A dull moment is always welcome…..
On my way to Canada…..
Arrived at the airport for my flight to Toronto 2 hours
early except the flight did not arrive on time and was delayed for over an
hour. By the time it landed, its cargo door was jammed; disembarked passengers had
to wait by the gate to get their checked-in carry-on. Needless to say, I had already
missed my connecting flight from Toronto to Halifax even before my arrival at
Toronto. But I have to give Air Canada some credits, they already booked me on
the next flight to Halifax and handed me the new boarding pass shortly after I
stepped off the flight at Toronto. With the flight situation, I also missed the pre-arranged pick-up at the Halifax
Airport. Had to find my way from the airport to my hotel in the evening.
On my way back from Canada….
Got up at 2:30 am. Dragged myself and my luggage down to the
lobby by 3:45 am. Taxi driver picked me up at 3:55 am. Arrived at the Halifax Airport
by 4:25 am. Boarded the 5:30 am flight from Halifax to Toronto. Had almost 2
hours to spare for my connecting flight from Toronto to Nashville. The 8:50 am Toronto flight should bring me to
Nashville by 9:47 am local time which would have given me the whole day to do
whatever I need to do…..which was my plan. BUT….. as in most situations in
life, being flexible is a MUST.
As fate had it, even though I have done my part and done
everything correctly, somehow it was not ME who is in charge of my life,
circumstances beyond my control plays a HUGE part. The only thing I can control
is how I react, you can fight it, be bitter about it, laugh at it, or go with
the flow. Fate is like the weather, it pays no attention to YOU. It does its
own thing regardless of how YOU feel or want or wish.
Upon arrival at the Halifax terminal, all Air Canada
check-in kiosks were down, nothing was working. The AC personnel were not in
their best mood, not friendly like the folks I met during my journey but then I
understand, hey, we were all here at 4:30 AM. A grumpy AC guy told me to go to
another less-grumpy AC guy and the less-grumpy AC guy checked me in. It seemed
like he had the only working computer. He was standing at a stand-alone mobile
stand in the middle of all the down check-in kiosks. The boarding pass for my
Toronto to BNA showed seat GTE (Gate). I had no assigned seat and was told to
get seat assignment at the boarding gate upon arrival at Toronto. Assuming
their computer was down, I did not pay much attention. Upon arrival at Toronto,
I saw the check-in line to US was a mile-long due to the Air Canada down
computer system. Thank God I had 2 hours in between flights so I stood in line
only to hear an AC person calling for passengers from connecting flights to
follow her to the head of the line. Since we had already been checked-in from
our originating location, there was no need to stand in that long line again.
We followed her and headed straight to the US passport control. I got through
the maze of security checkpoints with no problem. After that I stopped by
random AC ticket counters along the way to gate F98, the very last gate at a
faraway terminal where my connecting flight to BNA was. Nobody was able to
issue me a new boarding pass with assigned seat, every counter told me to go
straight to the boarding gate (F98), only the gate agent @ F98 could issue a
new boarding pass because the flight was overbooked.
At the last AC counter I stopped along the way, a AC lady
with a kind face told me there was a chance I might not get on the flight
because it was overbooked and if so, she could book me into a nice hotel and
spend a day in Toronto to catch another flight tomorrow because the next flight
from Toronto to Nashville at 5:30 pm was also overbooked and that I would not
be able to get on it anyway. Not the most encouraging news but I thought
positive and told her I will get on this flight and confidently headed straight
to F98 to be the 1st in line for the next available seat. Upon my
arrival, F98 was being used by United to board their flight to Denver. The AC
gate agent did not arrive until 8:35 am to board the 8:50 am flight, she was
pushing it by time. The white hair old
lady did her job most efficiently. She boarded everybody with a boarding pass
(with seat assigned) and told the 7 of us with GTE on our boarding passes to
wait and not to worry, there were available seats. A guy in shorts and flip-flops apparently was
traveling to Nashville for some convention or on business because he was
talking to 3 other (2 men, 1 woman) behind me, a middle-eastern looking guy was
2nd in line, followed by some guy named Stahl rounded up at the very
end. The flip-flop guy said he heard the ticket agent back at the terminal ticket
counter said she counted 42 out of 50, so there should be 8 empty seats left to
fill the plane, even though the flight was overbooked. I was slightly
encouraged despite of the fact I felt otherwise, nevertheless, I was 1st
in the queue so I should get the 1st available seat on the flight. I
purchased the ticket back on 2/22/2015. I confirmed my flight 2 days ago. I showed
up on time, even the 1st in queue for seat assignment at F98. By all
accounts, I should get a seat on this flight.
When senior citizen processed my boarding pass, she said
“sorry, your name did not come up….next please”. I moved aside and let people
behind me check-in and one by one, they got their boarding passes. I stood next
to senior citizen looking at her computer screen, she typed in some code from
each boarding pass and the computer displayed a name and printed the boarding
pass, she was merely a user, an in-between to type in some code, if the name
came up on the screen, a boarding pass with seat assignment was printed. The
last guy, a young guy with no smile, named Stahl, got the last boarding pass,
the 50th passenger for the 50-seat flight and with that, senior
citizen closed the gate and I WAS THE ONLY ONE LEFT BEHIND WITH NO SEAT
assigned, standing in an empty terminal with gate F98 in front of me CLOSED. To
say I was frustrated was an understatement. Senior citizen told me to return to
the customer service station and that they already had alternative arrangements
for me. She apologized for my inconvenience but what good did it do.
Well, I returned to the kind face lady at the AC customer
service station, blessed her heart, she even paged me as I walked the long walk
back to her station from F98. She said “I told you, you might not get on that
flight, I was trying to prepare you for this outcome.” I told her I was
frustrated, why me, I bought the ticket back in February, it was not like I bought
it last night, obviously the seat assignment was NOT first come first serve,
though I told her there must be a reason, I just have to get over it and I was
trying to get over it but it sure was frustrating; basically, I got up at 2:45 am
for NOTHING, should have just stayed in Nova Scotia for the chilly weather and
forget about the hassle!!!
Had to give Air Canada some credits for being one-step-ahead.
By the time I arrived at her AC customer service counter, she already had my
alternate flight boarding passes ready. I was to fly from Toronto to Newark,
with an hour and 20 minutes in-between flights, I would then fly from Newark to
Nashville, even before the next AC flight from Toronto to Nashville
landed. She included a $10 meal voucher
for use at any restaurants inside the terminal, so I could have breakfast
before my 12:30 pm flight to Newark.
As I was having a breakfast sandwich while sitting at an
empty gate at Pearson, I looked at the package the AC customer service agent
gave me and in the letter it stated AC will compensate me their maximum
compensation $ for my inconvenience because instead of a 9:35 am arrival, I
will not arrive at my intended destination until 5:30pm. Compensation was
calculated based on the number of hours delayed. Obviously my delay had max-ed
out their maximum compensation!!!
Did not know this until I got on the flight from Toronto to
Newark that she also booked me in 1st class for my 55-minute flight
from Toronto to Newark. And this was the very 1st time I traveled 1st
class after having visited 47 countries. The AC flight to Newark departed the
gate on-time but was delayed for 20 minutes on the runaway due to traffic at
Newark and upon arrival, we were delayed some more at Newark before we got to a
gate, it shrink my connection time from 1:20 to under an hour. From Newark, I
had to go from one terminal to another and thus, had to go through security
check (take off shoes and all that…) but Thank God, the 3:27 pm flight from
Newark to BNA was delayed, I ended up having time to spare except in Newark,
each terminal is very small, confined to a circular structure; to walk around
the circular terminal takes less than a minute, hence, walking to exercise, as
opposed to long corridor like the Pearson terminal, was useless, plus the
Newark terminal was over-packed, it was so crowded, it was like a mini city of
its own.
As the gate agent scanned my Newark to BNA boarding pass,
the alarm sounded and declared my boarding pass invalid. The very nice and
well-spoken gate agent said the computer showed I did not have a valid seat on
the flight. Thank God again I did not throw anything away….. my arrival
terminal @ Newark was a JetBlue terminal so the TV only showed JetBlue
arrivals/departures. I went to a United ticket counter and asked for the
departure gate and they issued a new boarding pass for me and that was the
boarding pass I used to board the Newark to BNA flight. I immediately stuck my hand in my travel bag
and out came the original boarding pass, stapled with my flight interruption
coupon from AC. He explained without that flight interruption coupon, I would
not be allowed to board the plane even though the new boarding pass was issued
from an United ticket counter inside the Newark Airport….. and with that little
coupon, everything was all good from that point and on. Lesson learned…. DO NOT THROW AWAY any
boarding passes until you get home.
Finally got on the BNA flight, arrived at 5:30 pm, except my
luggage did not make the transfer from the Toronto flight to my Newark flight
but it was on the next inbound Newark flight some 40 minutes later (landed at
6:30 pm). BNA was crowded, people everywhere. There appeared to be some issue
with baggage handling this evening because the screen display of flight info did
not match the luggage tags on the belt, lots of confusion among
passengers. I thought my luggage was
lost but the United baggage claim guy told me it was on the next inbound Newark
flight and when that display above the baggage claim was replaced by another
flight info and the baggage gate came down and the light was turned off; I
returned to the United baggage claim guy; pony-tailed (very helpful pony-tailed
young guy) said the info was wrong, mismatched on the TV above the baggage
belt, the Newark flight’s luggage had not been unloaded yet, should be another
10 minutes; so my luggage was not lost after all and sure enough, say 20
minutes later. Anyhow, it was 7:30 pm when I left the airport….
Recap…..
- Flight delayed going to Canada
- Missed connecting flight to Halifax
- Missed pre-arranged airport pick-up, had to find my way in a new city at night.
- Computer down….. Had no seat on flight from Canada back home
- Being the only ONE not get picked to get on the flight (ticket purchased 4 months ago)
- Got to fly 1st class from Canada back to US (even though it was only 55 minutes)
- Connecting flight in US was delayed
- Almost did not get on the connecting flight due to INVALID boarding pass
- Luggage did not make it on the same flight
- Luggage belt TV screen showing flights that do not match the luggage tags on the belt
Oh well, despite of such mess, it was a great vacation, a
true vacation, no sense of emergency, laid-back, great scenery, perfect
weather/temperature, good food, good company, incredibly friendly and genuine
Arcadians. It was a great vacation indeed; minus the To and From.
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