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| Dave and Z in Toronto. How we got there is a long story. |
As always, our trip begins with an unexpected
adventure. We had an inkling that this
might be coming when Z’s mom called in the middle of the week before our
flight, full of curiosity about how the flooding in Calgary was going to affect
our travel plans. Z led me to believe
that her phone call was filled with somewhat more urgency about her “curiosity”
than the word would lead one to believe.
I believe the word “panic” was used in her description of the
conversation more than a few times.
Regardless, frequent internet checks of Air Canada’s web
site on my part continued to show green on flights into and our of Calgary,
although you may have troubles driving to the airport. Not a problem we reasoned, we were flying
in. I, therefore, returned to doing
something much more important – playing with my grandkids.
Meanwhile in the background, the Drums of Doom began to
beat.
CNN News report: Calgary flooding will crest at noon on
Monday (that would be at the day and time we were supposed to fly through
Calgary). Back I go for a quick internet
check. Air Canada still shows
green! No worries!
Z, in total paranoia mode: “Have you checked the internet
lately?” She actually did this several
times. Back to the computer for another
green report from Air Canada.
You have to understand that in our household, I take these
events seriously. These things are not
“Acts of God.” In Z’s opinion these
events are all my fault. See last year’s
debacle with our baggage as proof (June of last year).
So on June 24th, when all was clear and the
lights were green at Air Canada, I breathed a sigh of relief and thought all
was well in my world.
And the beat of the Drums of Doom got louder…
We went out and ran a few errands. Had a quick brunch with Kyra, Nico and the
grandkids, and, following tearful goodbyes, were ferried to the airport.
We had probably our easiest time ever, breezing through
check-ins and security vetting and the like as seasoned pros. We arrived at our nearly empty gate early,
which as it turns out was a good thing.
For this was when the Drums of Doom got so loud even we could hear them.
In recent years I have begun to check boarding gate numbers
while we are waiting. All too often they
have changed to another gate nearby, and it is useful to know this early. This is where I overheard a gentlemen talking
with the Gate Overlord – or whatever
they call them – from United about the text he had just received from Air
Canada that “all flights to and from Calgary had been canceled.” Said Gate Overlord informed us to call Air
Canada directly, as the nice United folks couldn’t access the Air Canada
booking computer.
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| Air Canada - the greatest airline ever! |
A quick phone call later – OK, 10 minutes on hold and a 15
minute phone call later – and we were completely rebooked. Pity the poor souls who found out about this
later and were on hold for as long as 45 minutes. Our new route took us from PDX to Vancouver,
Canada (Eh?) with a long enough layover for a leisurely dinner. From Vancouver we would take a red-eye to
Toronto, where we were faced with a fifteen hour layover. To make it up to us, the nice Air Canada man
threw in a “Day Room” to hang out in. By
the way, did he mention that “we can make a positive out of a negative here? Did you know that Niagara Falls is a short
car trip away?” Yes he did. Repeatedly.
Finally we would travel on to Frankfurt on another red-eye flight to
Frankfurt, a day later than planned.
All of this, of course, necessitated a trip back out to the
front counter for a “do over” of our check-in, security vetting, etc… Needless to say, the nice folks at United
that ran Air Canada’s desk had no clue about any of the new arrangements. Fortunately, we had new flight numbers and
were quickly – OK, 45 minutes later while they unburied themselves from the
chaos this all caused – on our way.
These things bring out the best and the worst in people. Z and I have now been through enough of them
together that we start getting the giggles and teasing each other – Niagara
Falls getting a lot of play this trip.
This tends to lower our stress level and make us a lot of new friends,
for example, Meg from London who was standing next to us while they unraveled
our flight information. She was on her
way back after a couple of week vacation for job interviews in cartography, and
was hoping she would have time for a shower before she went. We wished her luck, and if her travels went
as smoothly as ours, she should have been OK.
The United agents were great through this unexpected
disruption to their workday – even-tempered and good-humored about it all. Even in the face of the “gentleman” Z quickly
dubbed “Mr. Grouchy-Pants.”
*****
Dear Mr. Grouchy-Pants,
The nice ladies behind the counter do not control the
weather. Nor do they work for the
airline you are intending to fly. What’s
more, they are just a bit overwhelmed at the moment with all the other people
in the same boat as you. We’ve all got
the same problem. Chill out. They will get you there. They are not going to abandon you at
PDX. Although we can hope.
Thanks Awfully,
*****
The agents in question are Amy and Shelley – and they are
wonderful. United, give them a
raise. They let the negative roll off of
them while entertaining us with commentary about being on hold.
An aside here – Amy had the singular greatest pin I have
ever seen. It was an oval metal pin,
printed in blocky corporate travel type – obviously provided by and expected to
be worn by the airline. The text: “Ever
been to Phuket, Thailand?”
A second security vetting and we were back at the same gate
we started this all with. No biggy. After giving up my horns to ride under the
plane (yikes!), we were on our way to Vancouver. I amused myself (childishly, I admit) on the
short flight by writing “eh?” after every incidence of the word Canada. Hey, it was something to do.
In Vancouver we followed directions and cleared Canadian
customs into the International Flight area.
Things having finally settled down, we had time for a bad airport meal,
so we enjoyed one. I didn’t know it was
possible to screw up tomato soup, but Hourton’s managed to do so. Z said her “Chinese Food” was not much
better.
We took a walk after dinner and looked over the flight
boards, as we didn’t have a gate number on our boarding pass for the next
leg. Strangely, none of the posted
flights seemed to be going to Toronto. A
quest to find an information booth to solve this dilemma eventually led to our
meeting “Irish Peter,” a chipper and helpful gentleman, who then introduced us
to Alex, the Lead Concierge at Vancouver Airport. After listening to our tale of woe, Alex led
us through the airport, opening magic elevators and down empty hallways –
always with a smile and the reassurance “don’t worry, I’m staying with you
until everything is right and you are where you are supposed to be.”
A few words about the airline employees we met on this day are
prudent at this point in our journey.
This has been an amazingly stressful day for them so far. Chaos reigns everywhere, and nothing is going
according to plan. Yet, everywhere we
go, whomever we meet, they are friendly, courteous, and in good spirits. On a day where it was probably the last thing
on their mind, they took the time to make us feel comfortable and cared
for. Props are offered to the employees
of United and Air Canada indeed!
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| Working on the blog - The book is green and yellow this year! |
Alex eventually got us straightened out and to the nice man
at Baggage Claim – you guessed it, bags lost again – who quickly filled out the
correct forms and got them in our hands, reassured us that in all likelihood
our bags would catch up with us in Toronto due to the length of our layover,
and directed us to the security vetting for our next flight; number 3 for the
day.
I should mention in passing that every one of these security
vetting has cost us a $2.50 bottle of water or soda. I get the security thing but: do we really
need to have 5 security vettings on three legs of a flight? And, more importantly, I can get the same
bottle of water at my local Safeway for less than a dollar. As we are no longer allowed to bring liquids
through security, you and I both know there is now a huge captive market on the
other side. To mark up soda and water
this much is Highway Robbery and my Congress Folks should be looking into
this. Just sayin’
Security vetting number 3 lead to our first “downer moment”
on our trip. It seems there is metal in
my splint/cast thing. In the course of
taking it off for the police dude, I bent my wrist incorrectly, leading to an
excruciatingly painful moment. This is
why they make Advil. And expletives. But “made it aboard” we eventually did, and
off to Toronto we did go.
Our “Red Eye” flight got us in Toronto at around 6:00 in the
morning and off to meet more nice Air Canada (or Air Canadia, as Z calls them)
folks. A short stop at the customer
service counter found our evening flights reconfirmed, a new trace put out for
our missing bags, and a voucher for our Day Room – they even threw in vouchers
for breakfast and lunch!
Day Rooms used to be common in travel, back in the days of
multi-day trips with many layovers.
Today, they have mostly fallen by the wayside of corporate travel and
big business cost cutting. Our Air
Canada folks looked at each other, one telling the other “you are going to have
to beg the hotel for it.” What you end
up with is a clubhouse to hang out in, garb a shower and a cuppa, and most
importantly, a nap between legs.
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| The Congress Center in Toronto - about all we saw of Niagara Falls! |
A tip we have learned on several of these adventures and
pass on for your consideration. We were
particularly delighted to get vouchers for both breakfast and lunch. While those vouchers will get you a full meal
at the airport, not so much at the hotel.
If you want both meals, then, eat them before you leave and after you
come back. Our $17.00 CDN would seem to
be plenty for breakfast to buy a nice, sit down breakfast at the hotel– all we
cared for. Z had eggs and bacon, I had
cereal and some fruit, and we still ended up kicking in $8.00 CDN out of
pocket, plus gratuity, of course.
We hated to disappoint our Air Canada travel scheduler guy,
but we passed on Niagara Falls to catch a nap and shower – maybe next trip –
and were back early to grab some lunch at Toronto Airport before the next
leg. The cool thing here is that all of
the restaurants in the concourse have you order off of I-Pads. After you order, you are free to surf the web
while you wait for your meal and flight.
I caught up on the Duck’s Football woes while enjoying a “Detox Salad”
of greens, sweet potato, seasoned tofu and dried cranberries. Z opted for coffee and a gluten-free
brownie. I’m not sure what she looked at
on her I-Pad, but I would bet Facebook.
I think we both walked away happy – I know I did.
*****
My favorite thing to do on international flights is watch “Airplane
TV,” the map thing they give you so that you know where you are in your
journey. It is insightful into what is deemed
important to the mapmakers. Of course,
there is also hours of fun to be had looking at place names: Grimsby, Uxbridge,
Gananoque, Magog, Antogonish. Do they
make cleaners in Ajax? Does everyone in
Tweed wear tweed? Argyle in Argyle? Does everyone have cancer in Asbestos? I assume very small people live in
Dalhouse. Don’t forget to take a gander
at Gander. Then there is the ever
popular Godthab – what does it mean? You
know it is important in that you can see it on the big map for almost the
entire journey.
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| The "end of journey" traditional palinka and bundt cake! |
*****
We were picked up, a day late, at Frankfurt Airport by Peter
and Valentin, the gentleman Peter and Vera rent an apartment from in Germany,
and were whisked off to Niedernhall.
Awaiting us was the traditional palinka and Bundt cake. Let the vacation begin!
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