Trip Report: Air Canada, Toronto to Washington, D.C. (October 2021)

   Trip Report: Air Canada - Toronto to Washington, D.C.
comment below and let me know your thoughts :)

I was booking my flight from Washington, D.C. to Toronto and return.  On the outbound the best flight and connection I found was with Delta and on the return the best connection, flight time and price I found was with Air Canada.  This routing would take me from Toronto to Washington Reagan via Montreal.  I found the flight on Google Flights but went to AirCanada's website directly to book the ticket.  It was quick and easy to book the ticket online, select my seat, and get my reservation.

My original flight had me departing Toronto at 4pm with an 1hr layover in Montreal and then arrive into Washington. D.C. at 8pm.  I arrived to the airport a little more than 2-hours in advance because I thought I had to stand in line for my documents to get checked.  In line they said that if I received my mobile boarding pass then everything was clear and nothing needed to be shown/checked so I proceeded to security.  Since I was going to Montreal it was treated as a domestic flight so I did not need to clear immigration and because of that, I got to the gate really quickly.  When I approached the gate, the earlier flight to Montreal was on 'last call' and they asked me if I was part of that flight.  I said I was part of the later flight and they asked if I wanted to take the earlier flight; since I had only hand-carry I said yes and I was able to take the 2pm flight to Montreal onboard a Boeing 787 dreamliner.  

This flight generally departs Toronto at 2pm and arrives into Montreal at 3:14pm.  The flight was

operated by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and it was great to experience this Dreamliner plane on a short domestic flight.  The plane was laid out in a 3-3-3 configuration in economy and the seat width and seat pitch were very good; I am tall and the legroom was excellent.  Yes it did help that no one was next to me but despite that I thought the legroom was great.  The seat was very comfortable to sit on and had a lot of features including a seatback PTV with a USB port and headphone jack; underneath that was a full-size tray table; and below that was a seatback pocket.  Universal power outlets were also available.  The amenities were nice for the short domestic flight but given how everything was laid out, I would not hesitate to take the flight long-haul.  Shortly after we reached cruising altitude inflight service commenced.  I was surprised that Air Canada was doing a full drink service and pretzels on this short flight; yes the entire cabin was not full but flight time was only 1hr15min and that is not a lot of time to get through the service.  The FA's were really good about being efficient but also decently friendly; they were definitely friendlier and better as compared to some American FAs.  We landed in Montreal and because of my earlier flight I now had 3-hours in Montreal. 

Unfortunately, due to COVID there was only one or two shops that were open in the entire airport.  I understand it was a pandemic but there were A LOT of people and not enough services provided so either more services needed to be available or less people needed to be transited through Montreal.  I bided my time and then proceeded downstairs to the basement where my next flight would be departing from. 

My flight to Washington, D.C. would be operated by a CRJ2 which is a small regional jet with a 2-2 configuration.  The plane was very small, tight, and not a lot of leg space.  There was an open seat available and I asked the FA if I could move, but there was a main FA and a FA in training and they had taken up those seats even though not of them sat there throughout the flight (not great customer service).  The service and experience on the CRJ2 experience was in complete opposite of the my previous experience - the plane was smaller and extremely uncomfortable, the FAs were not nice nor customer friendly and overall it was not a good experience.  Once airborne, inflight service of a drink and pretzels were provided and then it was not long before we landed as it was only a 1.5hr flight.

In the end, it was an interesting flight with AirCanada.  During my first flight from Toronto to Montreal I got to experience their long-haul fleet and that seemed comfortable so something I would want to try and experience.  On the second flight, from Montreal to Washington D.C. I got to experience their regional jets and FAs which were not nice and very uncomfortable.  I have flown on AirCanada's Embraer from Toronto to New Orleans (link here) and it was a very comfortable experience so I will try and remember that experience versus this one.