I've worked as a ramp crew member for Air Canada Jazz at YXJ, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect with this flight. Certain parts surprised me however.

Online check - in was done several hours before so there were no hold ups at the counter. All of the ticket agents knew me, so of course were very friendly as always! Ramp crew, of course the best. No laziness there; I can assure that.

I boarded flight 8186, serviced by a Bombardier CRJ 200. I was expecting a terrible ride back to Vancouver, but I stayed optimistic, which I was glad I did.

It was not a full flight so I ended up being the only passenger in row 5. My seat was surprisingly comfortable, keeping in mind that I'm shorter then average (5;5') A taller person wouldn't be so comfortable. As I've read before, the windows are in fact too low, requiring a bit of a slouch to look out of them. Now the big thing to remember is, I had a whole row to myself. I lowered my armrest just to see, and found that it would have been a tight squeeze if there was someone seated beside me- even more so if I were a large person.

The flight attendant sounded as though he was fairly new on the job, as he stumbled a bit on the intercom, but otherwise was very nice.

The plane took off on time and I was very pleasantly surprised on how quiet the plane was in flight. Working around this plane, I know it to be very noisy, but the brunt of the noise comes from the Auxiliary Power Unit (the most poorly manufactured piece of equipment ever) which is shut down after engine start up. Overall a very speedy, smooth ride resulting in an on time landing at YVR.

We taxied to Pier B, where the captain had to wait a considerable amount of time for an Airbus A319 push-back, before we could park. Just before the final turn onto the parking line, I watched as the ramp goofs finally notice that they had work to do, get up from their slumber and stumble around very slowly to pick up some wands to marshall the plane in. I guess all that I've heard about the AC crew in Vancouver was correct.

Overall a good value for a very timely flight.