Review of Air Canada flight Vancouver → Hong Kong in Business

1. welcome back

Hello Everyone, Welcome back to another flight report.

This time is covering a flight that i did in the height of the pandemic for some urgent business.

The flight was very unique and definitely don't want to have the same experience anymore

2. Lounge

Today we are travelling on Air Canada's Business Class product to Hong Kong from Vancouver. Seat 6A on a 787 Dreamliner

Ad for the Airbus A220 (Bombardier CS300 Series). This aircraft was designed and manufactured in Canada until Bombardier sold the project to Airbus. Air Canada is aiming to use the A220 to replace most of the aging A319/A320 fleet along with the addition of the 737-Max

In Dec 2020, Air Canada has closed all the lounge in YVR except the Domestic Maple Leaf Lounge in the domestic terminal. Luckily, Canada does not have immigration control when you are leaving the country. So international passenger can actually access this lounge.

Food and drinks are offered from an ordering system that has a unique QR code on your table. You can order any food and drinks and someone will bring them to you. As you can tell, they are trying to minimize contacts at the food section

I ordered a French Toast for breakfast as most of the other options are cold food. Air Canada really did a good job by still offering food in their lounge. I understand many airlines stopped offering food and drink because of concerns toward the coronavirus pandemic.

Air Canada also partnered with local celebrity chef, in this case Hawksworth as part of their food offering.

The view from the lounge is gorgeous, view of the north shore mountain and a 777 carrying the old Air Canada livery. It is surreal to see YVR is so empty given it is the second busiest airport in Canada.

I also witnessed this poor pink suitcase flew off the cart when the ground staff was doing a high speed turn to the whatever he was trying to go

3. flight

Time to board the aircraft. The 787 is equipped with the so called Air Canada Signature Class which is flat bed seat on international long haul business class (Similar seats used on the A330 and the 777).  The loading was 3 passengers at the business class.

I personally really like this seat as there are a lot of adjustments to play around including the firmness of the seat cushion and MASSAGE!

Because of the pandemic, there is reduced service on Air Canada flight. On the left, it is the Clean Care+ package offered by Air Canada, which contains a bottle of water, a biscoff biscuit, hand sanitizer and mask. On the right, my own version of Clean Care package containing more hand sanitizer, fresh nap wipes and some alcohol wipes.

And yes, no welcome drink was offered

Right next to us is a China Southern 787 that was flown in from Guangzhou empty. It was used for Cargo only despite parking at a jet bridge.

We are taxing toward the runway to takeoff. No delay at all, i mean there was no traffic at all

4. Food

Soon after takeoff, a menu was offered. At least there is a hot food item in business class, I think at the time Air Canada is only offering cold sandwiches to passengers travelling in Economy class. And we are talking about a 13hrs flight here.

I opted for a sparkling which comes in a plastic cups. Everything offered in the in flight services are disposable

Here comes the meal. oh yes, the bread was stone cold from the fridge as well. I hardly digest half of the food.

Ah and yes, I turned my sparkling into mimosa cos why not

As you can see, the seat is really comfy with a lot of spaces.

I really liked the fins at the end of the GENx engine. They totally elevated the look of the 787

Another features i like is the window of the 787 which is electronically dimmed. It allows you to still see what's outside without disturbing other passenger's sleep. I quickly fell asleep as when I wake up, we are already over in Taiwan

With less than an hour from arriving in HKG, we are cruising at 40000 ft

"Lunch" was offered in a form of a cold warps, some biscoff and a Miss Vickies chips. Oh yes, can't forget the oranges that may help you fight the pandemic with the rich vitamin-C

We soon landed in HKG, as you can see the construction work for the third runway did not stop because of the pandemic

We met another Air Canada 787 that is ready to depart for Toronto. It is quite amusing that Air Canada was able to operate 2 flights from Canada to Hong Kong.

5. quarantine

After we arrived, everyone is directly to take the APM to the midfield concourse to proceed to the quarantine procedure

You are given a stack of papers and 2 reusable masks

Then you have to sit here to wait for your name to be called and they will transfer you to a government hotel before you can go to your own place of quarantine pending the testing result