/report-13568.html
OZ762 CGK-ICN 2/11/2016 - http://flight-report.com/en/report-13621.html
OZ202 ICN-LAX 2/12/2016 - http://flight-report.com/en/report-13654.html
AC792 LAX-YYZ 2/12/2016 - You are here
When last we saw each other, gentle reader, your humble flight-reporter had just arrived into LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal from a nice Asiana business class flight over from Seoul.
It’s a short airside walk between the TBIT and Terminal 2, from which Air Canada flies at LAX. On the way over, I pull out my phone and check Flightradar24 just to see how the inbound flight is doing, and it has a bit of a surprise for me — the plane that will turn around on my flight back to Toronto this afternoon was supposed to be a 787-9, but is instead being operated by a 777-300ER. A bit of a bummer, since getting the 789 was a “bonus” for this trip, and I’ve not stepped foot on the larger 787 as of yet. Oh well.
A quick check of the FlyerTalk thread on the 777 refurb reveals that the plane headed my way, C-FIUR, is one of the 77Ws that has already been refurbished at this point. So at least it will be the new business class product on this flight. Digging into AC792 on FR24 reveals that although it’s “the 787-9 flight” to LAX for AC, the truth at this point is more like it’s “the widebody” flight, as in preceding days, it’s only been operated by a 787-9 once, the rest being a mix of 767s and 777s.
Given that these flights are very popular with the elites for eUpgrade purposes, since it’s a fairly rare chance to get the international hard product, I’d imagine there are quite a few happy upgrades, since the refurbed 77W (40 seats) has 10 extra seats than the scheduled 789.
It is a lovely morning. So it’s got that going for it.

Inside at the aging Terminal 2, AC’s check-in area seems to be more busy with AC people than with customers, and premium check-in takes virtually no time to get my boarding pass, with PreCheck successfully showing.

Unfortunately, upstairs, the PreCheck lane isn’t open, but the lineup isn’t too long at this hour, so I’m quickly airside at Terminal 2, which while aging, has at least been recently renovated.

Upstairs and across the hall, and I find myself at the door of the newly-renovated Maple Leaf Lounge at LAX, which seems to look a little different every time I’m though here. In this case, I don’t recall the entrance being nearly this attractive last time.

It’s a pretty simple lounge — one long room with a variety of seats, and some good airside views. There’s a buffet in the middle for those looking for some eats.

Along the far wall are drinks, starting with beer and wine…

… continuing with glasses, water and ice…

… and ending with soft drinks.

The buffet is set up for breakfast, with hard-boiled eggs, yogurts, fruit, and a variety of baked goods.

I’m not terribly hungry at this point, so I just set up at a seat with a power plug along the long “workbench” towards the end of the lounge. The WiFi is good and fast, and I spend some time doing some writing, catching up on e-mail, and the like.
At one point, there’s a bit of excitement in the lounge as Air Force One taxis by, and eventually takes off from the runway almost directly at the far end of the lounge. Wish I’d thought to take a picture.
After a while, the buffet switches over to lunch, which has some dips, salad, crudités, soups and sandwiches.

I grab a small snack of some humous and its, and a little turkey and cheese sandwich. Nothing special at all, but it will do for now.

A little before scheduled boarding time, I make my way down to the gate, which is already quite the zoo. My guess is this space is not designed 777s or their passenger loads.
Outside, there’s an Air Canada 777 awaiting us. A good sign.

Boarding is called, and eventually the chaos clears enough for me to make my way down the jetway and onto our ride back home this afternoon.
Flight: AC792
From: Los Angeles (LAX)
To: Toronto Pearson (YYZ)
Date: 2/12/2016
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Registration: C-FIUR
Seat: 9A
ATD (STD): 12:02 (11:45)
ATA (STA): 19:17 (19:20)
For this flight, I’m seated in 9A. I had been slated for seat 8A on the 787, but there are no window seats in row 8 of the refurbed 777 cabin, so I’m moved back a row. I’ve got the first seat behind door 2L, the bulkhead seat in the back “mini-cabin” of 14 seats on this plane.

The storage cubby has less stuff than would would see on an international flight — just a pair of cheap-o headphones in this case.

But it does house a power outlet, a USB port, and headphones port.

As on the 787, seat controls are on this nifty little touschscreen controller in the side of the pod.

The IFE screen on these refurbed birds is big and beautiful, and the system very responsive.

The obligatory legroom shot.

And a look into the footwell, which seems to be decidedly larger than it is at other seats on this config. That combined with the little closet just ahead of this pod make 9A and 9K very good seats on the refurbed birds, in my estimation.

A look out the window, where an Avianca A321, presumably preparing to return to Bogota. I’ve always wondered why Avianca planes carry N registrations. Something to do with Avianca leasing its planes, perhaps?

Standard pre-departure beverages are offered — water or orange juice. Just water for me, please.

Menus are offered next, and my order is on of the first taken by the friendly service director. I roll the dice and go with the beef, since I like chimichurri sauce and rapini.

As boarding continues, the pilot comes on the PA and tells us we’re a few minutes behind schedule because Air Force One forced them to wait a while before taxiing in this morning. Yeah. Thanks, Obama.
But soon enough, we push back. Lots of Southwest action at the terminal behind us here.

A fairly good look at the iconic structures of LAX in the background.

Some interesting spotting on the way out, inlcuding this Qatar 777, with an Air Canada Rouge 767 peaking out behind it. Where’s that from, I wonder? I thought they’d reverted YVR-LAX to mainline service? Maybe that’s just YVR-SFO I’m thinking of.

It’s a fairly short taxi, and once we’re rolling it doesn’t take the big 777 long to get up in the air, what with just enough fuel for the short run over to Toronto.

Departing LAX is always lovely, with the airport, and then the ocean, then a big turn across the expansive sprawl of LA, and finally the mountains beyond.

Once we reach cruising altitude, service begins with a hot towel.

Bar service is next. I go for a Caesar, and it’s accompanied by warmed cashews. I guess the almonds are out of the mix for now.

Oh wait, no they’re not. They’re just offered in a little baggy with my second Caesar of the flight.

Lunch/dinner/whatever you want to call it since it’s early afternoon in California but late afternoon in Toronto seems to take a while to get going. in the meantime, I determine that there’s nothing under New Releases in the IFE that I’m interested in. So I take a gander under Canadian films, and eventually select Room, with which I was no, at the time, familiar. A very good, if very disturbing, film, and I think it earned the love it would get at the Academy Awards just a few weeks later.
Finally, lunch begins, with the salad course coming first. This salad was a bit different from the usual, one of the benefits of Air Canada’s premium long-haul operations. It was quite good. and the bread wasn’t heated to the point of being hard as a board. So that’s good.

The accompanying wine was, if I recall correctly, a Spanish Tempranillo, and was quite nice. The water was, well, water.
Salad dishes are quickly cleared and a flight attendant comes around with my entree, a streak, just like I ordered… hey! Wait a second here!

It seems the FA got my order mixed up with the fellow across the aisle from me. The pasta is quickly cleared, and replaced by my steak. As expected, the sauce makes it quite tasty, and the meat itself is flavourful, if a little overcooked. The rice is also very good — although I don’t know why AC insists on describing it as “curcuma” rice, rather than turmeric rice.

With dinner, and my movie, coming to an end, I check in on the progress of my flight, and… oh wow… no wonder if feels like it’s been a while since takeoff. Dessert hasn’t even been served yet, and we’re already well out over the midwest.

I choose another Canadian film, Big Muddy, next. Not nearly as good as Room, and I fall asleep through the end of it (but would later catch the finish on another flight the next week.)
But I’m getting ahead of myself here — first up, there’s the dessert that lulled me into my food coma sleep. The usual AC cookie and ice cream. And it’s very good, as usual.

With mealtime finally over, I settle back into a lounging position and watch my movie. This seat is excellent for this purpose. Water is kept topped up throughout the rest of the flight. Soon, the lights are turned down, further aiding in my sleepiness taking over.

Soon enough, I’m woken up by the light coming back up as we start to get ready to land. It’s an overcast day and a bit snowy, and we finally break through the clouds not too far from the ground.

We’re getting very close and settle into final when we get that unmistakable feeling of the engines coming on hard and the plane pulling up. Oooooooooo! Go-around! The pilot comes on quickly to reassure us that it was just a plane on the runway we were approaching, and nothing that endangered the safety of the flight. Of course. Because nearly landing on an occupied runway is perfectly safe!
We loop back around and get back in line of arrivals — they’re just landing on the one north-south runway at Pearson tonight, so it’s a bit of a lineup. But here we are, coming in for a second time, as shown on the IFE.

And out the window.

Finally, here’s the 427.

And the ground.

A short taxi, and we pull in to an international gate at Pearson, not too far form where this journey began a few short days earlier. Thanks to my Nexus card, I'm through customs in no time and headed back home.
That’s it for this time, thanks for reading! See you soon for the next adventure.