Review: Air Canada Business Class 777 (FRA-YYZ)

Indeed, service on Air Canada, in particular with Toronto-based crews, has deteriorated in the last year or two and this kind of indifferent attitude is becoming more and more common. It is a shame that nobody seems to realize it and want to correct that. It is becoming increasingly popular for people based in Canada to hold status with a european airline and/or to prefer these airlines for transatlantic travels.

Seems like the appetizer is straight off the TAAG Angolan menu. I can't forget how you got grated carrots and a few shrip on that flight...

Unless something's changed, the center partitions are fixed on the 777 and 787 aircraft. AC installed movable partitions on the A330 when they retrofitted the new seats.

It is so normal for foreign carriers to offer multiple language/dialect services. I think it is just with English speaking based carriers that would either have English and the one other language or English and just some parts of the announcement made in the language for the departing/arriving destination. I am very used to listening to the announcements multiple times with the various languages/dialects.

Without a doubt. Say what you will, but service on Air Canada is lacking on 9/10 flights, be it business class or regular economy. By far the worst service I experience is almost always on an Air Canada flight--yes, worse than any American airline.

Crews seem to be as carefree and unbothered by their duties and responsibilities, or lack thereof. Sadly, it is what it is, and this aspect of Air Canada's shortcomings is well known amongst Canadians. We definitely do tend to avoid Air Canada on transatlantic flights whenever possible--at least for me and those I know.

Correct. Partitions are not movable on Air Canada’s 777 and 787, nothing has changed. On the A330 with the new cabin, it’s a slightly different version of the Super Diamond seat and the centre partition does slide. Lucky please fix the article thanks.

I commute between Europe and Canada and I'm so tired of Air Canadas crews. On the wast majority of my flights with them the crew is at best indifferent at worst arrogant/self-righteous/couldn't care less in attitude.
The fact that I can not book a ticket with star alliance to Canada with out on leg being forced to fly Air Canada, do to the LH/LX/AC joint venture, is so frustrating.
If I could I wouldn't fly Air Canada ever again because their crews.
I do have status with all 3 alliances and I can choose my most preferred, Skyteam for trans Atlantic flights, but sometimes it makes more sense schedule vice to fly Star alliance.

Air Canada you should do better, as your hard and soft product is not half bad. You are in competition with AF/KL that consistently outperform you, so get it together!

Announcements in multiple languages is quite common in many countries and is actually a good practice so that almost all passengers are covered. Eurostar, for example, has 3 languages on the short 2 hour journey between London and Brussels.

I fly WestJet whenever possible. I am not based in Toronto though. From Western Canada I try to fly WestJet domestically. I am also flying the new low cost airlines for the sake of giving them business and to experience different brands.

Your review of the flight is similar to my recent experience, but I had a great crew that flight.
But, your comment about the languages shows ignorance as to ‘why’ they are done in French too. And adding German would be assumed for a flight from Frankfurt?

Completely agree with your review here. In my experience, the seats are pretty good, entertainment is great, food is good but the service is limited and lacks the gracefulness and polish of other airlines.

"You are in competition with AF/KL that consistently outperform you, so get it together!"

The problem with me with KL/AF is this....KL for me has the BEST crews and the food is OK but way over half of their longhaul fleet still have the terribly outdated 2x2x2 seating.

Air France has direct aisle access seating on all aircraft now and I love their food but I find their crews probably even MORE indifferent than AC. I was actually laughing to myself on my last AF flight from Toronto to Paris. The six crew working business class ranged from pleasant to literally mute (similar to Ben's experience of just passing a menu, or a tray of welcome drinks with not a word spoken), to one of the crew working the other aisle (thank god) who was literally aggressive.

The perfect scenario for me would be an Air France plane with AF catering and a KL crew.

Not surprised with AC. Most reviews written about airlines in US and Canada by Americans say - “oh, I have had some amazing crew on my flight, this crew is one off ! “. In my last 15 years of flying I have never had an amazing crew on any of my flights. I always wondered how unlucky I am !
When airlines say give me thousands of dollars but we can guarantee excellent service only 1 out of 10, I say No thank you ! when u complain, they want us to give them another chance to prove themselves, but end up with same experience
These days I am flying spirit and frontier domestically,( atleast I save $$$) and spending more to fly foreign carriers. Pretty much done with US / Canadian airlines

Air Canada business class simply not good. The us3 are better. Never found AC to be polished or friendly. Always underwhelmed.

@ Cccc -- I'm not ignorant as to why the announcements are made in multiple languages, but rather I'm pointing out that the overall amount of time spent with the PA in use is greater than I've experienced on just about any other airline.

While I can understand the importance of safety announcements, personally I'd prefer to not even hear announcements beyond that in my own language, let alone two others.

"I'd prefer to not even hear announcements beyond that in my own language"

I'm sure people throughout Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, etc, feel the same 😀

Pre Pandemic I would have agreed with you in regards to Air Frances cabin crews having a tendency to be a bit stiff on some flights, but nothing like the consistency of Air Canadas sub zero performances.

The Air France crews I have had for more then a year now has been great. Don't know what they have been putting in the water but it has for sure worked 🙂
I'm FB Platinum and has been for some years and I feel more recognised now then i ever did with AF!

In regards to KLM I agree with you, even though it never bothered me with the 2-2-2 config on a short east cost flight. But it is for sure a lesser hard product then that of Air Canada.
So it all comes down to KLM having better crews, for them to come out on top with a overall better product than AC.

It is actually simple mathematics.

Better Air Canada crews to attract more international business as everything else is OK with AC compared to it's European competition. Actually even more then OK when one counts the Signature suite in the equation.

Seems to me that if you no longer enjoy interacting with customers, it’s time to find a job doing something other than customer service.

The friendly treatment of a deadheading crew on the same flight where the paying customers are treated with indifference bordering on disdain is appalling.

No pride in your job, no pride in your company, no attempt to give your paying customers the best possible experience. Why would anyone fly AC again after that? Are Canadians really so rusted-on to AC that they accept this crap?

I'm amused by the description of the Canadian wine-- yes the Niagara Peninsula may be Canada's most important wine growing region but as someone who lived in Toronto many years ago, that doesn't say much about the quality of wines from that region.

Ben - did you mean that you don't want to hear any non-safety announcements, in any language? That's how I interpreted the "beyond that" part of the quote above. That's also how I feel about the announcements - I don't want constant pitches for duty free products during the flight or immigration/customs explainers before arrival. Put the information on IFE, people can read.

Do airlines actually pay attention if you ask for a decaf coffee/espresso/cappuccino? I made the mistake of having a couple of coffee drinks at a Delta SkyClub in Atlanta, using the "decaf" option on the machine. They clearly put regular beans in both hoppers.

On a flight like this I would probably want to have a decaf cappuccino with desert, then go to sleep - which wouldn't be possible if the crew serve regular version instead.

Sugar is not good for your health. Skip the cap and dessert and just go to sleep.

No pride in your job, no pride in your company

Welcome to capitalism.

I am flying spirit and frontier domestically,( atleast I save $$$)

Add in the carry-on bag fee and you're pretty close to normal airline pricing.

I pity any resident of either London or Brussels who doesn't understand English...

I would have rated this at most 3 stars. The service I find on AC has been quite bad since 2021 especially transatlantic and to Latin America. Domestic and US they throw some 22 year olds who are more energetic but also carefree.
Sadly due to the quasi monopoly and the perception that US carriers are bad, AC does the bare minimum.
Throw in nonstop flight announcements in 2 languages and you end up with a mediocre experience saved by a decent seat and some Ok food.

I disagree with the comment about deadheading flight crews taking up business class seats. They aren't working, they're going home. If there are no paying customers awaiting upgrades I can see it, but they need to realize the customer pays their salary.

the customer pays their salary.

Patently false. The customer pays the fare. What the airline does with that fare is none of the customer's business.

Flight crews are employed by the airline which means the airline pays their salary.

Sassy YinDao is on fire today! How long will the newbie enthusiasm last tho?

Newbie? Been reading Ben since the days of Diet Coke with Lime and when everybody thought he had a thing for that female SQ flight attendant, I think her name was Janet or something. This was years before he came out on the blog so people (myself included) did not know he was gay.

If no one flys, do you think the airline survives?! Nope. Stop kidding yourself, the customer pays the salary of all employees...it's how business works.

Then you should count yourself lucky, if you didn't fly AC trans Atlantic during Covid lock down as I did. It was basically 6 to 8 hours of continuous torture with their health and safety announcements every 10th minute, for all of us 10 pax. in a 777.

I was at one point actually scared that Covid had sucked all reasonable brain activity out of the human race.

Air Canada is subject to the Official Languages Act. Basically since Canada’s two official languages are English and French they are obliged to do everything in both languages, including announcements. They can be fined if they are found to be violating the rights of French or English speakers.

Also I am not sure about flight attendants but they have to put deadheading pilots in business class. It is part of their collective bargaining agreement.

@ Julia -- I'm not at all questioning why announcements are made in multiple languages, as it makes perfect sense. I'm just pointing out that the PA is used more on Air Canada flights than on most other airlines.

There were both pilots and flight attendants deadheading. Like I said, I have no issues with them being in business class, the optics just aren't great of the crew loudly asking the employees if there's anything they'd like, while not extending the same courtesy to customers.

Typical Canadian hospitality experience. Canadians are cold people and extremely cheep.

I have found the 787/777 business class service to be excellent except for one lackadaisical flight crew on one particular flight. Over the past 18 months the wine pours have been very generous. Maybe I was lucky. A couple times I had to politely cut THEM off. Lol.

Swallowed the bait: hook, line and sinker. The easiest 'fish' are the stupid ones, always popping their head up.

Shame Air Canada does not serve Canadian ice wine in business class, with port being the only dessert wine choice.

Mediocre airline.
Late 60% of the time.
No self respecting Canadian flies AC.

As a Canadian flight attendant, (who does not work for Air Canada). It is a shame to see the state of their customer service. They are our flag carrier, and are a representation of our people. Canadians are known for being warm and friendly, and I have never experienced this with Air Canada. I’ve flown them probably hundreds of times, and they have always been cold and indifferent. The only time they actually have really acknowledged me was when I was positioning to work in Uniform.

I would love to be able to bring some kindness and hospitality to our flag carrier, but they will not hire me as I am not bilingual. What a shame.

The issues with Air Canada service are well known but for those of us in Canada who live away from the hubs (Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver) there are very limited options due to little and poor competition.

Despite the service, Air Canada has a pretty extensive route network which results in a great deal of convenience. To highlight one example, AC's direct flights from Montreal and Toronto to Delhi means it will always be more convenient than European and Middle East carriers who have a stop. In a recent J class seat sale to Osaka, using AC I can go from my home city for the same price connecting through Vancouver, as opposed to having to find my way to Vancouver if I was to use JAL (both JAL and AC had the same fare, but with AC it included the feeder flight to Vancouver).

In addition, the Aeroplan benefits are pretty good all things considered. For example as a top tier Aeroplan Super Elite, I receive a voucher for 1/2 point redemptions for 2 tickets when reaching $5k spending threshold. There are many others such as a Concierge service in the airport, free preferred seats, etc.

I also find the signature suite in Toronto and Vancouver quite impressive. Really great 3 course a la carte meals. I usually eat there and don't bother eating on the plane.

I am not trying to defend AC. I get very frustrated with the onboard experience like others, but using competitors is not that easy for me (and I suspect many others in Canada).

There are dialects of English where dinner still means "the main meal of the day": any meal served in multiple courses would be dinner. There are also places where the women who serve the midday meal in school are referred to as "dinner-ladies". Canada may well be a place where this usage holds, as my wife is from a very Canadian-influenced area of Maine and many of the kids she went to school with referred to the midday meal as dinner.

Lunch is always midday. Supper is always evening/night. Dinner is more flexible (see also Thanksgiving dinner in the US which is normally earlier than late afternoon).

Who sits in other seats is really nobody else's concern...
If Air Canada doesn't want to fill the cabin up with upgrades the way US carriers tend to, that is their prerogative. Additionally, many companies want their employees to experience their product, as it is useful for their jobs. If they experience a poor service, it might make them realise how they can do better. Additionally, it adds to their general morale by being able to have nice experiences with their company.

The Eurowings livery always makes me think of what could have been had American Cohen to put its logo on the tail of its aircraft when they switched to the current branding.

Their customer numbers suggest there are oodles of "non self respecting" Canadians. WestJet doesn't have the breadth of destinations to compete well against AC.

Janesis, IIRC

It's not capitalism, it's tired, burned-out old hacks who have lost their passion for the job and should either be put through basic training again, or managed out of the company.

I can't imagine that Air Canada management would be thrilled with this trip report.

I think the point was that the deadheading crew got the red carpet, and the paying passengers - whether with cash or points is irrelevant - basically got the cold shoulder.

And yes, the customers do pay the salaries. To suggest otherwise is just silly. No customers = you go broke and nobody gets paid.

@YinDaoYan

Jawohl, mein fuhrer! Please tell me how to tie my shoelaces and comb my hair too.

Every KLM flight I’ve taken between the UK and the Netherlands has had announcements only in English (KLM serves more airports in the UK than British Airways does). Occasionally the flight deck adds something in Dutch — but doesn’t, more often than not.

KLM long haul is more varied, though their South American flights often have a Spanish language recorded announcement played after the English.

I’m also generally a fan of KLM’s crews, which are often made up of much older people who seem to know what they’re doing and enjoy themselves. Though there was also a noticeable increase in their attentiveness after I became FB Platinum.

Is it a dialect or a class thing? I’m from a poor part of southern England where meals were always:
breakfast—>dinner—>tea
And schools definitely had “dinner ladies” to cook and serve the midday meal.

In England it used to be that the largest meal of the day was breakfast, followed by a mid-sized meal in the middle of the day, and the smallest meal in the evening.

The aristocracy and then the middle classes started following continental practise where the evening meal (“dinner”) was the main meal of the day. Most people eventually followed.

Turns out the traditional old English system is the one most nutritionists now recommend. It avoids going to bed on a full stomach. Whereas perversely, many people now just skip breakfast altogether.

I am airline crew and I think the expectation that crew 'enjoy' their jobs is a little delusional. No, most of us do not 'enjoy' multiple time zone crossings, staying up all night and dealing with some total A.holes as i'm sure the majority of people in other industries don't 'enjoy' going to work either with feelings ranging from love (minority) to hate with most somewhere in the 'meh yeah it's work' place.

Saying that, we choose this job. For me its a case of taking pride in what I do and wanting the airline to work for to be successful - afterall the more financially viable the company is generally the better I am rewarded. In essence, for me it is 'fake it til you make it'. Getting on that plane is a little bit of a performance. Yes, I AM just going through the motions. But you are never going to know it. I am smiling, using your name, asking about your travel plans.

I think a lot of it comes down to two factors -

1) how the company you work for treats you. I can say that the airline I work for treats its crew very well and with a lot of respect. They pay us fairly and give a lot of time off. So, loyalty exists. The give to me, I give back.

2) the airlines performance management policies - a lot of US/european airlines simply do not manage bad performance and let bad apples get away with it every single flight. At many large airlines the senior crew who should be writing up bad behaviour have an attitude of 'i won't fly with this person for another two year/ever, I can't be bothered with the paperwork, with the accusations I am harassing/bullying them, so i'll just leave it up to someone else'.

We've experienced the same lack of customer service on Air Canada flights, business class and economy class. This was always particularly true with flights originating in Frankfurt. We've also experienced the "dictator style" used by the Air Canada crew in the Frankfurt airport which is why we won't ever fly out of there again. They should hire staff from Qatar Airways to teach them how to be good airline staff. Our first flight on a Middle Easter airline blew our minds at how attentive and helpful the staff was. So different from Air Canada.

I've not only flown AC longhaul International J countless times, I've flown on this specific machine (C-FIVR) and between Toronto and Franfurt countless times. AC does a lot very well...especially in the context of their US competition (don't get me started about flying AA to Brazil, or United, um, almost anywhere). Their premium ground experience in Toronto is, I think, the best in North America and a top 5 in the world. Their seating and on board amenities are consistent and good. Catering is solid if not Turkish/Qatar level fantastic. IFE is world class. Yes, crews are inconsistent. 100% true. Yes in general Canadians in the service sector are less deferential than you'll find in the US or with a Middle East carrier - Canadians in general are much more about equality, which often means everyone gets not-great service rather than preening over some group of "betters." But I've had FANTASTIC service on AC over the years. Including between FRA-YYZ. Much more likely than with LH in J on the same route. Plus a better ground and hard product experience on AC. I don't need crew to shower me with platitudes.

Companies get the pride they pay for, with comp and respect. A fish stinks from the head.

All Airlines jibber jabber too much on the PA system.... on a recent flight, the pilot wouldn't shut up, every tree, mountain, city and body of water was pointed out.

As far as multiple languages , it's crappy US based airlines, that are so indignant, that sometimes wont even use the language of the foreign destination language. As mentioned, AC will do every announcement in French and English and almost always the third foreign destination language. Good for them

Dude, have you ever been to Canada? I can't think of another non-Asian country where I've had consistently friendlier service. Maybe you get cold service because you're a dick to them...

None of the remarks regarding the cabin crew ring quite true to me. The deadheading crew would most probably be out of uniform. The flight crew is confirmed in business class. The cabin crew would be space available.....seats that were unsold....and would be scattered around the two sections. They are allotted by seniority.
You were seated in 7A....the port side and the person attending to your service was the IC ( in-charge) who would be assisted by two cabin crew and the attendant working galley. Floaters working economy might assist. During boarding, the IC is very busy but surprising that at no time were you acknowledged.
At the end of the day, all are agreed that a particularly pleasant crew can "make" a flight as can a zealous server in a nice restaurant make for a better dining experience.
There is no reliable procedure to identify and "re-train" cabin crew lacking in hospitality expertise. There ARE frequent "safety audits" to ensure compliance with all safety standards.
Glad to read you had a safe flight and generally enjoyed the food and refreshments served ....without a word.
I do NOT work for an airline.

If you find Canadians cold people I can only imagine what you think of people from the US Northeast/ New England, or from Britain.

as these flight attendants are unionized they might not be so motivated altouhgh there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who would love to work as flight attendants for Air Canada so, it is strange that the people who have those good jobs are lackluster

But does the customer really pay employees salary in the sense that it matters? I understand the business and economics side of the customers money going to the airlines bottom line and the indirect cash flow into the employees pocket. However, we live in a time when the airlines are so large that none of that really matters. Example: Crew gives horrible service and passenger decides to “vote with their wallet” and fly a different airline. Guess what, another butt will fill that seat. Case in point, the US3 are not known for their stellar service yet make record profits and fill their premium seats. And the end of the day people complain, say they’re never flying airline xyz again, and yet still do, and if they don’t there’s people lining up to take their seat. Airlines like to make their PR about how the customer matters, but do they really? I think if they, did things would be very different and passengers would actually have some influence in how the airlines treat them. I think the people that are delusional are the ones that believe the customer is always right, and that corporations actually care at the individual level.

Well, i hope someone from Air Canada is following ‘One Mile at a Time’ - reading about the flight crew “going through the motions” is a little sad as those flight crews are lucky to have those good unionized jobs (with a pension-plan, enhanced health-care, etc); those high-paying unionized jobs should go to people who would appreciate the career they have.
Yes, the passenger announcements on Air Canada are a bit too long although good they announce in the German language for Germany bound flights, Japanese for Japan bound flights, etc
I always appreciate the Honesty of your reviews in all airlines - happy and safe travels

Good service in the North American context is not the same as deferential. What is described here is miserable and unacceptable. And Ben notes how the crew absolutely did "preen over a group of betters" who were not the paying passengers.

I can't imagine there are any Canadians who would prefer Niagara wine to Okanagan. Niagara is climatically similar to the Finger Lakes, and though there is wine there, I've never heard of anyone ordering it who wasn't literally in the region!

Unions have nothing to do with it, Southwest has very friendly staff, and they're unionized. It's management and company culture that induces such indifference.

Yikes, why openly say you want to work for them when you bash them?!
I'll take AC over any of Canada's smaller airlines.

it's crappy US based airlines, that are so indignant, that sometimes wont even use the language of the foreign destination language

Or they do but the American-born speaker of the foreign language has an unintelligible accent, compounded with a low-volume staticky PA system on the aircraft.

Its true that some crews are a little better than others,and please understand it from our side,sometimes we get stuck with duds.Quite often things depend on the personability and enegy level of the incharge f/a ,and also primarily the Captain,as hes the guy /gal that sets the tone for the rest.
Somedays are just better that others,and so are some people……

I've received equally "indifferent" or worse service from AC's competitors.

Lucky you at least got a good meal service. I flew on January 24th FRA-YUL and the food on board was pathetic. We were not given any menu for food selection. They just served standard meals. And whatever they served was just terrible.
And yes "I don't give a damn" attitude is standard on all AC flights.

And vice-versa. We've experienced non-native English speaking flight crews whose English announcements were total gibberish. It can be difficult to find enough multiple-language speakers in any language to service every flight.

We've flown Air Canada several times over the years. We've never had an Air Canada flight crew that did more than the bare minimum. Unfortunately, sometimes Air Canada was the only option that fit our needs.

Hi Ben,

Have just happened by your site and it's pretty darned great.

Your experience on AC mirrors that of my own over 24 years of having flown them both within North America and across the Pond to Europe, sometimes 3 times per month on business travels.

I have flown across the Atlantic, UK/France to Toronto and Montreal over 100 times using AC in J class, sometimes on points, others paying the full fare. When you consider a restricted J return LHR to YUL can now cost £5400 GBP - that's a lot of money for abysmal service and dreadful attitude.

It's crew seniority I believe to be the problem - and they do not lead by example undertaking the service with the bare minimum in 90% of the flights on which I have been a passenger (not a guest, that's for sure)! I can think of 6 stand out journeys in all of my flights with AC - and that is simply not good enough.

The newer hard product in AC J is fine, the soft product also good - with the exception of the arrival meal which can be atrocious. The achilles heel remain the crews and their ambivalent attitude sometimes bordering on offensive.

Westjet across the Pond is like night and day - fabulous crews (although their commercial decision to focus in on YYC is a bit disappointing for those who loved their service elsewhere) and although comparing Air Transat Club - a premium economy experience on their new-ish A321s isn't like for like of course, their crews without exception have never let me down and make flying with them as pleasant as possible - for a fraction of the AC fare.

Once again Ben - great site and thanks for catching the jet-lag to keep us all informed!

Annoyingly long announcements in 4 languages. I just wanted to watch a movie. Seats that are too confining, almost like being in a coffin when you lie down. Partitions that won't go down. Who's the genius who designed that? But the crew was very professional - maybe I just got lucky or maybe because I was pleasant when dealing with them and they reciprocated.

Bad fish on a plane? Say it isn't so. I know their beef dishes are cooked very well, and usually are the safest option. Come home to red meat.