CPH-YYZ-YUL in Premium-Economy and a boat trip on the St. Lawrence River

[jestraveller]

Hello Guys!

I will do this in English, as I do not know how well you will understand this if I wrote it in Danish.

First of all I will just briefly introduce myself. I'm a long time lurker, but haven't have anything to contribute with until now. I have always been passionate about the aviation industry, and airplanes and airports in particular. In the last couple of years the milage addiction has started, given an extra dimension to my passion.

I am educated as an marine engineer since January, and was offered a job as a travelling service engineer for the Danish company Wärtsilä Lyngsø Marine starting February.

My travelling did not really commence before May, which involved 6 return flights to Hamburg from Copenhagen to participate in training and courses. That made me EB Silver and Intercontinental Gold (IHG Reward Gold).

My job is really eventful to say the least. I come to the office in the greater Copenhagen area in the morning, and during the day I try to solve our customers problems remote, either by E-mail or phone and arrange flights/hotels/agents. In many cases the remote troubleshooting is not possible, and the customer then orders a service visit from one of our service engineers. Some visits is made a long time in advance, others are day-to-day request.

Thursday the 9th. of July

As I'm still in my training period, my days is mostly spend by helping customers with remote troubleshooting. Thought that this is going to be "just-another-day-in-the-office" but right after lunch my coordinator dropped by to tell me that he was expecting a phone call within 10 minutes to clarify whether or not a service engineer was needed to solve an urgent problem in Canada. I was then told to search for flight tickets and visa requirements if needed. I called our travel agency and told them that I might be needing tickets for Montreal, Canada as fast as possible. While the lady from the travel agency was searching for options I got a "thumps up" signal from my coordinator, telling me that the customer accepted the terms and conditions for the visit.
Getting tickets to Montreal the same day was not possible, so she started searching for the next day, which gave me several options. KLM/Delta via Amsterdam or Air Canada via Toronto. The prices where almost the same but the Air Canada option was faster, and the flight from CPH to Toronto was in Premium-Economy where KLM where in economy. That did not take me long time to decide. The final itinerary was then:

10. July Copenhagen - Toronto (Premium Economy) Air Canada

10. July Toronto - Montreal (Economy) Air Canada

Friday the 10th. of July

As my flight was at 12:15 I decided to sleep til 7:00 instead of going to the office in the morning. Went to Østerport station in Copenhagen around 9:30 and took the Øresundstog towards the airport. 25 minutes later I was in Kastrup airport. Silver members can use fasttrack and lounge in July and August, but only when travelling with SAS and not there Star Alliance partners.

As I'm fairly new into the frequent flyer world, I have only visited one lounge before, and that was Lufthansa Gold lounge in Hamburg, due to an invitation by my Diamond level coworker.

My Air Canada flight was already at the gate. It was going to be my first time on the B787-8



Walked to the C-pier where I haven't been in a long time. Did some spotting as the pier was almost full.

Had a good view to my flight being prepared.



During boarding premium-economy can take part in the priority boarding. I was therefore one of the first in the Premium section and could take some pictures of the seat.

Route: AC883 Copenhagen-Toronto
Aircraft: Boeing 787-8 (Dreamliner) #C-GHPU
Gate: C28
Class: Premium-Economy
Seat: 14G





I'm 1,95m tall and would normally always go for an emergency exit if possible. As I have NEVER tried anything else than basic economy these seats and legroom was a huge step in the right direction. "I can easily adapt to this" I thought to myself. Felt quite important as I sat there while the rest of the plane was being filled. I know this does not compare to the comfort many of you have tried, but for me it was as close to heaven as possible.



During boarding of the economy section menus and pre-departure drinks was handed out. No champagne, but the choices was water or orange juice. The menu was only an description with only 2 main dishes to choose from. Still better than the "Chicken or beef!" question as presentation in economy.



Shortly after takeoff hot towels was given before the table was set for dinner.





This was my first time eating with real cutlery and with a seat pitch large enough to eat without arm wrestling with my side neighbor.

I went for the chicken breast with white wine and the food was descent, but miles better than what I have been served in economy.





After dinner there was another drink offering and I went for a coke. I leaned my seat back as far as possible, and enjoyed that I could actually stretch my legs for the first time without sitting in the emergency exit row.



After the table was cleared I went to the bathroom and to my surprise it was larger than normal and even had a window. (I know, I'm easy to impress)





As I knew that the ship was waiting for me, and therefore probably wanted me to work right away, I figured that as much sleep as possible was needed. As the flight was a mid-day flight I wasn't tired at all. There was a small amenity kit in the seatpocket which included earplugs, eyeshades and socks, which was all nice, but didn't helped me at all. I then returned to my movie and did not get any sleep on the flight at all.

About one hour before arrival departure cards and a small pizza-roll was handed out. It had a good taste, but of course was nothing spectacular.



The landing was smooth and even though I was seated in the middle, I was able to see a lot because of the large windows that the B787 is fitted with. The temperature in Toronto was around 27°C and almost 10°C better than in Copenhagen.



I went through the immigration and further to the baggage claim and picked up my suitcase, to bring it through customs. Afterwards I walked to the domestic terminal and threw my luggage at the drop-off belt. The whole procedure took around 30 minutes, which seemed a lot faster than my earlier encounters with the US immigration arrivals. I can recommend transiting through Canada when travelling to the US, as this was quite a brief.

Found a place in the domestic terminal where I could grap a small burger before my next flight to Montreal.