Review of Air Canada flight Bogota → Toronto in Business

Welcome to another Aeroplan adventure! This time, it’s off for a quick jaunt to Chile with Air Canada and Avianca.

Here’s the rundown:

AC962 YYZ-BOG 3/14/2016 - Here
AV97 BOG-SCL 3/14/2016 - Here
AV98 SCL-BOG 3/16/2016 - Here
AC963 BOG-YYZ 3/16/2016 - You are here

As I’m wont to do with the final legs of this kind of trip, I’m going to power through this fairly quickly, by my standards. Hopefully, you’ll still get some of the flavour of the flight.

Upon arrival, I head for Avianca’s business class lounge. It’s a lot easier to find this time, since I know where it is. (Perched upstairs next to a food court, if you’re looking for it.)



The lounge is reasonably large, very red and white, and very sparsely occupied. In interest of brevity, I’ll skip much of a review this time around — you can get a much more complete picture of the lounge on the AV97 flight-report linked above.



The food offerings are about the same as when last I was in here, which is to say, quite underwhelming. But I still pity the foo’ who doesn’t like Mr. Tea. Mmmmmmmm.



After hanging out for a while, boarding time was coming up, so I headed downstairs to find the gate for my flight back to Toronto. It’s not that hard to find — there aren’t a lot of AC 767s hanging around El Dorado.



Always a good sign: My ride is sitting outside, getting the cargo holds filled. So we should be on our way something approaching on time.

The boarding area is packed and chaotic, but once it’s called, I’m among the first to get on the plane in Zone 1, and headed to the same seat I enjoyed on my flight down to start this adventure, 8A.

Flight: AC963
From: Bogota (BOG)
To: Toronto Pearson (YYZ)
Date: 3/16/2016
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300ER
Registration: C-FCAE
Seat: 8A
ATD (STD): 15:07 (14:30)
ATA (STA): 21:54 (21:40)

Upon boarding, I’m surprised to see the same service director — and eventually the same full crew — that served us on my flight down two days ago. This is a very positive sign, as they were a very good team on the way down, I thought. Eventually I overheard the service director welcoming a few other familiar faces, so I wasn’t the only J passenger flying back to Toronto 48 hours after flying down. I had previously thought this flight was daily, so my flight crew headed down would have gone home the day before my return, but it turns out it doesn’t operate on Tuesdays, hence the familiar crew.

My seat is well appointed as usual, with a big fluffy pillow, and a very comfortable duvet. As previously discussed, the privacy in this seat is great, as it’s the last row of J on this plane, it has a closet between the seat and the aisle, and because only the A seats of this 1-1-1 configuration use the port side aisle, so there’s a mini-wall on the other side of the aisle.



Requisite legroom shot after relocating the pillow and blanket combo to make room for myself.



Out my window, a reminder of my very enjoyable recently-completed flights to and from Santiago.



Most controls and interesting functions of the seat are locating in this central panel. Unfortunately, the screen can’t be used during taxi, takeoff or landing, as it must be stowed. But I pop it open before departure, and see that there are some movies I want to see, including films that have gone unfinished on recent flights. Bonus. I select “Love the Coopers,” which I’d almost finished on the flight down, and actually manage to finish it before we depart. It took me significantly longer to fast-forward through the portion of the movie I’d already watched than it did to actually watch the rest of the movie.



The noise-cancelling headphones are hard-wired into the console. But they’re comfortable, and unlike on the flight down, both channels work well. So they’ve got that going for them.



During boarding, the menu was presented. Again, not international spec in front but rather a “premium longhaul” North American flight experience. I end up deciding to try the fish, although I’m not familiar with corvina fish. But I’ve had goo luck with fish on planes recently, so why not take a chance?



I’m pretty sure a pre-departure beverage was also offered, although not photographed for posterity for some reason. I presume I had water. But don’t quote me on that.

With the film over, boarding is complete, so I cue up my next movie, Carol, which had gone unfinished on one of my Avianca flights. I manage to get it lined up to just about where I’d left it before they cut in with the safety demonstration. In doing the fast-forwarding, I discover there’s a key difference in viewing experiences between the two airlines. Avianca censors for nudity. Air Canada does not.

Here’s a look across the cabin with boarding complete but prior to pushback.



And we have pushback!



It’s a relatively long taxi, but soon enough we’re up and away, with some great views of the Bogota area on the way to altitude.



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



Drink orders are then taken. I request a Caesar, and join my movie in progress whilst I wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Finally, I flag down one of the flight attendants, and request a Caesar. The service director, who had taken my initial order, immeidately makes his way down to apologize for the mistake — he thought I had decline a drink. Clearly, sir, you do not know me very well at all! He does comment, though, that he should have remembered my drink preferences from my flight down two days ago. And he comes bearing gifts — the makings of a couple of Caesars. It’s lacking in presentation, perhaps, but you can’t complain about the quantity.



Dinner service takes a while to get going on this flight, but eventually, the tray and salad course are presented. While the dressing is the omnipresent balsamic olive oil, it’s a different presentation, and who doesn’t love Caprese salad? Well, maybe some don’t. But I do. And this is quite pleasant. I request a glass of the chardonnay they have on board — I forget the details, but I remember it being quite nice. Light and refreshing.



The main is served, and my photo is very weird because of the out-of-control mood lighting bathing the cabin at that point in the flight. But oh my goodness, did I choose well! The fish was perfectly prepared and quite tasty in a good “white fish” kind of way, and the sauce was just delightful. Even the rice was very good, even if it did suffer from some dried out grains around the edge of the plate from being reheated. Even the vegetables were quite enjoyable, which is saying a lot, considering I’m not huge on cooked zucchini, and I generally actively dislike eggplant.



I really can’t say enough about this dish — it was really, really enjoyable. I presume, given the unfamiliar ingredients, that this is actually catered out of Bogota, as opposed to AC double-catering out of YYZ. But I guess that’s not possible because they have to cater Y both ways as well, which obviously wouldn’t be the case on a domestic run.

Dinner service ends with the familiar cookies and ice cream “premium longhaul” service, although with a twist. Now, I’m sure this has been catered out of Bogota, since it’s a different brand of ice cream, and a very different cookie. The ice cream is fine, and I really love the cookie. AC’s standard cookie is good, but this one is a very different consistency — a bit more “doughy,” if that makes sense. But in a good way. And with a vanilla sort of flavouring to it. I really enjoyed it, making this meal very much a hit. I accompany it with a coffee with Baileys.



With dinner service over, the lights are brought down, and I put my seat down into a comfortable lounging position. Next up on my movie list, the second part of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.



After dinner, service was not very proactive. Or even present. I recall one of the flight attendants making one pass through the cabin with glasses of water, but that’s about it. Between that and the forgotten drink incident, I feel like this crew — which I thought was excellent on the southbound flight — was kinda mailing it in for this flight.

When the movie ends, I check our status on the moving map — interestingly, AC has put a new “skin” on the old IFE systems that makes it look much more like the next-generation IFE offered on its 787s and refurbed 777s. And is it just my imagination, or does the system feel more responsive with the skin? It could be — the new skin do seem decidedly less graphics-heavy than the old skin.



I select a documentary on the Deep Web to finish the flight, but due to my miscalculating the remaining flight time — and having to stow the screen well before arrival on this configuration — I miss about the last half hour. But no worries. I’m sure I’ll catch it on another light at a later date.

When they start bringing the mood lighting up, it’s a good sign that we’re getting into our descent into Pearson. Here’s a look across the cabin as it’s bathed in a hellish red glow.



By the time we’re through the clouds, we’re over the northeastern suburbs of Toronto, beautifully lit up below me.



Pretty soon we’re on final descent.



And we arrive at Terminal 1 at Pearson, where this trip will end as it began — with a Sunwing 737 out my window.



On my way off the plane, the service director jokes that he’ll let me know his schedule so I can catch his next two flights, too.

With my Nexus card, customs was a breeze, and quickly, this trip was in the record books.

Thanks for reading!