Travel day from hell!

---

This is not my typical travel blog entry but I feel it's justified because it involves travel. I was scheduled to fly out to Vancouver from Edmonton tonight. I was somewhat concerned because all Air Canada (AC) inbound flights to Vancouver from Alberta were cancelled yesterday due to weather conditions. However, I remained optimistic as I had already checked in online last night and according to several sources - AC website, Edmonton & Vancouver airport departure/arrival information, my flight was only delayed, not cancelled.

When I got to the airport I tried to use one of those self-serve check-in kiosks to print out my boarding pass. Much to my dismay it told me that it couldn't check me in and I had to see an agent. No agent was to be found and a quick glance at the departure info showed that my flight had been cancelled! A few choice words came to mind but I'll save them for another time.

I didn't know what to do so I lined up at the Ticket Purchase counter, hoping to get an explanation and perhaps an alternate travel plan to get to Vancouver. While waiting in line I found many more travellers in the same situation, including a group travelling to Australia via Vancouver and two people flying to Toronto. At that point the rumor was that AC was anticipating bad weather in Vancouver, but many quick phone calls to Vancouver showed that was clearly NOT the case. The Toronto flight was cancelled because AC could not find enough flight attendants to meet Transport Canada regulations. What followed was a discussion on how flight attendants are only glorified servers. I tend to disagree because they also need to know first aid and maybe CPR, which everyone should know anyway. The group travelling to Australia contemplated renting a car and driving to Vancouver, which is pretty dangerous at this time of the year, especially at night, but apparently AC would reimburse the cost of the rental - if they make it there in one piece.

When it was my turn at the ticket counter, I was going to let it rip but instead I kept my composure and asked politely why the flight was cancelled. The agent was actually nice and said that according to his computer, it was “weather and operations related”. To me this meant AC didn’t know what the heck they were doing because Westjet was getting flights out to Vancouver, albeit somewhat delayed. The earliest next available flight was going to be on Dec 29, a full four days later but thankfully I did not have any checked luggage and the flight scheduled to depart at 18:30 that night was delayed until 21:30. The agent got me on standby on that flight and told me to run since I only had 10 mins. I thought things are finally looking up but after I got through the metal detector a security personnel flagged me down and told me that I had been selected for a random pat-down! I told him that my flight was boarding and that I would miss the flight. He said I wouldn’t miss my flight and proceeded with his security check. Whatever happened to common sense?!?!? I wasn’t about to argue because I might be sent into a room for a full-cavity search.

Anyway, I got on the flight but I felt sorry for so many other travellers who weren’t able to make it to their destinations tonight or the next few days. When I flew into Vancouver there was hardly any snow on the ground at the airport. There was, however, a large number of suitcases that arrived from Edmonton without their owners. They’ll likely sit there for a few more days…

So now that I have insulted Air Canada, flight attendants and airport security, I think it's time to sum up what I learned today:

1. There are individuals at Air Canada who are capable and take pride in their work, but I can't say the same about the organization as a whole
2. ALWAYS travel LIGHT!
3. Courtesy and composure can go a long way in difficult situations
4. I will fly with WestJet next time
5. Air Canada sucks! Oh wait, I made that point several times already!

---

Photos

What I got from AC
I should have purchased "On My Way" and get stuck anyway!

De-icing
Off to Vancouver, finally!

Vancouver airport
Bags are here sans owners

YVR airport
You call this snow?!?