Is Air Canada Bulkhead Seat worth an $80 upgrade

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I took a flight from Ottawa to Vancouver. I could see from the seating map that the flight was fully booked. I usually pay to book a window seat and then try and get a seat with no one beside me at the last minute it works 50% of the time and the planes that I have been on leaving from Ottawa are not usually full. This time was different the airport was busier than I have ever seen it. I could tell from the seating map the plane was full. It cost $40 to book a window seat. I saw a last minute opening for a bulkhead window seat and decided to try it. It cost $80 to upgrade to the bulkhead seat but the $40 I already paid would get credited. I liked the idea of having a wall in front of me on such a packed flight.  I have free check in luggage with my credit card so I usually only take a backpack to leave under my seat on the plane. If I was in the back of the plane I wait until the last minute to board. I knew I would have no storage at my seat but this seat comes with early zone 3 board

A road trip Ottawa to Quebec City Day 1




 My friend visited from Vancouver at the same time a friend from Ottawa was going to Montreal to celebrate her birthday and foodie buddy was also going to be in Ottawa. I will call the first friend to arrive Van-friend she is Korean and really wanted to go to Quebec City because there is a Korean drama filmed at the fairmont there. I learned French in Trois-Rivières thirty years ago and I always said I would go back one day. This trip took a lot of planning but of course things never go as planned it was still a great trip just wished we had more time in each city. When we were looking to rent a car we were having trouble getting one and no trains were running to Quebec City on a Thursday. We decided to book a flight from Ottawa to Quebec City meet my friend in Montreal the next day stay the night and drive back to Ottawa in the afternoon. 

Van friend flight came late on Wednesday night. I got her Korean food from Koreanmothermeals at Parkdale night market. She loved it. We stayed at the Business Inn for the night I have stayed there a few times before. I am not sure why but my room was majorly upgraded. 

You can see the room tour video on YouTube here 

The next morning we had an afternoon flight to Quebec City and breakfast was included. The breakfast was decent for vegan options. I only knew the granola was vegan because I saw the package they were using and I know that Costco bag they also had oat milk for coffee. 

After breakfast I asked for a late checkout and we decided to do some sightseeing in Ottawa. We didn’t have much time we explored downtown a little. 

We had coffee at Equator at the NAC. Then we went to the fairmont while we were getting ready to go checkout of the hotel we got the notification that our flight had been cancelled and new info was coming. We explored different options my friend had really wanted to rent a car but as we had trouble getting a car before I wasn’t into it. We thought about taking the bus as we had already purchased bus tickets for the next day to Montreal. We then got our new flight info we were rebooked to to through Toronto and not get to Quebec City until 10pm and that’s if everything went smooth. Flying was no longer feasible. We started to try and make the bus but the timeline was so tight we only had half an hour to get back to the hotel, checkout, and make the bus. I changed my mind in the middle of the rushing and agreed we should rent a car. I went to checkout of the hotel while my friend went to rent a car. We ended up getting a great car but since my friend was the one that got the car my credit card insurance did not cover it. If this  happens to you make sure the one who has the better insurance on their credit card is the one to pay for expenses. I filed for passenger compensation but Air Canada seems to use safety for everything so they are  exempt them from paying passenger compensation. We did get a full refund on our flight tickets. 

We left Ottawa after 1pm and it was a six hour drive to Quebec City. We did stop at Walmart in Quebec and spent some time there. We had packed for flying not driving so we got a few things for the trip, it was nice having a car. I got A&W for lunch. We were rushing to get to Quebec and were hoping to have dinner at a vegan restaurant. We were very lucky with weather and not hitting much traffic we got to Quebec City a little after 8. The comedy festival was on and we looked for parking for almost an hour every lot was full. We finally gave up and went to the hotel which wasn’t in the city. We were planning on going out again but we were so tired we decided to get up early and go sightsee before heading to Montreal. 

 

We were hungry so decided to Uber some food. I really wanted to have vegan poutine in Quebec. Most of the restaurants were closing I ordered from Chez Victor which isn’t fully vegan but they had a vegan buffalo tofu poutine. It was so good one of the best poutines I have ever had. friend had a vegan burger then we went to sleep.


The next day we got up early and checked out of the hotel and headed to the fairmont. It ended up being great because it wasn’t crowded early in the morning. We went to breakfast at the fairmont. We had buffet they did have a menu but my server was gone so fast I didn’t get a chance to ask about vegan options. There wasn’t much vegan on the buffet but I did get my money’s worth in Quebec strawberries and jam jars. They did bring me soy milk for coffee and cereal. 



After breakfast we went to sightsee in the area my friend and I separated as she wanted to hike up the giant hills and I didn’t. It seemed safe to walk around the area by myself. My friend went to some shops that I didn’t see and she ended up at a chocolate shop and got me vegan chocolate. The area near the water was beautiful wish we had more time to explore the area. Around 11 it started to get very busy and we needed to get to Montreal so we had to leave. You can see all the pictures I took on the Instagram Reel here Instagram Reel Quebec City 


We decided to stop in Trois-Rivière for Lewis cafe according to Google was vegan. When I was in Trois-Rivière 30 years ago I was vegetarian and remember it was pretty easy to find vegetarian options. It took us a bit of time to find it because it was also cafe Frida now. My non vegan friend asked for a coffee with milk not knowing vegan milk options. The staff stated they offer dairy now so it seems like this cafe has changed. 

I wanted to have a bagel in Montreal but we had so many plans i wasn’t sure if I would get one. I ordered a bagel with vegan cheese. It wasn’t what I was expecting. The cheese was like a nacho cheese sauce and it came with an apple salad. It took awhile to get the food and we were running out of time so took the bagel to eat in the car. I wish we had more time to sightsee will definitely be planning another trip. 


It is now almost October and we went on this trip in August so I am going to end this post here. I will post a part 2 for the Montreal trip. 

Thank you for reading. For more vegan food follow me on Instagram @LivingOttawaLocal and @VeganCanadianfinds
For scenery videos follow me on YouTube LivingOttawaLocal





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