Thousands if not millions of people travel great distances every day. I have to assume that for the vast majority of them their trips are generally successful - else people would not travel in such numbers for less than critical reasons (I just meet a family who it appears had travelled from Sudbury to Tampa, Florida to see a football game). Given that - I am feeling a little bit persecuted by the gods of travel.
Yesterday morning my scheduled taxi that was suppose to pick me up at 8:30 to get me to the bus station by 8:45 was 10 minutes late; the bus that was suppose to pick me up at 9:05 to get me to Nanaimo airport was 25 minutes late. As I had scheduled a lot of extra time into my travel plans, the lateness of the taxi and the bus were not major issues, but did, I must confess, cause some anxiety.
The plane left on time and arrived at the Vancouver Airport at the right time. The Vancouver to Toronto plane left 30 or so minutes late because it had come in late from Hong Kong (that is what they said - for all I know they were all having an extra nap), and the plane had to be cleaned etc. Our flight was full and in spite of the fact that I had paid extra to get a seat that had a bit more leg room - it felt very cramped. I swear they have put in an extra row of seats. The person beside me was just a bit big and had very broad shoulders, the isle was so narrow that I don’t think a single person walked by me without brushing against me.
Because I was near the front I got to observe the first class passengers. It seemed to me that the overwhelming percentage of such travellers were men - I assume they were all business people. Which leads me to the obvious question: what is the annual flight bill for some of those companies and how much cheaper would things be if they had to fly economy? I bet there would be a lot less flying! It also seemed to me that they had a better selection of movies to watch. For example I noticed someone watching the new version of Ghostbusters…. I could not find it on my screen. On the other hand, I got to watch one of my favourite old movies “Harvey”.
The flight went by surprisingly quickly - maybe I napped and didn’t notice.
I got to Toronto, had enough time to go to the bathroom and to grab a sandwich. I was feeling pretty much in control and perhaps even a little bit cocky. As I walked by an Air Canada desk I noticed a large line up. I (unfortunately) paid no attention. I sat down in the right area and read for 30 minutes. I looked up and saw that my flight had been cancelled. Went back to that line up to find that the fog was so bad in Sudbury that planes were being turned around.
I hoped I would get a free hotel room - I didn’t - something about it was a weather related problem and therefore not Air Canada’s fault. It was hard to argue with that logic. I did get two $10.00 food vouchers.
I slept on a couch that was quite comfortable. Unfortunately it was right across from the security area and therefore was occasionally noisy. It was also very bright and American Express who had paid for the couch played the same 30 second commercial all night long. Something about how great their “Cloud 10” service is.
I was up by 5:00 - brushed my hair, beard and teeth and had my free breakfast at Tim Hortons. Ah the good life.
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