AC20/19 Singapore to Vancouver Nonstop on Air Canada, and a Solar Eclipse in Montreal

[yflyer]

Montreal was a very runnable city...



I ran past Place Jacques Cartier again. The old town reminded me of Europe. I had to remind myself I was in Canada, and not in France or some other city in Europe.

[yflyer]

To shake off my jetlag, and also to orientate myself to a new city, I headed out for a morning run.

From the hotel, I first checked out the Opera House...



...and then the Concert Hall...



...before jogging through the quiet streets of Montreal on a Sunday morning...



...past an ice-skating rink...



...and also Chinatown. I never knew until that point in time that Montreal had such a charming Chinatown...



I continued to the Montreal City Hall...



..then headed through Place Jacques-Cartier...



...towards the bank of the St Lawrence River.



I ran along the riverbank, towards to the historic Clock Tower.



In the distance, the Jacques-Cartier Bridge...with its light green trusses. Was it possible to run over that bridge, I wondered? (Regulars on SQTalk will know I have a thing about running across bridges...).

From the clock tower, I turned around and headed southeast along the streets of the old town, along the riverside...



There were some beautiful buildings along the way...



...including Bonsecours Market...

[yflyer]

It was bright and sunny the next morning. I was really lucky with the weather the week I was there. Skies were blue, and the weather was unseasonally wam (8 degrees C above the average for that time of year).

I woke up to an excellent view out the window of the Opera House and surrounding landmarks. No wonder the hotel came with a pair of bino's!



It had snowed heavily the previous week, and there were still some patches of snow at street level.



In the distance, to the west, the Cross on top of Mount Royal was visible....



And far below...the Opera House, and Concert Hall, both centres of the music scene in Montreal.



The musical theme extended to the lifts in the hotel, with one of the lifts decorated with pictures of conductor Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.



There was a concert by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra taking place later in the week, but alas I had work commitments that evening, and could not attend. An evening at the Montreal Symphony would have to wait until a future trip.

[yflyer]

When I checked into the hotel, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there was an Executive Lounge in the hotel (Not all DoubleTree's have one), and not only that, there was happy hour free flow of wine and beer until 9.30pm. Brilliant!

In the USA, many of the hotel exec lounges I visited invariably had honour bars where any liquor was chargeable, and I was expecting the same in Canada, so it was a welcome surprise to learn that no such rules applied here, and that wine/beer were available on a complimentary basis.

The lounge was not busy at 8.30pm on a Saturday night.



It looked to be past the lounge timing for hors d'oeuvres and hot food, but thankfully the hot main dishes were still laid out for self service.

Today's mains were chicken teriyaki and rice pilaf.



There was beer in the fridge...



...and red/white wine in an automatic dispenser...



At that point I had not yet decided on whether or not to head out for dinner, but I made a snap decision to just eat in the lounge.

I poured myself a glass of Pinot Grigio...



...and helped myself to the chicken teriyaki. Nothing fancy but perfectly sufficient for dinner...



I sampled some of the other wines, and ended the evening with a can of Pale Ale...

[yflyer]

I stayed at several hotels in Montreal. My first hotel was the DoubleTree Hilton Montreal.



This was a modern hotel in a great location in downtown Montreal, directly opposite the Opera House and Concert Hall, and just a 15 min walk away from Montreal's old town and the St Lawrence River. It was also located above a busy shopping mall.



The hotel's reception was on the 6th floor.



As I checked in at 8.15pm, I noticed, through full length glass windows by the reception, that the property had an indoor swimming pool, which was surprisingly busy at that hour in the evening.



My room was on the 18th floor.



This was a new and very spacious room...



...with some very nice decorative touches...



The long desk was slightly narrow, but perfectly adequate for laptop or iPad use...



An open wardrobe...



Nespresso machine, kettle and empty minibar fridge (Just the way I like it -- I can put my own stuff in, rather than have to deal with overpriced minibar items).



The bathroom design was clean and uncluttered...



...with a very spacious shower stall...



Note the clock built into the mirror...



Intriguingly, my room also came with a pair of binoculars.



But it was night time when I checked in, so I couldn't really see much out the window.

I'll find out tomorrow morning, I thought to myself...

[yflyer]

After take-off, hot towels were handed out.



This was followed by beverage service, with a good selection of complimentary wine, beer and spirits available.



The beverage menu was available online.



Options included Clamato...



I asked for Vodka and Clamato...effectively this was a Bloody Mary...



This was served in a proper glass, and tasted wonderful.

Next was meal service. Prior to take-off the cabin crew had come round to take orders for the choice of main course (Just a choice of 2 items), or to confirm pre-orders. I had opted for the risotto, and this was seved on a single tray, together with sald and dessert, with proper ceramic tableware and metal cutlery.



This was a very good meal. To me, this felt more like domestic business class than premium economy. Thumbs up!



Cabin ambience in PEY was very good.



Mid way through the flight, snacks were offered.



I thought the cabin crew on this flight were excellent. Young, cheerful and eager to please.

We would be arriving in Montreal more-or-less on time, at about 7.15pm



It was dusk as we made our final approach into Montreal...



On the ground at YUL.



From there it was a short Uber ride to my hotel, the DoubleTree Hilton Montreal.

I thought my AC PEY flight fron Vancouver to Montreal was excellent. It felt more like domestic business than PEY, with very good catering and excellent cabin crew, not to mention a very strong PEY hard product.

If you need to get from Singapore to Montreal (Or any other destination in Canada), a one stop option on Air Canada via Vancouver looks to be a very convenient way to do it. The flights I took were very good, and the connection process was quite straightforward.

Next up, Montreal!

[yflyer]

I downed my coffee, then left the lounge and headed to the gate for AC306 to Montreal.



This flight was operated by Airbus A330, rego C-GHLM. This was a 22 year old plane, in Star Alliance Livery.



Although this was a fairly old plane, the interiors looked to have been recently refurbished.

I was flying Premium Economy today. PEY was laid out 2-3-2.



The seats looked wide and comfortable...



Seat pitch looked decent.



Recline was good, and the seat even had a calf rest...



...and footrest...



There was A/C power and USB.



Another USB, and even a USB-C port, under the screen...



The IFE system and program selection was similar to the system on my SIN-YVR sector, with the addition of live Canadian TV channels.



Our 4 and a half hour flight from Vancouver to Montreal would take us right across Canada...



On this flight PEY pax could use the bathrooms ahead of the PEY cabin.

[yflyer]

There was a dedicated dining area...



...with a small breakfast buffet...



...with cut fruit...



Bread and bagels...



Muffins...



Oatmeal...



...with real maple syrup!



Sausages and scrambled eggs...



Boiled eggs...



Potato wedges...



Condiments, including Sriracha!



Lots of Canada Dry...



No alcohol served until 11am...



I helped myself to coffee and some breakfast.



Overall, I would say this was a decent but unexceptional lounge. Just about adequate for a brief pit stop in between connecting flights.



I did appreciate the airside views though, with the coffe and bright sunlight helping me to adjust to the local time zone.

[yflyer]

Off the plane in Vancouver, I followed the signs for connecting passengers, and eventually found myself at the immigration area for pax connecting to domestic flights in Canada. At that hour in the morning, around 8.30am, there weren't many other flights arriving, so there were hardly any queues at the automated passport checks. For pax with luggage, there was a waiting area in the connections zone for their checked luggage from Singapore to be collected, but for those without luggage, we were waived through.

Within minutes, I was in the airside area for Air Canada's domestic flights.

As there was still time before my next flight to Montreal, I headed to Air Canada's Maple Leaf Lounge, which was open to AC's frequent flyers as well as Star Gold pax. This was the Maple Leaf Lounge in the domestic terminal. There was another lounge in the International Terminal, which I would visit a week later, prior to my flight back to Singapore.



This was a spacious lounge with full length windows and tarmac views.



The lounge was not busy at 9am in the morning.



There was sofa-style seating...



...as well as communal tables for work and/or dining...



The counter-style seating by the windows were a great way to take in the view...

[yflyer]

Overall, I had a great flight on AC20 SIN-YVR in business class. The business class hard product and catering were very good, and the cabin service from the seasoned, experienced crew was very thoughtful as well.

This was the same cabin crew that flew on the inaugural YVR-SIN 2 days prior, and they were now heading home.

I personally found that I preferred the seat on this AC light to SQ's current generation A350 J long haul / ULR seat, which is showing it's age.

I have very fond childhood memories of flying Air Canada. As my flight drew to a close, I told the cabin service manager that the last time I flew Air Canada out of Singapore, it was on a Lockheed Tristar on the SIN-BOM-LHR sector way back in 1986. She was quite amazed to hear that.

It was great to be flying Air Canada out of Singapore again.

[yflyer]

Great views on final approach into Vancouver...



...and a smooth landing in VVR at 8.17am, 30 min ahead of scheduled arrival at 8.50am. Total flight time 13 hours and 30 minutes.

[yflyer]

One unique feature about AC's inflight map...their destinations and flight schedules are integrated into the map display...

Want to see where AC flies?



It's all shown on the map!



RIght down to flight operating schedules...





I checked out my next flight, YVR-YUL...



Full flight schedules were available...



Wifi was also available for a fee...about CAD30 (SGD30) for a full flight. Wifi connectivity was good throughout the flight.

[yflyer]

Clear blue skies today...



Wonderful ambience in the Business Class cabin.



While enclosed seats are all the rage with airlines these days, I am still a fan of a more open business class seating concept. Privacy is all about perception. When seated in the business class seat, I felt I had decent privacy, and did not really notice the pax around me. The open cabin was in some ways preferable to the slightly claustrophobic, closed in feeling that you get with some more "private" J seat concepts.

Cabin ambience in PEY and Y...



Today's flight was 100% full in all classes...

[yflyer]

The sky outside was getting brighter as we approached Canada...



The sun was rising. It was time for breakfast service...



The breakfast tray...



There was a choice of omelette or noodles...



I picked the noodles...



Very tasty! The noodles were spicier and more peppery than they looked, which was great for me! The dim sum was good as well.



On the whole, I was quite impressed with Air Canada catering. Both dinner and breakfast were quite delicious, with the only miss being the mediocre satay (But then SQ (and MH) have had years to perfect inflight satay!).

[yflyer]

The shelf above the first row bulkhead seats was used to place snacks during the flight.



I thought the selection of fresh fruit was good, especially the plums...



Yum...very sweet and tasty...



Mid way during the flight, I felt peckish, and ordered the satay and a G&T (Which came perfectly prepared, complete with lemon slice)...



All satays are not created equal. SQ satay is still superior. The AC chicken satay was too soft, and didn't have the wonderful texture of SQ's satay. Also, it was cashew sauce, not peanut sauce (Perhaps to avoid any risk of peanut allergy?).

I snuck a peak at the snacks laid out in the galley for PEY (and maybe Y pax). If I was really hungry I guess I could have had a sandwich too.



No cup noodles onboard (At least not on the menu). I made a mental note to BYO my own cup noodles for my YVR-SIN flight home.

With 4 hours to go, our routing took us over the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands...



I checked out the different views on the inflight map...



Cockpit view...



One nice feature on the IFE...they had an option to only show films whose running time would complete by the remaining flight time.