[Flight Report] AC 867 & 417 London - Montreal - Toronto
27 Sep 2024Researching an early autumn transatlantic trip, there really isn't a lot choice if flying direct from London to Toronto. It's pretty much Air Canada, British Airways, or Air Transat for a low-cost option. Westjet no longer flies to Toronto from Heathrow in their great European retreat. Having transited in the US during the summer on the way to Canada, I didn't want to try that again and would prefer to transit at a Canadian airport instead.
Wary of Air Canada's high-density 777 as well, I was pleasantly surprised a cheap option came up connecting in Montreal. It's a relatively smaller airport and the Dreamliner flies the route with a short connection and multiple flights to Toronto to choose from. The return flight would be direct from Toronto back to Europe. At about 430 pounds all inclusive for basic economy, it's a decent deal.
Air Canada's website is fairly easy to navigate 24 hours before departure. Check-in was seamless and it didn't ask for endless information about my passport. I was able to pick a seat on the map for free if I didn't want an extra legroom row. Luckily, the last row was available, where the row of 3 becomes a row of 2, my usual travel hack to win a little more stretching space. The next leg to Toronto was also open to check in and I easily found a window seat on the A330 for that as well.
Arriving 2 hours before departure, Terminal 2 didn't seem so busy and there were plenty of check-in kiosks available around Air Canada's area in section A. Note that elsewhere in the terminal where other Star Alliance airlines operate, the kiosks don't cater for Air Canada's online check-in. After printing out my boarding pass, I headed into security.
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This terminal's security has yet to upgrade to the new scanners so I had to take my laptop out. However, there seems to be a problem with these machines as everyone's bag got spat out into the further review line, oftentimes because the scanner couldn't scan the items, so the tray needed to go back again for a 2nd round. Strangely, staff would carry the tray out, find out on their screen there is no image, then move all the items into a 2nd tray to go back for rescanning. Why can't they just take the entire original tray back?
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Paper newspapers and magazines have gone extinct onboard airplanes these days, so I appreciate this airport providing them for free at the gate.
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There were a number of other Star Alliance birds here with quite a few Air Canada aircraft. Air Canada has a substantial operation at Heathrow with a number of flights daily to Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and Halifax.
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By the time I arrived at the gate, they were already boarding. It was here that the gate agents announced they could take some hand carry bags in the hold for free. We were already done boarding by 9:15am, well ahead of the 9:30 departure time, but could not push back due to congestion at Heathrow.
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With a bit of time on my hands, I browsed around the IFE and loaded some items onto my playlist.
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I was in the last row by the window. With only 2 seats and a narrowing fuselage, I had a huge storage space next to me and 2 seats of legroom to stretch out. That being said, there wasn't much space between me and the row ahead. We were a full flight while the last middle row in Economy was reserved for crew rest.
The flight deck gave 2 updates, with the last one suggesting the rain outside was causing it, and eventually pushed back at 9:51am. It was a short taxi to the eastern end of the runway for take-off at 10:08. It wasn't raining heavily but we were in the clouds for quite some time to just shy of 20,000 feet.
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The Dreamliner's windows don't have shades but a control panel to dim it to various levels. While the crew did not force dim these to the darkest mode for this daytime crossing, even at the most liberal setting, there is still a yellow tint.
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An hour later, we said goodbye to the Irish coast and began our transatlantic journey. It was also time for our meal. Unfortunately, being at the back, they only had the tomato sauce pasta left. Air Canada's catering is nothing to boast about and horrible at best so I had little expectations on my meal. Perhaps a meal deal would have been better.
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The lavatory was kept reasonably clean and I liked the automatic sink.
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After the meal, I enjoyed the extensive IFE that has improved significantly from my past Air Canada flights across the Pacific. Mid-way, the crew came by to serve snacks, and before landing, we got a pastry as well. The crew had placed a few bottles of water out back during the flight as well as what I counted to be 3 drink runs.
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With a left window, I had a beautiful view of the city from the Olympic Stadium to Mont Royal and the skyline.
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We landed at 11:32am and reached the gate 5 minutes later. A little over 6 hours' flight was quite bearable today.
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With a 2 hour connection, I thought I didn't need a mad dash for the exits, and I was right. Inside the terminal, staff were on hand to direct connecting passengers to a separate dedicated immigration area for transit. There were a lot of kiosks on hand and staff afterwards to check your paperwork and send you to an agent if necessary. I went through seamlessly, past a few long corridors, and showed my kiosk receipt to 2 more people in order to exit into the domestic pier. I didn't need to clear security again as well.
I would recommend transiting here from international to domestic over Vancouver and Toronto!
Next up - the short leg to Toronto.
The full flight report is on my website : https://www.globalphotos.org/ac867.htm
After clearing immigration relatively quickly, I exited into the domestic pier. It looked fairly new and there were lots of seating areas and a few decent-looking restaurants. As I walked the long corridor, the crowds increasingly got bigger and the building turned older and more claustrophobic. Plane spotting was mostly Air Canada but in a variety of shapes and sizes.
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There are pretty much hourly flights to Toronto Pearson, in addition to the regional jet flights to the smaller Billy Bishop airport downtown, so any delays coming in from London would have been far easier to manage. This was my main reason why I picked Montreal to transit just in case a few surprises come en route.
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Boarding finished early at 1:29pm and we pushed back right on time 10 minutes later.
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We took off for the short flight to Toronto at 2:01pm. Heading west, I wasn't able to spot Montreal's skyline this time.
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I didn't have much expectations for service on these hour-long flights. But I had selected a widebody plane amidst the many frequencies on this route. It's been a while since I've been on their A330 though!
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Each seat has its own entertainment device and there is more than enough to keep you happy for this short flight, and perhaps for a longer one across the continent.
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We each received a drink and a small bag of snacks, which were delicious.
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Half an hour after take-off, we were descending towards Toronto. I had purposedly picked a left window seat during online check-in hoping to see the city on final approach. It was a special bonus that the weather was perfect and the flight was nowhere near full so I got plenty of window seats to choose from. The next part will all be aerials over the Toronto area.
There's a long-standing debate on whether it's quicker to fly or take the train. VIA Rail takes a bit over 5 hours so if you factor in getting to and from the airport, it's fairly close. Flying might be a little faster if you have hand baggage only since you can directly exit upon arrival without going through any more formalities.
The full report is on my website : https://www.globalphotos.org/ac417.htm hkskyline 發表於 2025-3-30 17:22
After clearing immigration relatively quickly, I exited into the domestic pier. It looked fairly new ...
Out of Curiosity, was it possible to book LHR -YUL - Toronto city instead of YYZ? kbh 發表於 2025-4-6 13:46
Out of Curiosity, was it possible to book LHR -YUL - Toronto city instead of YYZ?
Definitely yes.If you transfer via Ottawa, ON, it will be 1 hour faster and around CAD50 cheaper one way.
For return via YUL, it would 1.5 hour longer to pass via YUL rather than YOW and CAD150 more one way.
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