REVIEW: Why I love Air Canada's 787 Business Class.

Hello and welcome to another video. I'm at Frankfurt International Airport here in the

west of Germany and today I'm going to be taking an airline that a lot of you have requested and

which I have some very fond memories of. Air Canada is the first long-haul airline, the first

long-haul flight that I took on my own. I flew from London to Toronto and then on to Calgary

way back about 11 or 12 years ago. That was my first time traveling across the Atlantic on my

own. Today I'm flying in business class on one of their brand new 787-9 Dreamliners. I'm really

looking forward to it but before we get into the video a quick explanation as to why I'm looking

a little bit tired this morning. I'd actually started my journey in Tunis which involved a

flight leaving at 2.15am. As a result, I actually arrived in Frankfurt too early to use the Air

Canada Lounge, which opens at 6am. However, starting from Tunis saved me over £2,000 on

the round-trip fare in business class. I've visited the Air Canada Lounge here at Frankfurt

a few times before because I'm a Star Alliance Gold member. It's a fantastic space, beautifully

designed and very understated, with great views of the apron and runways. Air Canada can have over

half a dozen flights a day here. They fly seasonally to Ottawa and Vancouver, and regularly to Calgary

Montreal and Toronto. This means it can get quite busy, so these little sleep and relax pods can be

a real boon, especially because they come with noise-cancelling headphones. Just like every other

Air Canada lounge I've been to, the food selection here is very good indeed. The quality

of the food is pretty high for a lounge, and there's enough choice to suit most people's

tastes. There's also a wide range of hard and soft drinks available at the end of the

food counter. I'd already been travelling for nearly 7 hours, so it was definitely time

for a coffee and something sweet for breakfast. There are 4 unisex shower suites available

named after the four main airports served here from Frankfurt. This Montreal-named shower suite is the closest I'll be getting to Montreal for a while

although it's somewhere definitely on my list. The shower suites themselves are absolutely immaculate and tastefully and understatedly designed

This is a consistent theme across everything that Air Canada does. Towels and toiletries are of course provided free of charge

Today's aircraft is a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. This is still in the old air cannon delivery, which kind of reminds me of a toothpaste mint colour

In the same way that some Americans can define themselves as simply not British

the Canadians often designate themselves as not American. However, they have followed suit here with many of their continental cousins

by instigating up to six boarding zones, which to me seems like complete overkill

Anywhere I go in the world, passengers seem confused by the concept of boarding groups

Why not just board the aircraft, business class and then economy class with two separate queues

I don't know. Okay, here we go. Canada to Vancouver Really going to look forward to this one just about a step on board

Hello. The layout of Air Canada's business class is in a 1-2-1 configuration, with every single

seat having direct aisle access. Grey is a popular colour for business class interiors

and it can look really dull and boring unless you offset it with some nice little finishes

such as this red Air Canada logo on the headrest or on the back wall

You can see the Air Canada decal just there. Almost all of the business class seats come with two windows

The exceptions are here at row five with a missing window and right at the back at row eight

which only has one window in a slightly more favourable position than row five

Cheers. That's a good way to start a flight. As we climb away from Frankfurt, let's take a quick look at the route

Vancouver is 5,020 miles away from Frankfurt, and it'll take 9 hours and 30 minutes at 40,000 feet

These reverse herringbone seats are popular with many top-tier airlines. WestJet had a very similar seat on board their 787, which I reviewed last month

I won't go into excessive detail about the seat here in this video, but I have to say

the main thing that really stands this seat out amongst its competitors is the amount

of storage space available for all of your personal possessions. The top three things I look for in a good business class seat include direct aisle access

even from those seats by the window, privacy and plenty of storage

This seat certainly ticks all three. I'm really happy with these seats, but I do have a future flight booked with Qatar Airways in their Q-suites over to Australia later in the year

so I'm really hoping that will definitely raise the bar and raise my expectations too

The other thing I really like about these seats is the side console, which you can use to control some of the seat's features

including the tinting on the 787 Dreamliner windows. There are five possible settings, from completely transparent to almost pitch black

This is the medium setting which gives a really attractive blue glow to all of the bright light that comes into your suite As you expect from such a long flight there a really extensive menu One thing that stuck out at me was that there were four main course options on this menu

WestJet only had three on their transatlantic service. There's also a dine-on-demand service too, meaning you don't have to eat straight after takeoff

which is when the main meal is usually served on these sorts of flights. It's always surreal flying back over the UK, my home, whenever I'm abroad and making these long trips

This is Fair Isle Airport. Fair Isle is the most remote inhabited island anywhere in the UK

It lies in the middle of the sea between the Shetland and Orkney Island groups

OK, so let's try the signature cocktail, which doesn't have a name

It's Canadian whiskey, gin and cranberry, with a touch of lemon as well, so let's give it a try down the hatch

It's got a really nice kick. A popular theme in the comments on some of my videos is that all airplane food sucks, so why would you eat it

Well, I have to say I've had the privilege of having some fantastic airline food in all classes of travel over the last few years

The food on this flight was particularly memorable. It was absolutely fantastic

So consistently good, I couldn't even pick out a particular highlight of all the things that I ate on this flight

I can't think of many better ways to finish off a meal and prepare for sleep than with ice cream, a coffee and a Bailey's

In that order, of course. After the meal, the crew set up a small snack selection at the very front of the aircraft

My tip on airlines that do this is to get there early and get what you want before somebody

else takes it. I also had time to check out the wifi onboard, which I thought was reasonably priced considering

the length of the flight at over 9 hours. The download speed was particularly good and I was able to watch YouTube with no problems

whatsoever. Soon it was time to sleep and get ready for bed so I went to the bathroom to freshen up

The one interesting thing about this bathroom is that it's a loo with a view. There's a full-size

window looking out onto the wing from here and bizarrely there's even the option to dim the

window and a full-length blind which isn't found at any of the passenger windows. Perhaps people are

worried that somebody might be up here spying on you at 40,000 feet over Greenland

I've just had an absolutely superb lunch with Air Canada. I enjoyed every aspect of the meal. Now

some of you who have watched my WestJet review when I flew between London, Gatwick and Calgary

know that I complained a bit about the fact that the meal service on that flight took up to five

hours to complete, which is far, far too long. Some of you didn't really know what that meant

in context, perhaps you've not flown international business class before, or you've not flown

transatlantically. Well, I can tell you that normally a meal service would be done on a day

flight within about two hours and that exactly what Air Canada have delivered today That really important because there are people like me who got some really really anti connections My flight was at 2 from Tunis Airport this morning and I

connecting through to Vancouver. So my body clock is all over the place. I really want the remaining

seven hours of the flight for sleep. So I'm hoping to kind of get about five hours sleep and then

maybe two hours before I land in Vancouver having some more food and watching some more films

The fact that the meal service is now done means I can do that, that's great service, and I'm going to get ready for bed

Okay, let's go get some sleep. Oh, by the way, for those of you that don't fly very often, it's technically normal to have pyjamas in business class

Some airlines even hand them out on overnight flights. These business class seats lie flat into a bed at the push of a button

There's no need to get a member of cabin crew to help you out. One of the things I really liked was the fact that there's a little elastic band around the mattress protector

to keep it in place. All in all it's an excellent bed and the quality of the bedding

was very good. The pillow as well very soft and everything felt of a very high quality

I did manage to get my five hours of solid sleep

During the remainder of the flight, I checked out the entertainment system, which can be controlled from the remote control

There was a pretty wide selection of movies available, as well as syndicated TV series

I'm not the sort of person to spend the entire flight watching films, but I know a lot of people are, and if you're one of these people

I don't think you'll have too much problem in filling your time. There's a very wide selection

There's no need to bring your own headphones. Noise cancelling ones are provided by the airline

Air Canada also supply an amenity kit in business class. This pretty much contains all the things

you'd expect it to contain, but I was particularly pleased to see a full dental kit and a small tub

of mouthwash, which definitely makes you feel a lot more refreshed before getting off the plane

About 90 minutes before landing, the second meal service started. Again, this was a very pleasant meal

Deliberately light because you're supposed to be having your dinner in Vancouver that evening, and very tasty indeed

The main aspect of service that doesn't often come across in video reviews is how good or bad the crew are

This Air Canada crew were exceptional. They were both professional and approachable

This was one of the most polished crews I've ever had the pleasure of being served by

Overall, I'd rate my experience with Air Canada as excellent. This was an almost faultless flight

It's very difficult to find any aspect of the service I disliked or could mark them down on

I'm really looking forward to taking the return leg of this ticket back from Calgary

to Frankfurt in October. Make sure that you're subscribed to catch that and many other videos in the future and

turn on your notifications so you don't miss out. Thanks for watching and I'll see you again next time