Vegan meal on Air Canada A320-200 Montreal to St. John’s, Newfoundland

I spend a few days each summer gallivanting Canadian maritime provinces or Atlantic Canada. This year we returned to St.John’s (YYT), the capital city of New Foundland and Labrador, my favorite place to go Whale watching. Its a short haul flight from Montreal (YUL) and makes for a great Aeroplan redemption – 15K RT  for a cash ticket that averages $650 CAD during peak summer season.  This was my first time flying business class on this sector and I had requested Vegan meals. The direct flight from Montreal to St. John’s was serviced on a Air Canada A320-200, here is my review.

Flight: AC 660 Montreal (YUL) – St. John’s (YYT)
Aircraft: Airbus A320-200
Duration: 2hr 27min
Seat: 2D

Air Canada A320-200 Montreal (YUL) to St. John’s (YYT)

Montreal is not the most organised Canadian airport, and can seem chaotic at the best of times. But with priority services at disposal, we were able drop off our bag (web check-in) and skip through the dedicated Nexus security line without any hassles.

Mobile boarding pass

The flight was out of gate A1, conveniently located next to the Air Canada Maple leaf lounge. Gate area was extremely busy, with all seats taken, and backed into a busy walkway of passengers from other gates. Very symptomatic of Montreal airport layout. The flight was delayed by 20 minutes but no such announcements were made at the gate.

Boarding area at Gate A1 – Domestic terminal, Montreal’s Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport

Once ready, boarding was as per Zone and efficient. As expected, the flight/seats were old and dated with angled seats in business cabin. The 2-2 layout, business cabin was full within minutes of boarding.

Seat back entertainment unit with USB slot

The Seat pitch was a luxurious 38′ and width of 21′, totally adequate for the 2.5 hour flight.

2-2 Business class configuration on Air Canada A320-200

Storage space upfront

Cabin service started with a hot towel service and non-alcoholic beverage options (7:00am flight et al). The attendant distributed the breakfast menus and also confirmed that our special meal order was loaded on-board.

Pre departure drink

Breakfast menu on Air Canada A320-200, YUL-YYT

This was the first time I had special ordered a meal on a domestic route and was curious about the vegan meal option. Before you pop a vein deciphering the clump ‘of a thing’ with the potatoes on the plate, note, it was equally distasteful – Scrambled Tofu. My wife is vegan and we have had some scrumptious vegan meals on-board, but this was just awful and played into the stereotype of a vegan meal. At some point we appreciated that the plate was more potatoes than that ‘work of art’ vegan item.

Vegan Meal – Scrambled tofu with red potatoes

Take Away

The business class product on Air Canada A320-200 didn’t offer much in terms of luxury, it was adequate. We paid 30K Aeroplan miles for each seat and would recommend you do not do the same. The 15K economy seat (that we have flown before) is where its at. The vegan food served in-flight was a sham and Air Canada fell terribly short in that regard. On a brighter note, St. John’s was spectacular as always and I am happy to fly sub-par Air Canada products, so long it takes me to my favorite part of the world.