Air Canada: A Tale of PE and J (HKG-YVR)

[jammed]

Background
I have to get into Victoria BC (YYJ) and was weighing between hopping in from either Vancouver (YVR) or Seattle; the thought of US Customs/TSA/etc leaned me eventually towards YVR.

Without direct flights from SIN into YVR (or SEA for that matter), options were either AC or CX via HKG or BR via TPE. I picked these because of their Premium Economy offerings too. In the end, decided on AC because of time (shortest at 19hrs including transit); both were abt similarly priced (Mods, Can we discuss price in $value here?)

The 4hr SIN-HKG SQ 866 was routine, and the YVR-YYJ 25min DASH8 hop was just too short to be noteworthy.

This TR focuses on the HKG-YVR PE product, and subsequently compares it with the J class. Need to first caveat with an apology for the lack of photos. Also, as my usual ride is SQ, and this is SQtalk anyway, my yardstick is SQ.

[jammed]

The Seat
AC008 today was a 773ER, rego C-FNNU, which was one of AC’s newest plane, delivered only in Dec 2013. The sky was dark for pics by the time I reached the gate, and so here’s a pic of C-FNNU culled from the net (photo credits below).


AC8 was operating three classes: CJ, PE and EY. See AC’s website of seat map. The PE cabin was located between the J and E cabins.


The PE seats were arranged in 3 rows of 2-4-2. I didn’t manage to snap a pic of the whole cabin, as it was all full and I didnt want to snap into pple's faces; this is an AC pic of the PE cabin.


I managed to pre-select bulkhead 12K.



The seat was very close to a regional J. Pitch was good. According to SeatGuru, pitch is 38" and width is 20".

For comparison SQ A388 EY has a pitch of 32" and width of 19"

Seat-recline control was via a button (those metallic push button) by the side of the seat; there were only either sit or recline positions, and graduations in between. As you can see from this AC pic (of PE on 787; similar to 77W) the recline had its limits.


The seat also had no leg rest extending outwards from under the seat to support one's calf. Fortunately for me at the bulkhead, I was able to rest my heels on the seat pocket in front of me for the next 12 hours. Nevertheless, such position could not be maintained for an extended period of time.

[jammed]

Amenities
Pre-placed on the seat at boarding was a blanket, earphones, an amenity kit and a bottle of water in the seat pocket.

In the seat pocket, there was only a duty-free catalogue beside the safety card; thankfully I brought along my own mags to pass the time.


2 stewards working the PE cabin came along to offer either juice or water. There was apparently no other choices besides Orange Juice or Water, as I overheard one of the pax asking to find out.

The amenity kit was in the form of a soft cloth material bag, and contained a pair of socks, eye-shades, ear-plugs and toothbrush and toothpaste. Personally, I have accrued sufficient of these, and some of them of much higher quality, that I did not find it worth my while, especially when travelling with only hand-luggage, to keep them. But that's just me.



The IFE screens pulled out from under the seats for the bulkhead rows.


Some of the reviews elsewhere mentioned that AC's touchscreen IFE were a tad slow, but I found it pretty responsive. There was quite a bit of movie selection, ranging from the latest Hollywood to Bollywood, Korean and Chinese (though there were 2 -3 of these in each compared to the huge range in SQ's Krisworld). I was watching Frozen (after listening my daughter sang Let It Go for the 1,000th time).


The complimentary headphones looked pretty nice at 1st glance, almost similar to my Sennheiser. Alas, the sound quality was bad (or perhaps I have been spoilt by my own expectations); unsurprisingly, they were not noise cancelling. But I supposed as give-aways - cabin crew did not collect these back - the quality would not be high. I abandoned these in favour of my own Sennheiser.



A note on the toilets - the lavs just ahead of the PE cabin was not just shared with J pax but also with EY. Despite a curtain separating the 3 cabins, pax were apparently free to move through these cabins and use any of the lavs. The lavs were also pretty standard - no pics hence - rather small like those in a A320 or 733.

Upon opening up my blanket, I found the remains of what-must-have-been a pretty cute sticker left by what-must-have-been a cute little child-pax several flights earlier. yikes

[jammed]

Food & Drinks
Once we reached cruising altitude, cabin crew came around with another round of 'Juice or Water'. I asked this time if I could have coffee; 'sorry we dont have coffee at this time'. Or any other time, I discovered later in the flight, not even at meal times.

The menu offered either Pork-loin with fried rice, or Beef with vegetables. No orders were taken and by the time the cart reached me - interestingly, service started from the back - they ran out of my preferred beef.


And to 'spice' up my dinner, the steward informed me - after quite a wait - that they were heating up my casserole, and it will take 'a few minutes', certainly felt longer. So this was what was staring at me for a good 15mins


Finally, the pork was slaughtered and cooked:


I'm not a fussy eater, and this was alright. A tad on the saltier side, but its airline food.

2 hours before arrival at YVR, breakfast was served. I was too sleepy and forgot to snap any pics. Vaguely recalled it was eggs, potato and some baked beans, with bread roll and butter, cheese, etc. Finally had coffee.

One remarkable piece of announcement that boomed across the whole plane was to the effect that EY pax at this time only have 'Juice or Water', ie no breakfast.

[jammed]

Will I Fly This Again?
We landed at YVR on time, uneventful (considering that the TV in HKG before boarding was showing news briefing of MH370, a 77W).

In all, I found AC's PE to be what it was - wider seat, longer pitch, 12 hours, for double the price of the EY seats. Incidentally, the EY cabin was arranged in 3-4-3 with 31" pitch and 17" width; several reviews in other sites had remarked this was a deterioration of the previous EY products, despite a new plane. This shot of the EY cabin from AC website:


The service was unremarkable - the 3 -4 cabin crew I encountered did not smile at all throughout the 12 hours, no kidding. Give me the mechanical smiles and Singlish-accents anytime. In any case, as many of my friends have pointed out, AC beats many of the US airlines hands-down. I don't much care for food or drinks, and was well-prepared for my own mags and amenities to look toward any on-board ones. So these didn't bother me much.

Will i fly AC PE again? Well, only if I have to fly to a location served only by AC, and the other options are EY and high-pricing J. If YVR again, schedule permitting, I may just try BR.

[jammed]

When I checked in online for my return YYJ-YVR-HKG-SIN 3 days later, the portal offered me an upgrade from PE to J for CAD800; doing some mental sums, I decided that the top-up amounted to 50% of the original J quote when I was planning for the trip, and so I took it.

The 30min DASH8 YYJ-YVR hop was again uneventful. I spent the 90min YVR transit in AC's Maple Leaf Lounge, which I could access with my KFEG even had I continued with PE. The Lounge (sorry didnt take any pics) was spacious, abt the size of T3 SKL, but considering YVR was AC's Pacific hub, it was full. Breakfast fare ranged from selections of bread, cereal, fruits and coffees/teas.

AC007 YVR-HKG was ironically again the same C-FNNU; made me wonder whether AC was using the same bird to cris-cross the Pacific everyday. There were separate queues for J, PE and *A on one side and EY on another. Flight was full, and so EY queue was long.

The Seat I thought what AC called its Studio Pod J seats were really interesting. Even no rows (2, 4, 6) had fewer and more spacious seats (see seatmap) while odd no rows were ideal for travelling-couples.


I didnt manage a pic of the cabin, but this from AC site shows the larger table beside the 'luckier' seats (ie. 1G, 2A, 2D, 2K, etc).


My 5D was the standard, without the extra working table:


Width was 21-22.5" (SQ A388 30", old 773 20") while pitch was 75-78" (SQ A388 55", old 773 50")




The seat could be flattened completely (sorry, again no pics, as I didnt really thought of doing up a TR), and I was able to get several rounds of good sleep. Seat control on the right of the arm rest:


The purser warned us soon as we sat down that the dining table, when flipped out from its storage could be a hazard, and warned us to be careful. In chats just before landing, he told us crew didnt quite take to the new seats (bearing in mind this set of seats furnished the newly delivered 77W)

In contrast to the HKG-YVR crew, this set of cabin crew were very friendly and chatted with pax upon boarding. I dont know whether the different attitude was particular to sets of crew, or a deliberate differentiation in service to match the cabin classes.

Amenities
Drinks ranging from Champagne to juices to water were served upon boarding. A bottle of water was also in the dedicated water bottle holder in front of the seat.

On the seat was an amenity kit, containing moisturiser, lip balm, a Mentos mint, toothbrush & toothpaste, ear plugs, socks - the last 3 similar to what were found in the PE kit.



The IFE was a much wider screen, 15.4" according to AC site, and touchscreen. Again its responsive and I was happy with the selections. Unfortunately, the J cabin also had the same sets of simple ear-phones 1st mentioned in PE, and I resorted to my own.



Love the nuts, almonds and macadamia, which was re-filled, not just a 2nd round, but 3rd, and would have been more had i not stopped them. So this was really great!

[jammed]

Service
I must say the cabin crew was superb - genuinely warm and friendly. Again, I said this in contrast to the PE service I had, and also in contrast to SQ. On my HKG-SIN return, I overheard a rather young SQ FS, upon learning the unique name of a little girl, responded, "Oh that's an interesting name, I have never heard it before." AC cabin crew for this leg were middle age - not scoring on the looks department but they were chatty and engaged pax in conversations.





In this instance, I was able to have my choice of Black Cod after the appetiser



Definitely nice presented, and as i mentioned earlier on, I'm not fussy with food and so was happy with what I had.

Abt 9 hours later (13-hour flight), just before arrival, I was able to have my choice of Roasted Chicken


Evaluation
AC J was definitely a sharp contrast with their PE, especially in terms of seat and service; I wasnt really bothered with the IFE and food, though the IFE was comparable quality. But the price difference btwn J and PE, in the original TA quote, was a whopping contrast. I only took up the J because of the sharply discounted last minute offer 24 hours before flight.

Comparing long-haul J, SQ's hard product (A388, old-new 77W) is definitely better than AC - seat-wise, IFE and even food offerings. In terms of service, and having the opportunity to immediately followed-up AC with SQ HKG-SIN, SQ's crew were definitely more SOP-conscious while AC's were (at least they came across) genuinely warm, friendly and engaging. But they were more mature, and definitely seasoned hands, and I'm sure their EOM could fetch SQ 2 FS.

ok, this is a very simple TR, one that I didnt intend to do-up originally. Pls let me know if I missed out any crucial details or ask me any questions and I will be happy to address them if i can. thanks vy much for reading.

[flying.monkeyz]

Will I Fly This Again?
We landed at YVR on time, uneventful (considering that the TV in HKG before boarding was showing news briefing of MH370, a77W)

MH370 ain't no 77W buddy.

[jammed]

MH370 ain't no 77W buddy.

oh yes, that's right.

[Carfield]

Thanks for the PE report! I believe this is one of the first AC PE trip reports I have read among all these aviation forums. The product looks sufficient and I am glad that the food looks a bit special, and unlike BA or CX, the meal tray features a different setup from Y. This is the way to do PE meals - take notes, BA or CX.

For Y, I believe their second main meal service is served mid-flight.

However, I believe lots of items are cut backs because of the smaller galley spaces, despite increased seating capacity.

Thanks for sharing!

Carfield

[Kyo]

A very good contrast

Enjoyable read. I do like AC but even their PE sounds downright narky. Not sure if I'd enjoy it so much.

[jammed]

I believe this is one of the first AC PE trip reports I have read among all these aviation forums. The product looks sufficient and I am glad that the food looks a bit special, and unlike BA or CX, the meal tray features a different setup from Y. This is the way to do PE meals - take notes, BA or CX.

For Y, I believe their second main meal service is served mid-flight.

However, I believe lots of items are cut backs because of the smaller galley spaces, despite increased seating capacity.

I do like AC but even their PE sounds downright narky. Not sure if I'd enjoy it so much.

thks for reading Carfield, Kyo It is indeed cos there were few PE TRs that I decided to write this - I myself faced lack of info when I was researching and there was a thread abt LH PE which extended to qns abt PE on other airlines.

I agree with 'sufficient' but no more than that IMO. The food prez may be a class better than EY but I was really hoping that the seat would be sufficiently comfy for a sleep. The width and pitch were alright but the lack of a leg-rest made it uncomfortable.

Yeah, in my checks ard various sites leading up to the trip, found some AC-fans (and used to be fans) lamenting the passing of AC esp with cutbacks.