Air Canada Business Class Experience

Recently, on my way to Seoul, I had the pleasure of sitting in business class (thanks to this) the whole way from Toronto to Seoul. This was definitely a step up from economy. Now regardless of where you are on the plane... you’re still ON THE PLANE for >12hrs. It is nice having a bigger seat, or one that fully extends to a bed, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re not going anywhere for lord knows how many hours. The biggest upgrade I would say would be the food. Nothing makes a long flight whizz by than be served multi-course meals complete with alcohol (except for breakfast!).

I hadn't had grapefruit in a while, forgotten how fantastic it is.

On my first flight from Toronto to Vancouver I was served breakfast starting with a first course of fresh fruit, a croissant (served after I took my photo) and yogurt with coffee. Later I was served nice hot pancakes with fruit and maple syrup topped off with more coffee. Breakfast was quite fantastic and certainly ate up a good chunk of the 5 hour flight from TO to Vancouver. Our flight finished off with some fresh chocolate-chip cookies baked on board the plane

Me and salmon don't normally mix, but this time it was great.

The next leg of my journey was from Vancouver to Seoul. This was the behemoth of all flights being about 11 hours. Since this flight was in the afternoon, I was served some champagne before takeoff and a beer shortly after. The airline crew then proceeded to serve us a 3-course lunch. The first course was smoked salmon with a dill mustard sauce pictured above accompanied by a fresh garden salad. Now those who know me well, know that I almost never eat seafood and that I’m very picky. Surprisingly enough this was magnificent! I guess I’ll have to put some more salmon in my diet.

Eww mushrooms...

Next up was the main course which was some spicy marinated beef, rice seasoned with sesame seeds and black mushrooms. While the dish wasn’t really spicy, it was pretty good. I can’t comment on the mushrooms as I’m not a fan. Personally I believe fungus belongs on your foot and not on your plate. 

Great way to end the meal...maybe the coffee was a bad idea though...

Last course of this meal was a mixed berry pie with was really good served with a top up of your wine glass and coffee or tea. This is a great way to finish up a large meal and put you off to sleep. After dessert lights on the plane are turned off and passengers are encouraged to shut their window flaps to keep the cabin dark. Time to sleep...

Now you’d think that that was it for food on the flight...well it is a very LONG one >10hrs. You can only do so much in 10-12hrs. Obviously I had exhausted everything watchable on the media system and sleeping didn’t really work out for me. Thankfully there’s one last light meal served 2hrs before. It was quite a pleasant surprise!

You call this light? 

I find it quite hard to describe this last meal as light. Here you have a serving of fresh fruit and bread to start off with. The main course is beef ribs served with mashed potatoes and veggies (asparagus and tomatoes). Finally for dessert you have a box of Lindor chocolates to help finish you off. For this meal I chose not to go for wine, as you don’t want to be tanked going through immigration and customs, ESPECIALLY when you marked UNEMPLOYED on your landing card.

There you have it folks, business class certainly ensures that you’re well fed. While the seating is certainly a step up from economy, the biggest seller I would say is the food. This ensures that you’re not dying of starvation by the time you land. Is it worth the full fare price? Maybe not. But it’s certainly worth the price I paid.