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.
