Mid way through July as part of my main trip of the year to Canada and the United States we flew from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale on board an Air Canada Route 767-300ER. Having already flown to Toronto Pearson from London Gatwick with British Airways this was my second Boeing widebody flight of the trip, before my final flight back from Fort Lauderdale with British Airways again.
Starting at Toronto Pearson airport check in went pretty well followed by security being pretty much the same. Following this we went through US border pre-clearance which based on my only encounter with I am not a fan of. For the majority of us we were able to use the machines quite well until the last person who’s finger prints weren’t able to be picked up by the machine. Therefore all of us had to go to a check point, which would have been fine apart from the fact that the process took far too long combined with the fact that only 2 posts were open, and therefore we were held here for approximately half an hour.
Moving through into the main terminal it was alright, maybe a little above average but not exceptional. This came down to for me to a lack of space. The terminal at Toronto Pearson is beautifully designed with high ceilings and plenty of natural light. However there is a desperate lack of seating, with some gates having no seating in their gate areas meaning people spill out into the main walkways while there isn’t really any general seating zone which just makes it a little bit difficult to find somewhere to pass the time before your flight.
After the wait we went down to the gate area where we started boarding after not too long. Boarding was done by zones, however as is often the case people didn’t wait for their zone to be called instead standing in one mixed queue for the gate. This caused a problem of people who had been called for their zone not knowing where to stand and potentially slowed the boarding process down a bit.
Once on-board the aircraft it also came clear that the zones potentially hadn’t been that well thought out with a queue to get down my side of the aircraft back to the main plane door which kind of the defeats the idea of zone boarding and speeding up the process of getting people on the plane, with this not being any quicker than the traditional free for all.
Once settled in on the plane it also became clear that we were not the only people who had had issues with the US boarder pre-clearance with it being announced that the flight was being held for about 25 passengers who had not yet cleared customs. This led to the flight being delayed for 45 minutes while we waited for more passengers to arrive with the captain favouring this to offloading their luggage. During this time all the passengers were offered glasses of water while we were waiting. However this additional 45 minutes was still not enough time for some passengers to even make the plane.
Eventually we pushed back just short of one hour after our original departure time and the safety briefing saws done. Normally this isn’t something that I would comment on however in this circumstance I feel like it is appropriate. During the first briefing which was English the nearest caving crew member who I could see was half obscured by the bulkhead, meaning I was unable to fully take in the briefing. Luckily however during the second briefing one of the members of caving crew was now standing on my side of the aisle so I could see him fully. However this second presentation was done in French which is slightly inconvenient for me seeing as I can’t speak French. Overall what this meant was that following the presentations I had not fully taken in a whole safety briefing despite the two attempts at it.
Takeoff itself was quite quick after our taxi but was also quite bouncy. About an hour and a quarter after take off the food trolleys reached me, first the paid trolley which contained all the food options which seemed reasonably priced as well as some of the more expensive drinks. This was then followed by the complimentary drinks trolley which had on it all the kind of soft and hot drinks you would expect. However when I asked the flight attendant for a “lemonade” he said they didn’t have it, however they did have sprite which personally I would class as lemonade but perhaps this is just something that got lost culturally seeing as I’m flying a Canadian airline and the flight attendant was Italian. However the complementary drinks option was greatly appreciated even if it seemed like a large proportion of the passengers weren’t making use of it, something which is missing on the European flights I am used to.
Looking at the hard product itself in my opinion on an ageing 767 it was excellent. The seats in economy were very comfortable and I didn’t feel uncomfortable for the entire flight, whilst the legroom I personally had no issues with and I can’t really imagine there being that many people tall enough to have anything to complain about, frustratingly however the mount for the seat was screwed into the floor right where I would have preferably had my right foot, however from my aisle seat I was easily able to stretch my right leg out into the aisle instead. The 2-3-2 configuration on these 767 was also very comfortable to sit in, I have definitely missed the feeling of only having one person sitting next to you in an aisle seat, and the headroom above the seats was also great, something which I find comes to be important when waiting to get off the aircraft. Between each set of seats there is a power socket while in the overhead bins there seems to be plenty of space despite their very outdated design (I got a whole overhead locker to myself) despite the fact that out flight was fully booked and they were asking for bags at the gate. Compared to the A320 family aircraft I am used to flying on short haul routes I can’t really think of a feature I would want to take from the A320 across to the 767. It is also worth noting that the 767 is also used by Rouge on transatlantic routes however I can’t really imagine any issues when flying on them. I would say that certain bits of the cabin do look a bit dated. Not all the lighting works and some of the signs like the seat belt sign and toilets sign are also lit up quite faintly.
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| Air Canada Rouge 767-300ER |
Starting at Toronto Pearson airport check in went pretty well followed by security being pretty much the same. Following this we went through US border pre-clearance which based on my only encounter with I am not a fan of. For the majority of us we were able to use the machines quite well until the last person who’s finger prints weren’t able to be picked up by the machine. Therefore all of us had to go to a check point, which would have been fine apart from the fact that the process took far too long combined with the fact that only 2 posts were open, and therefore we were held here for approximately half an hour.
 |
| Interior of Toronto Pearson Airport |
Moving through into the main terminal it was alright, maybe a little above average but not exceptional. This came down to for me to a lack of space. The terminal at Toronto Pearson is beautifully designed with high ceilings and plenty of natural light. However there is a desperate lack of seating, with some gates having no seating in their gate areas meaning people spill out into the main walkways while there isn’t really any general seating zone which just makes it a little bit difficult to find somewhere to pass the time before your flight.
After the wait we went down to the gate area where we started boarding after not too long. Boarding was done by zones, however as is often the case people didn’t wait for their zone to be called instead standing in one mixed queue for the gate. This caused a problem of people who had been called for their zone not knowing where to stand and potentially slowed the boarding process down a bit.
Once on-board the aircraft it also came clear that the zones potentially hadn’t been that well thought out with a queue to get down my side of the aircraft back to the main plane door which kind of the defeats the idea of zone boarding and speeding up the process of getting people on the plane, with this not being any quicker than the traditional free for all.
Once settled in on the plane it also became clear that we were not the only people who had had issues with the US boarder pre-clearance with it being announced that the flight was being held for about 25 passengers who had not yet cleared customs. This led to the flight being delayed for 45 minutes while we waited for more passengers to arrive with the captain favouring this to offloading their luggage. During this time all the passengers were offered glasses of water while we were waiting. However this additional 45 minutes was still not enough time for some passengers to even make the plane.
 |
| Water Served While Waiting |
Eventually we pushed back just short of one hour after our original departure time and the safety briefing saws done. Normally this isn’t something that I would comment on however in this circumstance I feel like it is appropriate. During the first briefing which was English the nearest caving crew member who I could see was half obscured by the bulkhead, meaning I was unable to fully take in the briefing. Luckily however during the second briefing one of the members of caving crew was now standing on my side of the aisle so I could see him fully. However this second presentation was done in French which is slightly inconvenient for me seeing as I can’t speak French. Overall what this meant was that following the presentations I had not fully taken in a whole safety briefing despite the two attempts at it.
Takeoff itself was quite quick after our taxi but was also quite bouncy. About an hour and a quarter after take off the food trolleys reached me, first the paid trolley which contained all the food options which seemed reasonably priced as well as some of the more expensive drinks. This was then followed by the complimentary drinks trolley which had on it all the kind of soft and hot drinks you would expect. However when I asked the flight attendant for a “lemonade” he said they didn’t have it, however they did have sprite which personally I would class as lemonade but perhaps this is just something that got lost culturally seeing as I’m flying a Canadian airline and the flight attendant was Italian. However the complementary drinks option was greatly appreciated even if it seemed like a large proportion of the passengers weren’t making use of it, something which is missing on the European flights I am used to.
 |
| Interior of the Air Canada Rouge 767-300ER |
Looking at the hard product itself in my opinion on an ageing 767 it was excellent. The seats in economy were very comfortable and I didn’t feel uncomfortable for the entire flight, whilst the legroom I personally had no issues with and I can’t really imagine there being that many people tall enough to have anything to complain about, frustratingly however the mount for the seat was screwed into the floor right where I would have preferably had my right foot, however from my aisle seat I was easily able to stretch my right leg out into the aisle instead. The 2-3-2 configuration on these 767 was also very comfortable to sit in, I have definitely missed the feeling of only having one person sitting next to you in an aisle seat, and the headroom above the seats was also great, something which I find comes to be important when waiting to get off the aircraft. Between each set of seats there is a power socket while in the overhead bins there seems to be plenty of space despite their very outdated design (I got a whole overhead locker to myself) despite the fact that out flight was fully booked and they were asking for bags at the gate. Compared to the A320 family aircraft I am used to flying on short haul routes I can’t really think of a feature I would want to take from the A320 across to the 767. It is also worth noting that the 767 is also used by Rouge on transatlantic routes however I can’t really imagine any issues when flying on them. I would say that certain bits of the cabin do look a bit dated. Not all the lighting works and some of the signs like the seat belt sign and toilets sign are also lit up quite faintly.
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