Hi all, this is my first trip report. After enjoying many of your reports I figured I’d try to give something back.

A couple of months ago I decided to book a trip to London England to visit a couple of friends currently living in the city and just get away for a short while. I booked a trip on AC Aeroplan points with a routing from YYC through YYZ on purpose instead of taking the direct YYC-LHR flight to fly on Air Canada’s 777. Booking the flight on aeroplan.com was quite simple and ended up costing 60 000 points, plus almost $300 in taxes and fees. Not too bad, although as we all know the “free” flights aren’t really free.

I won’t bore you much with the initial leg of my trip since it was a simple domestic flight from YYC on an A320.

Segment: YYC-YYZ
Date: Dec, 2007
Flight: Air Canada AC 120
A/C: A320
Reg: C-FMSX
Route: YYC-YYZ
Class: Economy

As usual the departure from YYC was very relaxed. The Air Canada wing was in it’s full daily swing, but as usual there were plenty of seats for all. We left YYC approximately 30-45 minutes late due to the late arrival of the aircraft and de-icing delays but due to a extra fast jetstream that day, we managed to land in Toronto 5 minutes ahead of schedule. The total flight time was around the 3 hour 1 minute mark if I remember correctly. Probably the fastest I’ve done the YYC to YYZ leg (and I’ve done it many many times). In Calgary the temperature outside was approx. -25 degrees Celsius with a light snow falling. It was a great day to be leaving!!!



Our plane pulling up to the gate - late and very cold looking.


De-icing occurred right at the gate after a pushback of a few metres. Green antifreeze was sprayed all over the window so my view wasn’t the clearest for the next little while.



Segment: YYZ - LHR
Date: Dec, 2007
Flight: Air Canada AC 848
A/C: Boeing 777
Reg: ??? Too dark to see
Route: YYZ - LHR
Class: Economy

So as mentioned I could have easily hopped on the YYC-LHR direct flight and saved a few hours prior to heading to the airport but I had been meaning to fly on one of the new AC 777’s for almost a year now. I specifically booked this routing so I’d get the chance.

Upon arriving in YYZ Terminal 1 I had about three hours to kill before the departure of AC 848. My bags were checked right through to LHR from YYC so had no need to wait in the baggage claim line upon landing in Toronto. I met a friend in Toronto and we had a quick dinner ‘catch-up’ before saying goodbye and I headed over to the new international wing of Terminal 1.

It was getting to be quite late in the evening and things were quieting down for the night. Prior departures from this the new international wing included a Jet Airways leaving for India, an Air Canada 767 leaving for Rome, and a Mexicana flight leaving for Mexico City. They eventually all departed and the wing was just occupied by me my fellow London bound passengers and the only plane sitting there was our 77w. Boarding was called and uneventful, the usual rush of people got up to wait in line.



The quiet wing at T1 YYZ. Line-up forming for pre-boarding to LHR.



There she is sitting quite ominous looking in the dark

By this time I was getting quite excited to see the inside of the new 77w and my first impressions were very positive. We only boarded through one gateway. I had booked a window seat right near the back of the plane and was quite impressed by the “endless” walk past rows and rows of seats to get to the back. The plane seemed to be about 70% full with plenty of empty seats scattered throughout. I was pleased to find out I had an empty seat beside me.


Prior to takeoff in YYZ. Overhead bins are still open. Nice blue mood lighting.


We taxied to 06L and the pilot immediately opened the throttles up. I can say I was impressed with the fast take-off of the aircraft. The powerful engines were really loud at the back and our climb angle seemed a little steeper than what is normal.

Service began an hour or so into the flight and drinks were brought around. Wine and beer were free and I ended up having a few bottles of wine in an attempt to “get my monies worth.” Haha The mood lighting was on for most of the flight and was pretty neat.



Dinner was a chicken and rice mixture.


Somewhere over Ireland (no working map, grrrrrrr) breakfast was handed out. It consisted of a muffin, a bag of pre-cut apples, and orange juice. I was skepticle of the pre-cut apples as they were most likely cut HOURS ago but they weren’t bad. No browning of the apples had occurred from exposure to oxygen… so I assume the bags were air tight.


Dawn somewhere over the Irish Sea.

We arrived over London about 20 minutes early due to good headwinds and the pilot announced that we had to wait as our landing slot wasn’t open yet. We entered the typical holding pattern (that I always read about) for almost 30 minutes. Let me tell you I like flying but the constant banking and waiting KNOWING you were so close to your destination got old fast…. I just wanted to land.

Eventually we were cleared and lined up for final. There was a pretty strong cross-wind that day as we had a visible crab. Sitting at the back of the plane you could feel the pilot adjusting back and forth trying to line up to the runway. I think our plane caught a downdraft on very short final probably about 100 feet above the ground as we suddenly dropped, you could see people were surprised and startled by it as there were some yelps. I wasn’t sure if it was the wind, or if the pilot decided had to loose altitude fast though. The landing wasn’t too rough.

I had never been to LHR before and was excited to see some of the exotic heavies kicking around the terminal. Some photos of them are below. Overall I enjoyed the flight and the 77w, and had no regrets on my choice to fly it. I did see the AC 333 from YYC that I could have been on parked at the terminal which landed roughly an hour before hour my YYZ flight.


Air Mauritius 340 being towed around the tarmac.


Jet Airways 77w leaving for India


BA 747 and Air India 777


Last view of our AC 77w from YYZ. Virgin 340-600 just landed, not sure where it came from.


Hope you guys liked it. I’ve got photos of my return flight that I’ll try to get up sometime.