Air Canada features a fantastic business class product.  This review is a part of my February 2016 trip to Hong Kong on Air Canada.

TIPS:

Basics:

Earn multiple points for purchasing ticket:

• American Express Personal Platinum Card:  5X for every dollar on airfaire (Airline Website or Mobile App Only)
• Citibank Prestige or Premier Card:  3X for every dollar on airfare
• Chase Sapphire Reserve:  3X for every dollar on airfare
• Chase Sapphire Preferred:  2X for every dollar on airfaire

Sign up for airline’s loyalty program to accumulate miles for future travel.

Advanced:

Credit your flight’s miles and elite status qualification miles to another partner or airline alliance member to reach faster redemptions and elite status.  Air Canada is a member of the Star Alliance.

POINTS AND MILE SCIENCE:  

Cost:  $3,315 US Dollars including taxes and fees for roundtrip on 4 flights

Earned:

Paid with Citibank Thank You Premier card:  Earning me 9,945 Thank You points.  (The 5x earnings on airlines for Membership Rewards was not started when I purchased this flight).

I credited all my miles and elite qualify miles to Singapore Airlines.  For all four legs of my round trip flight from NYC to Hong Kong earned my a total 16,330 Singapore Airlines Krysflyer miles and 16,330 Krysflyer elite qualifying miles.

FLIGHT REVIEW:

Flight:  Air Canada 15  (14 hours flight time)

Depart Time:  10:00AM Local time in Toronto  Landing Time:  2:30PM Local time in Hong Kong

Aircraft:  Boeing 777-200ER

Review:

Air Canada reverse herringbone first class product was amazing.  From the wide seats, well cooked food, ample snacks and feature packed in-flight entertainment, the roughly 14 hours of flight time flew (pun intended) by quickly.

Boarding proceeded fairly quickly and we were able to depart exactly on time.  I was glad to finally sit in my first Boeing 777 and my first reverse herringbone business class seat.

The comforter, slippers, and amenities kits were all ready for me before I even sat down.

The amenities kit consisted a decent pair of ear plugs, a packet of moisturizers, toothbrush and tooth paste, a mint, eye mask and socks.  Unfortunately I cannot comment on the quality of the eye mask and socks as I did not use them, but they were soft and fellow passengers make quick use of them.

The courteous flight attendant welcomed me about with a smile and handed me the Air Canada’s active noise canceling headphones.  Though not as good as the Bose QuietComfort 25s that I have used that were provided by Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines, these did significantly reduce the amount of cabin noise while listening to the movies.

The seat controls were instinctual and easy to control.  The screen was touch sensitive and had two physical buttons making reclining and converting to bed quick and simple.  I did have trouble falling and staying asleep as I am a side sleeper and the tray table which is  stowed under the IFE screen kept hitting my leg when I would turn over.

The inflight entertain was well loaded with content to keep any passenger entertained for the entire duration of the flight if you could not sleep.  Plenty of movies, whole seasons of many popular television shows and large array of games to play made the flight all the more enjoyable.  The location of the controller was oddly place, but can be easily keep out of the compartment even with the lid closed.

Pre-departure snack included the standard affair of drinks and a small bowl of warm cashews.  Though there were no options, the cashews tasted fresh and were rather filling.

One thing I will give Air Canada, they do have an extensive list of drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.  They even offered to make me an ice cream float.  As I cannot comment on the appetizers, since I personally do not like to take food I have no intention on eating, the rest of the business class passenger enjoyed the duck breast and Waldorf salad and were quickly ready for the main course.

The beef tenderloin was moist and peppercorn sauce complimented the mashed potatoes well.  The asparagus was rather bland.  I did request the hold the salad, but they brought another with my meal and I did not want the food to go to waste.  The lettuce was fresh and crisp and cherry tomatoes were ripe.

Since I ate my vegetable, I could finally enjoy dessert.  The dark chocolate fondant was very rich and went well by the buttery tasting praline crust.  It was so rich, I asked the flight attendant for another.

SUMMARY:

The flight crew out did themselves on both long legs of my flight from Toronto to Hong Kong and back.  They provided me with both sweet and salty snacks.  They worked well with each other and responded quickly when the attendant button was pushed, usually around 8 seconds.  Air Canada’s reverse herringbone business class is so far the best business class I have ever flown and look forward to flying with them again.