I just left Phoenix on Air Canada heading to Toronto. So far my experience with Air Canada has been a negative one. I booked my flight to Dublin with them due to price which was $733.00 round trip from Phoenix. Only drawback was the return trip would be 30 hours which for the price I can live with. About a week before the flight I get notification of a flight change. I was supposed to get back to Phoenix at around 10 PM, now I would not arrive until after midnight. My flight was supposed to leave Dublin at 9 AM and will not leave until Noon. I called the airline to see if there was something they could do to get me home earlier. Spoke to a representative who seemed friendly enough explained my situation and asked if there were any other flights. After a bit she said there were other flights however, they would all require a stay over in the connecting city.
I then asked if there were any upgrades available due to the inconvenience. She informed me that Air Canada does not offer upgrades for schedule changes. So that was that I said good bye and as I’m putting down the phone I hear her saying, she must have thought the phone has hung up, “Jesus Christ it’s a fucking schedule change what does he…” I call back and speak to another reprehensive and report what happened requesting to speak to a supervisor. “We don’t transfer to supervisors you’ll be put in a queue for one to call you back. It may take up to 48 hours. Do you wish to be put in a queue?” I respond affirmatively and we hang up. It takes about four times playing phone tag to speak to a supervisor. She apologizes that this happened and asked me some questions. She tell me she is going to have stern talk with the representative. Again I ask if there is an upgrade available due to the schedule change and representatives behavior. She tells me there is not upgrade available but, she will email me a code that will give in a discount on any flight and it will be good for a year. To date no promo code has shown up in my email. Needless to say I’ll think twice about ever using Air Canada again.
While standing on line to clear security a wheel chair with a woman and dog is brought into the line. The dog was one of those small yappy types and had made itself known long before they arrived. Everyone on line had strained their neck to see what was coming. The dog yapped incessantly while the woman cleared security, then all the way to the gate and guess who’s gate the woman ended up at? If you guessed mine you would be correct. I approached the desk and asked if I would have to listen to that all the way to Toronto? Three agents looked at each other smiled and gave me no answer. One shrugged his shoulders looking helpless as if they had never been in this situation before nor knew what to do. Another passenger said to me “they just gave it a tranquilizer so all should be well.” Strike two for Air Canada. I’ve not heard a yap since boarding. There is so little room between the seats that you cannot even open a magazine without reclining the seat back. Only three hours left till we land hopefully things will improve. I arrived in Toronto without incident at around 5 PM my flight to Dublin does not leave until 10 PM. Flight was O.K., a little rough, $6.00 for some kind of wrap, all in all your basic flight.
The airport has a very large section for charging you electronics along with free iPod use. I was able to access my Gmail account and let everyone know arrived safely. However, can to connect to the internet with phone or net book weird. Currently taking sometime to charge my computer and phone then off to get some dinner at what looks like some pretty upscale restaurants. I’m in the international terminal lots of high end shops to spend your money in. Lots of people dressed up for travel which I've not seen in a long time.
I first started going to England in 2006 and traveled alone and did so for the next two years. For the next three years my friend Mark and I traveled together for part of the time spent there. Two years ago I traveled with friend Lisa for almost the whole time I was over there. Last year Mark and I traveled together again and after he left I traveled with my daughter. This year I my daughter will meet me in July, but I’m traveling alone again and it seems weird. I realize that traveling with Mark took some of the stress off me in terms of decision making. This also happened with Lisa when we traveled Spain because she spoke Spanish and I did not. I found myself thinking I have no one this year to keep me on track. So it seems I’ve lost some of the confidence I had when I first traveled alone.
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