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Flight review – Air Canada Rouge Business Class, Montreal – Punta Cana

Following on from my transatlantic flight and my layover in Montreal it was time for the last leg of my journey to the Dominican Republic, a flight on Air Canada Rouge to Punta Cana.

This flight had originally been booked in Economy Class, but I was able to place an online bid for an upgrade.

My bid of 225USD (£179) was rejected, but during the online check-in process, I was offered a price for a cleared upgrade of 241EUR (£206).

I tried to pay for this online but two credit cards were rejected by the Air Canada website. The payment was eventually processed at the check-in desk at CDG.

On the day of the flight itself, check in and bag drop at Montreal was a breeze and I was through and into the lounge in minutes.

The lounge was pleasant and quiet, with a small selection of food and drinks. As I had already eaten a decent breakfast at the Holiday Inn I contented myself with a couple of beers.

The priority boarding was smooth and I was installed in seat 1F very quickly.

I am normally an aisle seat man, but with the amount of room in the bulkhead seat, the window seat was no hardship.

Although this was obviously nowhere near the comfort level I experienced on my flight from Paris I found it perfectly acceptable for 4 hour flight down to Punta Cana.

Around an hour after take-off a drinks service was offered and I chose a Canadian beer.

Lunch service followed shortly afterwards. I chose the chicken tagine main, which was served with the salad and dessert on the main tray.

After the meal service was finished, the cabin crew retired to the galley and were more or less not seen again for the rest of the flight, although I did manage to get a drink after going up to the galley myself.

Overall I have to say that I was not particularly impressed with Air Canada Rouge’s Business Class product.

Compared with Air Canada’s long-haul Signature Business Class the difference is night and day.

Seating was identical to US domestic First Class and the conspicuously absent service fell below even that benchmark.

Some time ago I wrote an article on whether business class was worth paying for. My

While this was a pleasant enough way to spend a few hours, I’m not convinced it was worth £50 per hour.

In all honesty, were I to fly this route again I would select an aisle seat down the back and keep my credit card in my wallet.

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Flight review – Air Canada Business Class, Paris – Montreal

After my flight to Paris and a short stopover it was time for the first long haul flight of my 5-month travel season.

A fortuitous deal meant that this would be in Air Canada’s Signature Business Class.

As my flight was leaving from Terminal 2, I started my travel day in the Extime contract lounge rather than the Star Alliance Lounge in Terminal 1.

The lounge was located after security but before passport control and offered a reasonable selection of food and drink.

After around an hour in the lounge I boarded the flight and settled in.

This flight was operated by a 777-300ER with business class seating in a 1-2-1 configuration. All business class seats on this aircraft offer a fully flat bed and direct aisle access.

I was given a small amenity kit and a pre-departure glass of champagne.

The dinner service began shortly after take-off with nuts and another glass of champagne.

The menu and choice of drinks offered an impressive array of options.

The appetiser was tasty and the salad was fresh.

For the main course, I was informed that the beef cheeks were not available. This was not an issue for me, as I had already chosen the chicken curry.

The curry was tasty and unusually for an airline meal, had a nice spicy kick.

I chose the Côtes du Rhône white wine to accompany the main course and this was generously poured and regularly topped up.

I finished off the meal with the cheese platter, a glass or two of port and a couple of brandies.

By this stage there were only around four hours left of the flight, so I decided to put my seat into flat-bed mode for a short nap.

I had a nice two-hour sleep before a light pre-arrival meal of Arabic mezze with fruit and coffee was served, along with a couple of tasty little chocolates.

After this, we began our descent to Montreal, where I had a one-night layover before continuing to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Air Canada’s Signature Class was a very relaxing experience and a thoroughly civilised way to begin my long-haul travels.

I can recommend this product as a very solid option for a trans-Atlantic flight.

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