For my stop in Vancouver, I was booked to have an approximately 5 hour long layover. I went into Canada to visit the NEXUS office to finally complete my iris scan, obtain my properly branded Air Canada boarding pass (rather than the one I had from Air New Zealand), and then reentered the United States. Amongst those activities, obtaining the boarding pass actually took the most time: The manned stations were swapped and the automated kiosk required that I massage the screen with my finger tips for minutes at a time to get it to respond to button presses to print the boarding pass and to try to standby for the earlier flight to Los Angeles.
I then walked in search of the Maple Leaf Lounge so I could take a shower. Having not studied a map of the concourse ahead of time, I wound up walking past it only to more carefully scan my surroundings for the entrance on my way back.
My chief priority was to take a shower after my flight from Auckland. Fortunately, the lone shower was unoccupied.
Unfamiliar with Air Canada’s meal policies, I made myself a small salad to tide myself over if there wasn’t a vegetarian meal on the earlier flight.
The lounge itself was reasonably empty.
When I approached the gate, I found that my standby had cleared.
Since I was seated in a bulkhead in business class, I had placed my laptop bag and camera in the overhead bin, forgetting that I would want to take a picture of the meal. Amongst the choices of chicken, beef, and pasta as standard options. I chose the pasta. The meal came with cold (gasp) nuts to start, a roll, a salad with balsamic vinegar and oil dressing, and a small slice of chocolate cake.
Air Canada 554
Vancouver (YVR) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Saturday, December 31st
Depart: 3:21PM
Arrive: 5:52PM
Duration: 2 hours, 31 minutes
Aircraft: Embraer 190 (C-FMZU)
Seat: 1A (Business Class)
While I’m normally indifferent to in-flight entertainment options, a glitch in the air show map gave me a chuckle.
