Wednesday, June 29, 2005

The Joy of Flying: Part II

What can I say? Friday's adventure was one of the more annoying trips I've ever taken, but Monday's trip came close. I had another early morning flight to take - 6:30am - and since I had to deal with Customs & Immigration, it's necessary to get to Pearson as early as possible. My goal was just before 5am, which means being up at 4am and in the car no later than 4:30. Sounds familiar doesn't it? No matter how you look at it - it's way too early! But for some reason, my instinct that morning was to turn on the computer to check my flight status. This is not something I normally do, but then considering what my instincts have told me before, I had to trust it. So with the whole house awake and getting ready for my too quick departure, I find out my flight is CANCELLED! And all I can think is 'Thanks for telling me.' If I hadn't thought to check online I would've been so upset. Instead, all I could do was laugh hysterically at the pain of it all. I get on the phone to see which flight they've put me on, then calmly explain to them that 2:30pm is not acceptable. I have things to do back home. Of course, the 8am flight is booked solid so the earliest return is 10am. Which means dealing with rush-hour traffic getting to the airport and a ton more people to deal with once I get there. My day has started off wonderfully!

So everyone heads back to bed for a little more sleep and we try it all again at 7am. Traffic is bad, construction doesn't help but we finally make it. I have about 2 hours until takeoff. Lots of time - or not! As soon as I walk into the terminal all I see is a wall of people. For the first time today I'm grateful for taking United - there's only 2 other people in line for them. Everyone else is taking Air Canada. Thousands of people that have to go through customs. It's a long, long wait so I put a smile on my face and think to myself that I've just bypassed a thousand people because I'm on United. It was the little things that made me happy that day. And it still takes over an hour to get through the line. Next is the security line. It's not as bad. I'm in one of the shorter lines. This won't take long at all - except I'm chosen to get my bag searched and the lucky recipient of a pat down. Oh goodie! I get an old lady to put her hands all over me. They could've at least had the cute guy do it, at least then it would've been exciting. I guess I shouldn't complain...it's the most action I've had in a while.

Can anything else happen at this point? I'm sure lots more could've gone wrong but luckily that was it. Until I got to O'Hare and had to pay $48 for parking...damn cabbie!

Posted by Maple :: 10:47 PM :: 0 Comments:

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