Montreal in the rain is a dark and dreary place. It’s also very quiet, as most of the locals tend to vanish in the city’s sprawling underground complex of tunnels to escape the wet.

Getting to the Airport

I think this is actually the first time in the many visits I’ve made to Montreal that I’m headed out to the airport in the morning. Usually, when I make the journey, it’s in the late afternoon to catch one of the flights back to Europe, which mostly depart in the evening. In any case, traffic is light this Saturday morning, and we make the journey by car in thirty minutes. It’s a flat fee of CAD50 to the airport by taxi.

Air Canada Business Class Check-In

At Montreal Airport there is a dedicated terminal for flights to the US. Passengers already clear customs here in Montreal, and not when they arrive at LaGuardia.

Air Canada obviously rules the roost. They have a large dedicated check-in area. I’ve already checked in on the app. However, as I’m not familiar with the process, I figure I better check with one of the ground agents. I show her my boarding pass. “Yep, you’re good to go. Just follow the signs for C departures. Safe flight”. Well, that was easy.

I follow the signs to C departures, which first brings me to the security checkpoint. It’s very quiet here today. Passengers are required to remove their shoes, and apparently, the airport authorities are not believers in providing plastic foot covers. Behind security is US immigration, and here too it’s rather quiet.

Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge

The Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge is located just past gate 75. Access is via stairs or lift one floor up from the public departure concourse. This lounge is much nicer than the lounge in Toronto. Although, to be fair, it’s also smaller and certainly quieter today than the one on Toronto was.

The lounge’s best feature, as far as I’m concerned, is the excellent view of the ramp. I’m curious to see how this will play out. I see on flightradar 24 that my aircraft arrived at 11h30 from Winnipeg and is currently on stand at the domestic pier. With one hour to go before boarding for LaGuardia starts, I doubt they’ll tow the aircraft over.

Air Canada Business Class Boarding

As it turns out, though, that’s exactly what happens. At 12h05, thirty minutes before boarding is expect to start, my aircraft comes around the corner and is towed to its stand in front of the Air Canada lounge. Boarding starts when the petite you lady picks up the microphone and barks, “group 1, forward” in a voice that is somehow oddly incongruous with her elfin features.

Air Canada Business Class Cabin & Seat

On today’s flight I’m seated on 1A. This is really such a nice, spacious cabin. The pitch is good, and I hadn’t noticed on the previous flight – mainly because the lights were dimmed – that there’s a second button to extend a footrest, in addition to the seat back recline.

Air Canada Business Class Service & Crew

The crew on this flight are just simply brilliant. Really very good. In Europe it’s so difficult to come by happy, genuinely motivated staff. The Air Canada crews are quite refreshing. The service begins with the distribution of small bottles of still water.

Ten minutes ahead of our scheduled departure time, the doors close and the airbridge is moved away from our aircraft. Ten minutes later, the captain informs us of a technical issue, which is why the airbridge is being moved back to the aircraft. While we wait for the issue to be resolved, the cabin crew pass through the cabin with small packets of pretzels or almonds.

As it turns out, the issue is soon resolved, so that we push back with a delay of thirty minutes. Our flight time is 58 minutes, which means we’ll be slightly late arriving in New York.

Once we’re airborne, the service continues with the crew handing out thick hot towels.

Air Canada Business Class Meal

Today’s snack is what the purser refers to as a “veggie empanada”, which is served warm with a small salad of grilled corn. It’s more of a snack than a meal, really, but I think it’s perfectly adequate for a flight of under one hour. To drink I have sparkling water, which the purser volunteers to add lemon and ice to.

Arrival in LaGuardia

Approaches are from the northeast, which means that we come in for the approach over Rochelle and Orchard Beach. It’s a gorgeous day here in New York, with a temperature of 32 degrees Celsius. The runway configuration means that runway 22 is in use for both arrivals and departures, and it’s bad. As we slow done to taxi speed, I count twenty aircraft in the departure queue.

Conclusion

In summary, I had three good flights with Air Canada on this trip. Sure, the cancellation on the way from New York to Montreal was inconvenient and a bit frustrating. Other than that, though, I think Air Canada handled the irregularity well. Other than that, I think Air Canada is clearly one of the better airlines in North America. The crews on all three flights were great and genuinely friendly and the service was comparable to what you would normally get in Europe – just friendlier.