⭐ Overall Score: 8 / 10
Pros
- Hot lunch on a domestic flight
- Fast free wifi
- Good selection of streaming entertainment
Cons
- No meal choice
- Broken power outlets
- No working seat back entertainment
This Air Canada “domestic” first class flight from Dallas to Toronto offered a solid but unremarkable experience, with a comfortable seat, fast free WiFi, and a better-than-expected hot meal. However, issues like inoperable seatback screens and a broken power outlet detracted from an otherwise decent flight. Overall, it’s a perfectly acceptable short-haul premium product, but not one that particularly stands out.
Booking
This flight was the first leg of a trip that would take me to Bosnia and Serbia. I booked the business trip on an Air Canada ticket via our corporate travel agent. The total business class airfare for the round trip was $6095 with this particular segment costing just under $800. Despite being a flight to Canada – which is and will always be a separate country – Air Canada considers flights to the US as “domestic” (as do US airlines).
Airport Experience
Since Air Canada doesn’t have a lounge at DFW, I utilized the United Club in Terminal E. As DFW is dominated by American Airlines and its partners, the United Club at DFW is relatively small. The food and beverage amenities were decent for a domestic US lounge, but the lounge was packed although I found there were a few seats to choose from.
It was a relatively short walk to the gate and I arrived a few minutes before boarding. At which point a delay was announced, but it was fortunately only about 15 minutes (especially important as I had a relatively short connection in Montreal).
Aircraft and Cabin
First class on the CRJ900 has 12 seats in a 1-2 layout. I was in 1A – the single bulkhead seat on the left side of the plane. The CRJ900 first class seats have 37 inches of pitch and are 21 inches wide. This is basically the same as American and United domestic first class. I generally don’t like the bulkhead, but didn’t get around to selecting another seat after I was assigned 1A. I was able to grab the bin above my seat to put my laptop bag in so I could easily access it during the flight.
No predeparture drinks were offered, but a bottle of water was waiting at each seat.
Seat
The seat was perfectly suitable for the 3.5 hour flight and was in good condition. Otherwise, however, the seat was unmemorable.
The tray table comes out of the armrest and was big enough for my laptop and ipad (which looking at the picture of now I realize I really need a new case for). Each seat also had a power outlet to charge your device, however the connection on the one at my seat was too loose and would only charge if I physically held the plug in place which was not practical for more than a minute or so. In other words, it might as well have not worked at all.
In Flight Entertainment & Connectivity
While there were seat back screens, they were inoperable on this flight and appeared to have not been operable for some time. I’m not sure if this a former feature on the AC CRJ900 that is no longer available or if I just had bad luck on this plane. However, AC does offer streaming entertainment to personal devices and that came with an ample selection of programming.
Air Canada offers free wifi to Aeroplan members on domestic flights and it was fast. It allowed me to be very productive in the air…that is until my laptop battery ran low and I couldn’t get the plug to stay connected to the outlet at my seat (argh!).
Food and Drink
Air Canada served a hot lunch on this flight which consisted of barbecue chicken, green beans and mashed potatoes. This tasted better than it looked as I thought the barbecue sauce was decent and the green beans were still nicely crisp and not overcooked. The entrée came with a boring side salad and a good apple crumble cheesecake. A choice of bread was also offered and I selected sourdough.
I stuck to water on this flight, but there was of course a full bar available including Molson Canadian beer!
Arrival Experience
We made up most of the delay in the air and arrived almost on time into snowy Montreal. This was good as navigating YUL’s airport for an international transfer is not quick. Fortunately there was ample signage and airport personnel to direct lost passengers. There were multiple check points but that shouldn’t be surprising since I was arriving on a US inbound flight and departing on a flight to Europe. To be safe, I would want at least an hour to connect on an itinerary like this, but I was into the international part of the airport in about 30 minutes.
