Air Canada Business Class Review - YVR to SYD

I know what you’re thinking: Ioana, how can you even afford business class?? Don’t you have a buy me a coffee link and whine about how expensive rent is? Ummm, yes to both of those things!

If you’re a seasoned traveller though, you know that business class isn’t unattainable, especially if you travel a lot.

The trick to flying business class affordably is: points + upgrades. So instead of buying a full biz class ticket right off the bat, you:

1) accumulate points/status with your preferred airline (there are so many ways to do this!);

2) buy an economy ticket far, far in advance;

3) check if they’re offering upgrades of the day or the day before when you check in.

The thing with this plan is that you have to be okay with flying economy in case they don’t have an affordable biz class option, you don’t have enough points, or you can’t upgrade at the last minute.

ANYWAY this is a very long-winded intro but basically, I upgraded my flight with Air Canada from Vancouver Airport to Sydney, which is a whopping 15 hours long and now I’m going to review it! Here’s my review of Air Canada business class from YVR to SYD.

Maple Leaf Lounge

I’m going to start with the Air Canada Lounge, because it’s one of the first perks you get when booking a biz class ticket (or upgrading). Air Canada has never had “pay-per-use” lounge access, so you need points status or an invite to get in.

The International Air Canada lounge at Vancouver airport is sort of of hidden—the YVR website says it’s located at gate D25, but it’s actually past that gate, so once you’re past the international security gates, the shops, the bathrooms…keep walkin’.

(If you want a comprehensive review of the YVR lounge, check out the Prince of Travel’s blog post here, it’s very thorough!)

Honestly, this lounge is the nicest Maple Leaf Lounge I’ve been in, and I’ve tried a few! When you walk in you’re immediately greeted by this big sprawling bar. The room is divided into two sides—there’s more of a dining area on the right side, and a lounge-y side on the left.

Image credit: Prince of Travel

I enjoyed the lounge! The food options were a bit sparse but it was late (the flight was taking off around 11 pm local time) so that’s understandable—food was delicious, I had a pasta salad and some random nibbles like spring rolls, etc. and they were quite tasty.

Bar service looked excellent even though I didn’t partake—I knew they’d try to booze me up in biz class (AND I WAS RIGHT!) so I didn’t want to overdo it. Overall, I thought the lounge access was worth it.

Air Canada Business Class - Cabin

The Air Canada business class cabin is standard. I didn’t take any full, high-quality pictures so here’s one I stole from NerdWallet:

Seat

The seat is honestly the best part about business class—being able to lie flat on a 15-hour flight is the BEST THING (I didn’t even have to wear my compression socks). Everything else is just extra!

There’s plenty of space in the seat, the privacy screens are great and honestly, I barely noticed my cabin neighbours during the whole flight. The cabin was super quiet and very comfortable for the duration of the flight.

Bathrooms

The one thing I will say is that I thought the bathrooms were a bit cramped for a business class flight, but I know it varies from airline to airline. It was the size of a standard short-haul flight bathroom, which was a bit disappointing! I heard that Qatar business class bathrooms are spacious so I was expecting something a bit different. ALAS!

Bathrooms were fitted with your standard “fancy” soap and hand lotion, it had a full-length mirror and a little window you could look out on, but that’s about it—nothing extravagant.

It was the same with the toiletries bag—the brand was Acqua di Parma and they just kitted you with a basic dental kit, ear plugs, hand lotion, sleeping mask…but no PJs or anything extra!

Air Canada Business Class - Service & Food

Not gonna lie, the Air Canada Business Class service was also standard—it didn’t blow me away. More like, ‘I just found $5 in my pocket’ kind of nice.

I did expect service in biz class to be a bit more above and beyond—the staff were friendly enough but not like, “omg let’s exchange pictures of our dogs” (which is a shame ‘cause I always like to exchange pictures of dogs).

BTW IT WAS TOTALLY FINE, this is just an observation, I don’t want to sound like a whiny brat.

One of the flight attendants did laugh when he saw that I was watching Bridesmaids—he was like, “Ohhh that movie is so funny,” then paused and went: “You do feel kinda bad for her though, right?”

Food

I will say, that they were generous with the wine. Like, I half expected them to give me the bottle and say, “Just go for it, champ.” The champagne they served before takeoff was also, for lack of a better adjective: chef’s kiss.

The food was the BIGGEST disappointment on this flight though. But I think it was because I was sooo looking forward to it and it ended up kinda sucking.

Starters - shrimp, cheese platter, mixed nuts

I opted for the veal, which sounded like the right fine-dining move, but it was a bit of a letdown. The risotto and asparagus that came with it were yummy but like, look at the photo below. Does that look like veal to you??

Vealy disappointing.

There was also a shrimp starter that made me think, "Did they shrink the ocean's shrimp or is this a new species?" and a cheese platter which was actually pretty dang good but like…it’s cheese. You can’t go wrong with cheese.

The dessert was the best part of dinner—it was some sort of blueberry cake that was super creamy and delicious.

They served a chicken pot pie midnight snack that was EASILY the tastiest thing I had on that flight so SHOUT OUT TO THE CHICKEN POT PIE. The chips that came with it were nicely seasoned and crispy.

When it came time for breakfast, I had the savoury option, which was an omelette and I don’t even want to talk about it. The sausage it came with was cold and gross to the point where I was grateful for the fruit platter, honestly. DO BETTER, AIR CANADA!

Air Canada Biz Class Breakfast feat. sad cold breakfast sausage

Air Canada Business Class - The Verdict

Would I pay full price for Air Canada business class?

Noooot a chance. The seat & service are obviously the best part—the fact that you can lie down flat on a 15-hour flight is a LIFESAVER and you honestly wake up fresh upon landing and it makes allll the difference.

But I don’t think it’s worth dropping a cool $15K just to have that ability. I think upgrades are great, and points are definitely worth saving if you’re really looking for that little extra luxury. If $15-20K is no big deal for you, then obviously GO FOR IT, BOO.

I would defs do it again though.