2023.10 Edinburgh and London (Part 10)

2023.10 Edinburgh and London (Part 10)

We arrived at the gate as general boarding had commenced. Little Miss almost gave me the death stare, until she realized that business class and frequent flyers had a dedicated lane to a gate agent. After a few minutes navigating the crowd blocking the first jet bridge, we were able to effortlessly board the plane and find our seats.

Air Canada

Air Canada, flight number AC847, London Heathrow to Toronto Pearson (LHR-YYZ), Boeing 777-300

Scheduled departure: 15:55
Scheduled arrival: 18:50
Seats: 1K & 2K

When we arrived, business class was already two-thirds filled by boarding earlier than us. We quickly settled into our seats, in which I offered 1K to Little Miss so that she’d have a little extra space to stretch and relax.

As we settled in, a flight attendant offered us pre-departure drinks — yes, please! — in which we made our own mimosa, to be drink #6 for the day. We’re not big drinkers, so to be able to fit half dozen drinks before 4pm was an achievement in our books.

Our meal preferences from the menu were taken as well before the cabin doors were closed. Below is the menu and drink #6.

Departure

Eventually, everybody was on the plane, cargo and baggage were safely and securely loaded in the cargo hold and the plane was ready for departure. The layout of London Heathrow resulted in us taking the north side runway and taxing to its eastern end. It’s not hard to figure out how busy Heathrow is given the variety of airlines using the airport.

Somehow, when the A380 came out, very few airlines used it to fly into Toronto Pearson. At the time of publishing this post, the only airline regularly flying an A380 to Toronto Pearson is Emirates. Seeing a bunch of British Airways A380 was a special sight for me.

Eventually it was our plane’s turn for take-off.

Take-off was smooth, and gradual. It felt so leisurely that I started to think we’d be able to see all the details of the English countryside as we flew east. Obviously, that didn’t happen, and soon we were above the clouds headed towards the Atlantic Ocean.

Meal Service

Beverage service started quickly after the seat belt sign was turned off. For this flight, Air Canada had added new items to its drink menu, and I decided to try and Aperol Spritz. Nope. Not my style.

Appetizers arrived, and this time I tried the garlic bread from the basket. Very tasty. We traded parts, I got extra salmon, and she got my shrimp.

My dinner then arrived.

I found the meal good and made sure to not have too much rice so that I had room for dessert. It was served off a cart.

I skipped the fruit, and had cheese, and cake with some tea.

I never get tired of this view. I continued to watch movies on the IFE as the flight crossed the Atlantic.

Today’s flight had us flying over Newfoundland.

The clouds cleared as we flew over Quebec.

Our pre-arrival meal was served on a single tray, Air Canada’s version of afternoon tea, but missing the sweets. The sandwiches were fine, however the scone was rock hard.

Proper spread with clotted cream, butter and jam.

Approach and landing was without any further delay, given we landed on the northerly east/west runway. We were at the gate just around 6:30pm and were off the plane shortly after that.