Munich Franz Josef Strauß

I walked towards the Senator Lounge close to gate G 23, but the lounge was crowded and so I left and headed towards the Senator Café, which was less crowded. I asked the member of staff at the buffet for a banana smoothie, which was tasteful. The advantage of the Senator Café over the Senator Lounge is that catering is the same as for the First Class Lounge. So the quality is better than in the lounge, but the variety of food is smaller. I checked mails again searched for a few things on a business server to download them to my laptop so I had them on my laptop in case I need them and had no internet access.

I send a text message to DrThax, who was in MUC as well but in transit to PHL. He later mailed that the Senator lounge was not that busy anymore, so I moved there for the remaining 20 minutes and chatted with DrThax, before it was time to head upstairs to the H concourse for our flights. We had arranged to meet in Denver the next day, so we had the next evening to exchange more travel related details and informations. The lower level of Munich’s Terminal 2 is for flights to Schengen countries while the upper floor is for flights to Non Schengen countries. There are two Star Senator Lounges on the lower floor but only one on the higher floor and I prefer the lower floor as the lounges there are usually less crowded. The only exception is the First Class Lounge which is Non Schengen territory, i.e. you leave Germany and it is covering both floors with the main part on the upper floor but entrances on both floors.

We talked about details where and when to meet in Denver the next day and headed in different directions. Boarding had not started yet, but the lines at the Economy Counter were quite long. I knew that API dates had to be transferred and so I approached the designated Star Gold / Business Class Counter, where the agent was already expecting me. She took care of the details while I gave her the necessary information.

Boarding started at 11:20 with BusinessFirst Customer, Air Canada Elites and Star Gold Passengers. A passport check was done before we were allowed to enter the jetbridge.

22 June 2011
MUC - YYZ
[Munich Franz-Josef-Strauß – Toronto Lester B. Pearson Pearson International]
AC 847 (Air Canada); Boeing 777-300 ER (C-FITL)
Gate H 32
12:00 – 14:45 [effective 12:10 – 14:31]
Economy Class
Seat 24 C

I was greeted with a smile by a flight attendant as I entered the plane. The flight attendants and Air Canada are friendlier and more relaxed than most of their US-American colleagues. I walked through the Business Class cabin back to my seat in the first part of the Economy Class cabin. There I performed the usual routine and stored my carry on in the overhead compartment and my laptop under the seat in front of me. The plane filled with passengers but was not sold out; there were a few empty seats left, but not many.

The seats next to me were taken by a guy and a young girl flying internationally for the first time. She has just passed her Abitur and was now working one year in Canada close to Winnipeg in a youth camp as she later told me.

Our Boeing 777-300 ER was quite new. It joined the fleet of Air Canada on March 30, 2007 after its maiden flight 9 days earlier. The plane has 42 seats in Business Class and 307 seats in Economy Class. Business Class is in herringbone configuration with a 1-2-1 configuration offering a seat pitch of 70 inch and a seat width of 20.35 inch. Economy Class is in the standard 3-3-3 layout with a seat pitch of 32 inch and a seat width of 18.5 inch. What I really like on Air Canada is their AVOD system including a power outlet and an USB powerport at nearly every seat.
Our Boeing 777-300 ER was equipped with two GE90-115BL2 engines. These engines have a thrust of 115,300 lbf or 513 kN and are the most powerful jet engine in service on a commercial aircraft. The Boeing 777-300 ER has a range of 7930 nautical miles which equals 14,690 km. This makes the Boeing 777-300 ER to a huge rival of the Airbus A 340-600. The later consumed more fuel with its four engines compared to the two of the Boeing 777-300 ER. Thus is one of the main reasons why many airlines use the 777-300 ER as a replacement for its 747-400 instead of an Airbus A 340-600.

But back to my flight from Munich to Toronto…
The safety video was shown while we were still at the gate. We pushed back with a little delay at 12:10 due to heavy air traffic. The captain mentioned this to be in Frankfurt, but I am not sure if this was an error and he meant Munich or if it really was heavy air traffic in the Frankfurt area, which we had to pass on our way towards The Netherlands and on to the UK and Ireland. He also gave us a weather update about the weather in Toronto, which was rainy with 19°C.

We took off round about 15 minutes after push back and climbed in the partly cloudy sky above Munich.

Seat belt signs were turned off after 12 minutes in flight and the crew closed the curtain between Business and Economy Class.

The first meal service started 25 minutes later and the question was chicken or vegetarian pasta. I skipped meal as usual in Economy Class as I already have had a snack in the lounge, but took a glass of water. The meal came with potatoes salad and a cookie and had also a small bottle of water. My seat mate told me it was not bad.

Later the trays were collected and coffee was offered. I had a coffee and a glass of water. Later the cabin lights were dimmed and also the mood lighting at the cabin ceiling was dimmed.

There were quite a few children on board this plane, which behaved more or less well. One girl, probably not much older than 18 month was crying a lot in the first half of the flight. It is difficult for young children to adjust at the different air pressure in the cabin. Usually it helps if they are able to drink during take-off. It seems the mother does not know this or had nothing prepared. The elder sisters of course had no such problems.

I already had started my laptop earlier and worked on my trip report among other things. One of the advantages of flying Air Canada is, as mentioned previously, that nearly every seat has its own power outlet close to the screen of the inseat monitor. The disadvantage for me was that my seat had no power outlet. But the very nice young lady in the seat next to me offered to use her power outlet, so I could charge my laptop. I worked the first six hours of the fight, updating some older stay reports of hotels and finished some new ones.

The crew came through the cabin every now and then and offered water. After four and a half hours flying time a beverage round with the cart was done, offerings pretzels and different types of beverage including alcohol. Air Canada serves alcohol on longhaul flights free of charge.

After I shut my laptop down, I listened to music from my mp3 player and chatted with the young lady on the middle seat. She was going to work in Canada in some sort of youth camp close to Winnipeg. It was her first international trip and she asked me about some things and I hope I could help her. I am always amazed about teens / young adults making the decision not to go to straight to university but make some sort of civil service. I think it is very helpful, you get a different point of view to things in your home country and it widens your horizon not to forget practicing a foreign language. She worried about her connection but it was a legal one and seen with the eyes of a frequent flier not even tight – my connection was even tighter than hers. I gave her later in Toronto as we were heading towards immigration my business card, just in case something went wrong.

But before we touched down another snack service was done. Offered were either a chicken or a vegetarian wrap. I choose the vegetarian one which was Thai style and it tasted quite good and was easy to eat. I came in a paper box. A beverage round was done as well and I choose a coffee to stay awake as it was now late evening in Germany and I got up at 05:00 in the morning.

45 minutes prior to landing immigration forms for Canada and the US were distributed and the crew began to prepare the cabin for our arrival in Toronto.

The crew was good, attentive and friendly. The children running through the aisle or crying and disturbing them in their service routine seemed not to be an issue for them. After this first longhaul service with Air Canada, my impression of this airline is still very good. I will see how the remaining flights with Air Canada will be. However I did not notice any special treatment to passengers holding elite status.

The last minutes of the flight I chatted with the young lady and suddenly we landed at 14:27. The passenger in the window seat had not opened the window shade and I had not really noticed how close to Toronto we actually had been.

After touched down we taxied for our gate, where we had to wait a few minutes before we could roll the last meters since the ground crew was not yet ready.

Disembarking was quite fast through the second door and then we were on the long hike towards immigration – which was not that long, as Toronto has this nice very fast walking way. While my seat mate was heading toward Canadian immigration, I went upstairs for the US immigration, which was done here in Canada already.
 

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