Flight review: Air Canada SCL- EZE Preferred Seats.

Following a small orange juice at Starbucks, we boarded the bus which drove us to the isolated cargo sector of the airport where our plane was. We boarded immediately and were greeted by the new freshen-d up crew. While at my seat - 51E - I asked the flight attendant if I could move forward to Premium Economy or Preferred Seat to review their product. Unfortunately, their 28 Premium Economy seat were packed so she kindly offered me a free upgrade to preferred seat. My new seat being 18A was a window seat with an incredible view of the engine + wing. For those who don’t know, Air Canada Preferred Seats, are seats which you can upgrade for 30-50$. These seats come with a lot of legroom which is nice.

Next to the GE90, I had some great views. Waiting for the enormous Qantas 747 to take off, I took out the IFE and was quite disappointed. Starting by the fact that with the shades open you were not able to clearly see the screen's contents because it was badly angle and of course you were unable to adjust the angle which was a huge inconvenience. To fix the problem I closed the shades and tried to get as closed as I can to the IFE which made sitting a tad less comfortable. Half an hour after take off, we were serve a meal, once again I had the special meal.

The gluten free lunch was once again way too small and unfortunately this time I couldn't order the normal 6-7inch sandwich. The dry bread mixed with the corn and asparagus had just a bit of dry chicken. To heat the sandwich I had to constantly drink a sip of my 7up as it was way too dry overall to eat it. Luckily the flight wasn't so long so the small lunch wasn't a deal breaker but it was still significant especially as the food felt below their standard.

Following the small meal, I tested the IFE but a new issue came along. If I reclined the seat, I was unable to see properly the screen and meant I could only hear and not see my episode of The Big Bang Theory. I managed to recline slightly my seat while still being able to see my screen.

As you can see the IFE screen is awkwardly positioned, making it hard to watch TV while leaning back or with the shades open. Another issue worth noting is the tray table cup holder was placed near the top middle so you couldn't have your meal with your cup on the cup holder which was something constant across Air Canada's fleet. The issue with that is when flying through turbulent zones (like flying to South America) is in the case turbulence hits while you are eating, you are likely to have some of your beverage spilled on you.

Apart for those two issue the extra legroom was really beneficial and allowed me to have more than enough room to walk to the washroom without disturbing anyone.

Ignoring the tennis shoes, you can easily see how much space there was. There is more legroom here than in Premium economy. The one thing which would be even nice for Preferred Seat would be to include a small surface where you can lay your feet on so you can lay dow more and feel more in a bed.

Overall the flight was enjoyable especially with the extra legroom and if you have the opportunity to upgrade to a Preferred Seat I highly recommend it, just don't choose any seat in the A section as you'll find yourself stuck with a IFE screen which is in an awkward position.