Many stores were already closed for the night, but there were still many restaurants and convenience style stores still open. I wanted to go to the Skyteam lounge, but they only accepted Priority Pass after 21:15, so I had to wait until then. In the meantime, there were some cool airplanes to see such as this Air China 777-300ER.
Flight routing
- 1
- 2
- 3AC21 YVR-HKG 787-9 in Economy
- 4
- 5QR755 DOH-ATL 777-300ER in Economy
Or this Fiji Airways A350-900. There were also other planes too like the China Airlines A350-900 and Philippine Airlines 777-300ER.
After my time spent in the Skyteam lounge, I decided to arrive at the gate around boarding time which was 45 minutes before departure. I was in Group 5 this time. Boarding proceeded orderly, and I decided to be the last person to board.
My flight was operated by C-FGFZ, an almost 8 year old 787-9 delivered in April of 2016. This 787-9 was once again in Air Canada's previous livery which goes for a majority of their 787-9s actually.
My seat for the flight was an aisle seat in the middle section as I thought a window seat wouldn't be ideal with the flight being entirely in the dark. My seat was in the forward economy cabin and behind the premium economy section. AC's 787-9's feature 30 business, 21 premium econ, and 247 economy seats. The seats were the exact same as the 777-300ER. Waiting on each seat was a pillow and blanket. Flight attendants came by and gave out free earbuds if they were needed.
Our flight time was announced as 12 hours and 36 minutes which surprised me as I was expecting a 14 hour flight. Announcements from the flight attendants was done in English, French, and Cantonese. We pushed back from the gate five minutes early at 00:10 on April 16th. Our takeoff and climb out were incredibly smooth, but there wasn't anything that could be seen outside.
I would say about 35 minutes after departure, the dinner service began. Air Canada posts their menus online before long haul flights, so it's nice to have them for reference.
I decided the order the General Tao chicken with rice with nothing to drink as I had enough water already. I thought that the main dish was good and liked the flavor of the chicken. The side dishes were alright, and I'm now realizing that one of them doesn't look like a lemon couscous salad. I saved the brownie and bread roll for later.
After trays cleared I tried to get some sleep. Honestly, this report hardly has any photos as I was trying to get as much sleep as I can. Fortunately, this was probably the smoothest long haul flight I've ever been on, so I didn't have to worry about turbulence.
Sometime in the middle of the flight, I used the lavatory. There were two lavatories between the business class and premium economy cabins, and I didn't feel like walking to the back of my cabin. The lavatory had a window which was a first for me but provided no use on this pitch black flight.
I fell asleep again and woke up to two tuna sandwiches on my tray table. They were alright, but nothing spectacular. There were also snacks and drinks in the galley, and I grabbed a bag of Air Canada's pretzel twists which were good, but the bag was small.
After falling asleep for probably the third time, I woke up before the breakfast service reached my row. This was 1 hour and 36 minutes before arrival in Hong Kong. I got the Singapore noodles with pork which were really good. I liked the style of the noodles and the sauce.
Since I haven't done so already, I'll talk about the infotainment system. Despite being the same seats as the 777-300ER, the system was more updated. The interface looked better and there were more movie and TV choices as well. The moving map system was slightly different as well. WiFi was available for purchase again, but I did not buy any.
After everything was cleared, flight attendants handed out Hong Kong arrival cards if needed. Our descent into Hong Kong came soon enough, and we eventually landed very early in the morning. We probably pulled into the gate at 04:20 which was a full hour ahead of schedule. Immigration was very empty and I didn't have to wait long for my bag either. After a pleasant long haul flight, I was rested and ready to explore Hong Kong.
Thanks for sharing this FR! The AC hard product could be better (pitch on the B787s isn’t great compared to the Asian competitors) and the IFE size is on the smaller side for current standards, but it looks like the soft product made up for it.
Must have been very little head winds, that is booking it down to HKG from the west coast. Likely also explains the small amount of turbulence that is typical for TPACs.
I’ve noticed more airlines doing this and helps take the mystery out of the “beef or chicken” you get on the plane. Meal trays look a little bit lighter than on Asian carriers, but the food options look reasonable and not surprised that YVR catering good.
Very fortunate flight time. Only one other flight within 90 days had a flight time of less than 13 hours. AC21 doesn't operate daily, so there isn't 90 flights to reference but still neat. AC7 does operate daily, so there's more flights to reference there.
Much better service than on the domestic leg. It's like flying a whole different airline. The meals look really good for Economy and it's nice that they post the menus online ahead of time--not many carriers do that.
YVR is really well-positioned geographically as a transpacific hub---under 13h flying time to HKG from North America is crazy fast (even though it's still long by any standard). I've only done super long 16-17h flights to HKG from DTW and DFW so that's my only frame of reference. In comparison 13h is quick. Though it would probably feel long after having done 3 flights in one day.
Thanks for sharing!
Food was indeed better than American Airlines I would say.
Hi again!
Tend to agree on the longer flights, especially when it’s darkness most of the time. The only perk of the window seat means a couple of shots when it gets light and somewhere to lean your head for sleeping.
Back on the free earbuds again!!
I flew on the 16th as well (the other direction& continent) and the flight took longer than expected. Maybe you had some good jet streams/favorable routings
Nice on the menus and the food looks good! Big step up from the last report.
All in all sounds like a solid experience, good crew, good food and you slept for 7 hours. What better way to wake up then ready to explore Hong Kong. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the support. Looking back on flightradar24, my flight indeed had the shortest flight time of all the flights within the past 90 days. AC21 doesn't operate daily, but still impressive.