A trip to the UK and Canada (VA, SQ A380 suites, and AC 787 business)

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Pacific Rim National Park

It's surprising how much the weather can change here - maybe it's specific by location, but possibly it just changes in a short time too. Despite waking up to a beautiful sunny morning with clear blue sky, by the time I'd driven the ~30 minutes to Wickaninnish Beach the sky was covered with grey cloud.

This time the car park not only had a bear warning sign (but at least there are only Black Bears on Vancouver Island), but also a wolf warning - complete with pictogram instructions .






Wickaninnish Beach, like many beaches in the area has a bank of washed up tree trunks at the rear of the beach illustrating both how densly forested the surrounding islands are, but also how powerful the sea can get.



I started my walk along the trail to South Beach (800m one way):



And then continued along The Nuu-Chah-Nulth Trail; a longer, narrow (~2.5km one way), and in places quite precarious boardwalk (rotting boards, sections which tipped up). Thick temperate rainforest surrounds the trail for it's entire length until it arrives at Florencia Bay.







After walking around Florencia Bay, I returned back along the same trails, arriving at the Kʷisitis Visitor Centre on Wickaninnish Beach.

 

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Ucluelet Wild Pacific Trail Lighthouse Loop

I continued the drive towards Ucluelet (~20min), stopping briefly in the town to pick up a coffee and a sandwich, before arriving at the Wild Pacific Trail Lighthouse Loop trail. Another easy/pleasant walk (~2.6km) with some beautiful views. The cloud had magically vanished, and the sunny blue sky was back.



Amphitrite Point Lighthouse:



A few colourful blue-tailed birds could often be seen (edit: Steller's Jay - thank you @drron !):

 

[drron]

The bird is the Steller's Jay- the bird emblem of British Columbia.

 

[HeavyElectricity]

The bird is the Steller's Jay- the bird emblem of British Columbia.

Ah - thank you, good to know! I probably should have known that. It was quite a striking bird, and I meant to look it up before I posted, but I'd become fed up of sorting/labelling photos so put it back on the to-do pile.

 

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OK - This trip report has dragged on long enough! I've spent the last couple of days finishing the sorting of photos, so now I'll actually finish this thing !

 

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For my last full day on Vancouver Island I had a bear watching boat trip booked for the early afternoon (timed when it's low tide, as this is when the bears come down to the shoreline to scavenge for seafood). In the morning, I had some time to quickly visit two destinations back in Pacific Rim National Park.

Radar Hill

A nice viewpoint in Pacific Rim National Park, and was once the location of a radar station in the Cold War. There was a great view over the forests from here, and also another warning sign photo to add to my collection.

 

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Schooner Cove Trail and Schooner's Beach

A short 1km stair-filled walk through the rainforest brings you to a beautiful beach. Picnic time!

 

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Bear Watching trip

After seeing multiple warning notices daily, I really wanted to see a bear! Vancouver Island doesn't have grizzlies, but does have black bears. They often frequent the rocky shoreline during low tide to feed on marine life in rock pools, or hiding under rocks.

The tour departed from Tofino harbour:



And proceeds through Clayoquot Sound / islets:



We managed to see at least three bears - although I only got photos of two. Mobile camera snaps aren't the best when you really need a zoom lens. It was great to just stand there in the safety of the boat and watch them do their thing.





They even turn over the rocks on the shoreline whilst looking for food.





Journey back to Tofino:

 

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The next day I made the long drive back to Nanaimo Airport, where I arrived bang-on 3 hours before my scheduled flight time to Vancouver. For a short domestic flight, this was very early - but I wasn't prepared to risk any delays as my YVR-MEL flight was on a separate ticket, and the highway from Tofino to the east of the island can have closures (roadwork or accidents).



YCD-YVR

Flight: AC8268
Aircraft: Q300 (C-GKTA)
Seat: 5C (Y)
Departed: YCD 05/09/2018 17:08 (3 mins late) PDT
Arrived: YVR 05/09/2018 17:52 (22 mins late) PDT
Duration: 44m

I purchased this flight and also the preceding YYC-YCD flight using my AMEX Explorer $400 travel credit.

Easy check-in at Nanaimo. Asked if it was possible to check my bags on the following flight, and although it took a little while it was all sorted. I was also told that I needn't have purchased the checked luggage option for the domestic flight when I had a "connecting" international flight with checked luggage included. This was the complete opposite to the Air Canada call centre, which I purposefully called to ask this exact question around a month prior, and I was told that because the two flights were on separate tickets, I did need to purchase checked luggage on the domestic flight.

Nanaimo airport is tiny, and has one small landside cafe and no vendors airside, so I stayed landside for a little while and had some lunch. Interestingly, checked luggage is not dropped off at check-in, but at the security check-point (after going through the scanner, same as hand luggage).

Despite the late arrival of the aircraft, and a delay of ~15 mins showing on the display, we boarded on time anyway.




This Q300 had a very old cabin, and the overhead bins couldn't fit my (small) backpack. The passengers were easily the most inattentive in any flight I've been on whilst the poor one flight crew member was trying to give the safety briefing - couldn't hear her over the talking.

Although we left the gate on time, we spent quite a while on the runway/taxiway just sitting there. I expect they don't even bother to take off until they get landing clearance at Vancouver. Eventually we departed - a very short flight, only about 15 minutes in the air, and as expected (and completely reasonable!) there was no service offered.

 

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The Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge at Vancouver Airport intentional terminal was quite pleasant, and the food was good (albeit not a huge selection) with a chef station serving the dish of the day. There was also a tended bar serving spirits.

The shower rooms were great - and after a day of driving, very welcoming before departing on this 16h+ flight!

 

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YVR-MEL

Flight: AC37
Aircraft: 787-9 (C-FGEI)
Seat: 2A (J)
Departed: YVR 05/09/2018 22:50 (on time) PDT
Arrived: MEL 07/09/2018 07:50 (10 mins early) AEST
Duration: 16h


This flight was booked as a Star Alliance redemption using 117,000 KrisFlyer miles (transferred from Velocity). It cost me CA$67.50 in fees, which at the time was AU$69.



The flight started well, and dinner was promptly served after take off. I chose the beef, garlic bread, an Italian red wine, and then cheesecake.







I watched Solo, then Royal Tenenbaums on the very decent IFE. There was no turndown service offered/seen, although a mattress pad and blanket were at the seat when boarding (along with pillow, slippers, bottle of water, and amenity kit). I tried to sleep, although I felt my attempts weren't that successful, but time seemed to go quickly, so maybe I did drift off for awhile. I unmade my bed with about 4.5 hours left and watched Tully, and requested a (not very good) hot egg sandwich snack from the "light bites" menu.




By this time, the toilet was pretty disgusting, and almost made me gag. Yuk.


Breakfast was served: Fruit, yoghurt (pot), croissant, omelette with sausage. Coffee.




Watched a couple of episodes of Portlandia. As we were approaching Melbourne, we flew over some mountains topped with snow (maybe Alpine National Park?):




Quick disembarkation on arrival at Melbourne, but a long long wait for baggage to start appearing on the carousel. My bags were some of the first out however!

Queue for customs was crazy, but I asked at the "crew" line if there was an express pass lane (nothing was signposted as far as I could tell) and they took my pass and sent me down that line - very happy !

 

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Novotel Melbourne On Collins

A spent a couple of nights in Melbourne, to relax and to catch up with some friends.

I had booked and pre-paid for the Novotel Melbourne on Collins during an Accor Plus private members sale (at $120-130 per night).

They had a high-floor room reserved for me, but because I wanted to check-in (very) early, I took the lower floor interior-facing option they offered instead. The room was still very large. I was even granted my Accor Platinum free breakfast on my check-in day (in lieu of check-out when I'd be leaving early before the restaurant opened). Very happy, and a great hotel price for Melbourne!

I also received some tasty rocky road chocolate as my welcome gift:

 

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MEL-SYD

Flight: VA833
Aircraft: 737-800 (VH-VUZ)
Seat: 4D (Y+)
Departed: MEL 09/09/2018 10:10 (10 mins late) AEST
Arrived: SYD 09/09/2018 11:41 (16 mins late) AEST
Duration: 1h 31m


Skybus to airport. Easy check-in using priority line. Breakfast in lounge. Bacon, caramelised onion and corn fritters. Coffee. Pastry. Apple. Yum!



There was a gate discrepancy with the display boards in the airport. The original gate shown on my boarding pass (and still being shown in my travel apps) was correct, but a different gate was showing up on the airport displays. I asked at the lounge desk to see which was correct (as the gates were in separate directions from the lounge), and they confirmed the displays were incorrect, and made a phone call to notify whomever is responsible for that. On my walk to the gate I heard repeated announcements that there had been a gate change (someone trying to cover their tracks? ).



Seemingly a very long boarding process. People trying to cram all kinds of luggage in to the overhead bins.

In flight I was served a juice and a orange chocolate bar snack.

 

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SYD-PER

Flight: VA559
Aircraft: A330-200 (VH-XFD)
Seat: 2K (J)
Departed: SYD 09/09/2018 13:22 (17 mins late) AEST
Arrived: PER 09/09/2018 16:18 (3 mins late) AWST
Duration: 4h 56m



The reason for my connection via Sydney wasn't really to do with earning extra status credits (unfortunately I was way off maintaining Platinum by my membership renewal on 12th September) - but because I'm a transcon snob, and wanted an A330 flight .

After a slightly delayed boarding, we got going and I was served a sparking wine as pre departure beverage.

Great views over Sydney on departure:



Post take-off, I went with a couple of G&Ts with nuts .

I watched "American Animals" and "I, Tonya".

Menu:



Lunch was served - I went with the prawn starter - very good:


The deconstructed lamb Shepard's pie main:


Roulade for dessert:



The meal also included a couple of glasses of Shriaz and the Tawney port. Great flight! Hic.

A short "Ola" rideshare from the airport, and I was back home!

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks for that very comprehensive trip report. Can you compare the AC 787 J with any other airline's product?

Any pics of the seat?

I used to do that flight on their B777 and the seat and service were really good.

 

[HeavyElectricity]

Thanks for that very comprehensive trip report. Can you compare the AC 787 J with any other airline's product?

Any pics of the seat?

I used to do that flight on their B777 and the seat and service were really good.

I'm afraid I didn't get any photo of the seat - failure there on my part to remember before settling in and spreading my stuff everywhere! Here's one I found/stole from an image search:


In terms of seat comfort, I had the following buried away from the LHR-YYC flight:

The Air Canada 787 business seat closely matches the Virgin Australia A330/777 seat with a few minor differences. The seat is air-filled, and the softness/firmness can be controlled. It also has adjustable headrest and lumbar controls, as well as a massage function. Despite this (and probably more because I have no idea what my preference is from any of the mentioned settings!) I didn't find it quite as comfortable as the VA seat, but it was still very good - this style of seat is my favourite business product.

The seats aren't quite as private as on VA. On this 16 hour flight, I became fairly uncomfortable towards the end (last couple of hours) - but then I'd expect that if I'd been sitting for over 14 hours anywhere really!

Didn't have any issues with service, other than the state of the toilet from midway in the flight. Food/drinks were great, and whilst not as attentive as VA with proactively asking if you'd like any more drinks/food, they were always happy to help when asked. A snack selection was set out at the front of the cabin for people to help themselves. I really don't expect turndown service, and it didn't look like it was something that AC offer.

The in-flight-entertainment was good - a larger screen and more responsive than on the VA A330s. It's strange they collect the noise-cancelling headsets before landing and replace them with earphones, other airlines aren't quite as paranoid.

I'd be more than happy to take further AC 787 business flights! Great product, and good service.