Holiday to Canada in Aug 2024: Day 1 – London Heathrow LHR to Toronto YYZ

It felt great walking into T5 and down to The First Wing (TFW). It feels like my second home. For Vick, it’s likely a distant ninth!

We had to stop to get our boarding passes validated for entry into Canada. The agent needed to enter our Canadian ETC numbers into the booking, before we were good to go.

TFW Security was empty but (apparently) due to a recent government change, liquids now need to be removed from bags, even though the whole point of installing these new 3D scanners was to avoid needing to remove anything, which would speed up the process.

Into the CCR, dumped our bags and we were off to see whether Starbucks had been rebuilt or not. It had. Great to see.

We enjoyed our Starbucks in the CCR and then had to deal with our Surepet cat hub being offline. A desparate email to Mike back home was the answer.

Earlier today, I received notification of another flight cancellation in relation to my Sofia TP run in Nov. This time the outbound had been cancelled but the inbound was still active. Will need to get to the bottom of that in the next few days.

On the way down to Gate B48, we popped into the First Lounge so that Vick could grab a banana.

Due to the issues with the Surepet cat hub, we didn’t have time to grab any lunch in the CCR.

On arriving at the gate, as Group 0, we were accepted through and we waited at the top of the escalator.

About 10 mins later, we were onboard into seats 06K and 07K.

It became fairly obvious that service was going to be slow compared to the service we have previously enjoyed in First Class, but the crew were friendly and helpful.

We did get a menu and a pre-flight drink, which was appreciated, and we managed to get our food order in early to ensure we got what we wanted.

We pushed back 10 mins late and queued to get on to the runway. Nothing out of the ordinary. Typical BA and Heathrow.

By the time we got our first drink and some nuts, it was about an hour after departure. That took way too long.

Not great, when we were starving. However, we can report that the champers went down well. Even Vick had some rose champagne! We were clearly in a holiday mood!

Lunch finally arrived at 15:30 – 2 hours after we pushed back. By that point, I had just about finished watching Twister (great film).

For starter, I went for the caesar salad, which was OK. Vick went for a beetroot and goat’s cheese salad, which she really enjoyed.

For main, we both went for the chicken dish which was pretty tasty, although Vick thought there really should have been some potatoes with it.

I tried to log in for free text messaging, but you have to log into your BAEC account. Different browser; no idea what my password was. Attempted to reset my password and of course, BA sent me an email to allow me to reset it.

Without being online, there was no way for me to get the email, which meant the only way I could get my free messaging was if I paid for full access to wifi at 14.95.

Feels like another complaint is on the way!

For pudding, it was a panna cotta for Vick and the sticky toffee pudding for me. The panna cotta was lovely but the sticky toffee pudding was cool and lacking hot custard!

During lunch, I followed the F1 qualifying from Monza, the home of Ferrari. Max could only qualify in seventh.

I started watching Focus with Will Smith and Margot Robbie, but it bored me a tad and it wasn’t long before we both were flat and snoring. Unfortunately, neither of us could sleep that long.

By the time we awoke, hero Mike had moved the cat hub, so we could now see the moggies comings and goings. Vick was chuffed.

Afternoon tea was sampled, but there wasn’t much available for Mrs Wheat-Free. So, we discussed going out for dinner when we reached Toronto.

As to whether that actually happens, I would be surprised. The Vickster is normally knackered and will want to hit the sack.

We landed shortly after 4pm and got our phones on to our Saily eSim, primarily to avoid paying Three’s shocking charges to make use of our UK allowance that we had already paid for!

So instead of paying £7 per day (x11), we paid just $7 for 3Gb over a 30 day period. That’s good value!

We arrived into Gate C33 and I made sure we were off through door 2L first. It was sunny and warm in Toronto – in the mid 20s. We were looking forward to getting to our air-conditioned hotel!

Follow the whole story here: Holiday to Canada in Aug 2024