After an amazing 2 weeks in Japan, it was time to fly back home to Canada. To reach NRT Airport from Tokyo, we took the Airport Limousine coach bus which offers pickup from several areas in Tokyo including right in front of our Hyatt Hotel. The bus does take longer than the train but you don’t need to lug your luggage through the subway and carry it up and down stairs while hoping there’s a free seat on the train which is unlikely during rush hour.
We enjoyed a scenic ride of endless skyscrapers through Tokyo and the suburbs until we reached the airport. For the 13 hour flight, we had booked a premium economy seat on Air Canada's Boeing 777. The upgrade to business class was approximately $4000 which is so not worth it for Air Canada unless you absolutely need a lie-flat seat.
Premium economy increases your luggage allowance to 2x 32kgs suitcases which was beneficial as we ended up buying a lot of snacks and souvenirs in Japan.
Air Canada uses Terminal 1S near Gate 43 and all the other Air Canada gates were in the same vicinity. At the terminal, there is a self bag drop service with no priority line. Security and immigration were blazing fast as there was no line. We had some time to visit the NOA lounge which we were granted access into using my Wealthsimple lounge pass. Note that premium economy passengers are not entitled to complimentary lounge access. The lounge had some tasty food including a beef rice bowl and a selection of sake and Japanese beers. They had a robot/automated machine that tilted the glass at an angle for the beer pour. The Japanese always out there living in 2050!
Boarding
Boarding started on time and it was very fast starting with zone one for business class passages, followed by two for premium economy. As usual, people in zone 5 stand up at the first boarding announcement then crowd the gate. It’s nice that Air Canada now checks boarding passes to ensure that people in the proper zones are boarding at the correct time. For example, there was someone verifying that passengers in line only included those in zone three and asked all others to step aside and go sit down.
Seats
Once on board, I settled into my seat. The seat was quite old, and the recline button was clunky. We had the bulkhead row with ample legroom. The TV came out from the compartment near my left foot. It was an old thick tablet with a slow and unresponsive touchscreen.
My charging port was hanging out of the socket so I pushed it back in. Very premium! The headphone port was broken and mostly played sound out of one side of my headphones at a time. It also produced a lot of static noises.
The TVs were old and slow. I could not keep it at a straight angle towards me, as soon as I let go of it would fall back and face my partner instead.
Food and Dining
At my seat was an amenity kit. If you’d like to read more about the inflight amenities, read my previous review of my flight from Montreal to Tokyo. The menu today included a salad, a main course of beef and a green tea dessert. The meal service would also include a snack mid flight and breakfast before arrival. A flight attendant came by to take our dinner order with a choice of chicken or beef
The menu is available ahead of time on the Air Canada app with the choices of chicken and pasta or beef with rice. While for my flight to Japan 2 weeks earlier, the app alerted me ahead of time to place my meal order. However it didn’t do so on this flight.
Dinner was alright. I enjoyed the beef and rice but my salad was frozen.
I tried to watch Coco to pass the time (wonderful Mexican movie, highly recommend!). Unfortunately, it sounded like this: You must make a choice crack crack Miguel but family is crack crack supposed to support crack crack you. According to Air Canada, one of the perks of premium economy is “A next generation entertainment system”. In between the crackling noises, the audio would also cut out as the headphone jack would play music only on one side and I had to keep moving it. The touchscreen was awful and would register random clicks.
I tried to use the remote to control the TV but it was stuck. I asked for help from a flight attendant who looked exasperated and said yes it does that, sometimes it helps if you try to wedge a piece of paper in the headphone port. She offered me another glass of wine as an apology. I also tried to connect to the WiFi which did not work.
I eventually gave up and just turned everything off, unplugged my headphones and closed my eyes. Make sure not to fall asleep with your headphones connected as the in flight announcements are deafening
Breakfast
For breakfast, I opted for the stir fried noodles.
This was such a low quality product that I’m almost ashamed to admit that I paid double the price of economy for this ticket. I would give Air Canada’s premium economy a 2/5 at best. As we approached Montreal, I began to wonder if I was part of the problem because as long as someone is willing to pay for this then Air Canada can get away with it. There was nothing premium about this flight other than the wider (broken) seats, more legroom and the price tag. I would pick flying in Emirates’ economy seats upstairs on the A380 over this. This flight was a reminder that we lack competition in Canada.
If you are interested in reading about my experience flying from Montreal to Tokyo 2 weeks earlier, you can find it here.
Related blog posts:
