There's a time to stress and let Air Canada do its job. As a Nova Scotia resident, I tend only to fly Air Canada or West Jet. The itinerary matters the most. I use Expedia to book my flights. Both are good with updating the APP, at least in my experience. A mechanical repair was done on the plane, which caused the problem. Errors on the side of safety are better than the alternative.
I travel knowing that connections and issues may arise, so I don't travel somewhere without being a day early. It's peace of mind. Going home, it's waiting for me, and I'll be there when I get home.
We had complications in Anchorage, Alaska, on September 15th in departing as our plane was delayed coming in from Seattle while bombarded our flight path and wrecked my entire literary going home to Nova Scotia.
Initially, I went from Anchorage to Vancouver, Vancouver to Montreal, and then Montreal to Halifax. A four-hour delay ruined my connections. I was watching people in front of me check-in, getting upset. I know from experience: Don't sweat it. There is always a way to get somewhere.
My new friend Julia, who I met during my trip to Alaska. We were travelling back together as we both lived in Nova Scotia. She's a non-stressed traveler.
This has happened to me in Barcelona on Air Canada Rouge, returning to Canada with a three-day delay in getting home. With a strong language barrier. Our emails went off a few hours after the passengers were ganging up on the gate agents, and we had our new itinerary and tickets automatically done. I expected the same this time.
Working in trucking logistics, I understand when the chain of command of a vehicle is interrupted. Being on the front line is absolutely dreadful.
Check-In
I asked at Check-in about the ruined connections, and they informed me. It would be taken care of in Vancouver. They issued $30 in food vouchers to spend at the airport.
Upon waiting at the gate with a four-hour delay, the couple behind us told us to call Air Canada and get our flight itinerary changed. I just agreed but had no intention of doing that. I remembered my issued in Barcelona, I was willing to bet Air Canada would change my flight path automatically.
Julia and I continued to crochet and just kept busy while waiting.
Without missing a beat, an hour after we were given advice, Air Canada emailed and pushed a notification that our flights were updated—the same path as the couple behind us. The only thing we had to do was to get our tickets re-printed.
I put faith in Air Canada doing its job.
In Vancouver
Air Canada had a gate agent just off the jetway for all connecting flights and asked us to stand aside. Without any drama, they did the following. It's 1:30 in the morning by the time we got there.
- We had new tickets, which we already had printed, but some passengers may not have had them.
- Additional $30 in food vouchers.
- Pre-paid Voucher for Sheraton Hotel with instructions to get our baggage and get a shuttle to the Sheraton that is waiting for us.
Our new tickets had us departing at 6 am. Having to be back at the airport at 4 am for check-in.
It didn't make sense for us to go to the pre-paid hotel as we only had 2.5 hours and had to be back at the airport anyway. We decided to wait it out.
A Tim Hortons was open at the airport. We sat and sipped coffee and had snacks before returning to the departure hall to recheck our luggage and start the trip fresh. I made a mistake at this part of our trip.
My Mistake
You need to check with your agent, but I removed my luggage tag because I thought I was rechecking it. All I had to do was put it back into circulation by dropping it off and going back through TSA. No one instructed me to do that but I know for next time. I didn't need to check-in with an agent. I wasted 30 minutes waiting to do that, and I didn't need to. Ensure you ask if your luggage tag still works if you have an interruption like this.
We did get home with our app updating us along the journey. We were never in the dark.
We got home about 6 hours after our initial time. It worked out. I was concerned I might be an extra day.
Both of us were exhausted but adding another 6 hours to our trip wasn't going to be a huge deal, we would have been tired as our initial flight was going to be flying over night.
I just crocheted myself all the way home. I made three crochet hats! We were up for more than 24 hours straight and completely done.
I don't let people tell me to boycott an airline or reviews like that to sway me. Many people don't put buffer time in their travels and may not have that luxury. When it's out of your hands, it's stressful but overall, the airline wants to get you where you need to go.
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