Route: Montreal to Frankfurt
Plane: B787-9
Date: Aug 2-3, 2024
Price paid: $1,449 + complimentary upgrade (original price $3,889)
Comfort
Air Canada’s international business class features reverse herringbone lie-flat seats in eight rows of four. The seat uses an inflatable mattress for adjustable firmness and the leg rest and back rest are independently adjustable. There are additional four-way adjustable air bladders in the headrest and lumbar support.
When flat, the bed can comfortably accommodate someone six-foot tall and the footwell is high enough that passengers can sleep on their side facing the aisle. The mattress topper doesn’t do much, I found the duvet too warm and I would’ve preferred a rectangular pillow rather than a square one that took up headroom. The adjustable armrest is designed to expand the sleeping area by a couple of inches, but I found it useful to prevent me from rolling into the aisle.
Ambience is adjusted through two overhead lights, a pivoting reading light, electronically dimming sunshades and a footwell glow. The sunshades are much slower than traditional plastic blinds to brighten or dim, but the footwell light was helpful to find items I had stowed under the bed.
In-flight entertainment
The 14-inch screen and the noise-cancelling headphones made watching movies a pleasure. Nobody told me it was noise cancelling, but I could hear the silence as soon as I plugged it in. The movie selection is the same as in economy class and includes new releases from the same year.
A touch-screen remote control in the side table cubby is the best way to control the screen as it’s so far away from your face. My only complaint is that the touch-screen brightness doesn’t adjust with the main screen.
Food
The three course meal I chose included ahi tuna that I paired with a German riesling, curry strip orecchiette that I paired with a Spanish white, and a cheesecake with raspberry compote that I paired with a young port. Service took about 90 minutes, which was long that I had liked as I wanted more time for sleep.
The ahi tuna is identical to the snack portion that I had on an earlier domestic business class flight from Ottawa to New York as a “snack” and the orecchiette had an inconsistent temperature, but the food was otherwise fine. The Spanish white really brought out the flavours from the shrimp.
Keeping with Air Canada’s theme of repetition. Breakfast was more parsley omelette—identical to domestic business class and no meal choice was offered. Probably fine for the leisure traveler, but it gets old if you have it several times a month.
Service
Top notch. The purser personally told each passenger to let her know if she could do anything to enhance our comfort and she meant it. She was responsive to requests to try different wines and had the port and brandy ready at dessert. Another flight attendant did spill a glass of water while clearing the table, but none got on me and she replaced the glass quickly. No complaints.
