Dominican to Northern Ontario - Bad flight

So, after spending most of November in East Africa, and then spending a week in the Dominican for Jamie and Michelle's wedding it was time to head back to Northern Ontario for Christmas - where I was sure to find the weather less desirable.

Anyhow, my travel to "the Sault" was worse than any flight I had been on. We didn't end up in the Hudson river, and nobody was injured, so it certainly could have been much, much worse, but I felt it was a bad enough experience to lay it out here... I flew Delta to Toronto, and Air Canada to the Sault.

Apologies in advance for the length of this post. Grab a coffee or some tea :)

First of all, no reasonably priced flights from Seattle flew into Samana, so I flew into Santo Domingo which was a 3.5 hour taxi ride to where I would then take a ferry to get to Cayo Levantado - our resort. Now, I would need to do that trip in reverse to get back to the airport for my 5:45am flight - which meant I needed to leave at midnight (i.e. not bother go to sleep) in order to be there 2 hours ahead of time - short ferry, 3.5 hour drive, then check-in.

Getting to Santo Domingo (Saturday/Sunday)

At about 10pm Saturday night I was drinking Caipirinhas with my parents at the hotel, and checking my flight status - which showed it delayed out of Santo Domingo by 2 hours. I tried in vain to have my taxi postponed so I could get some sleep, but they were not able to push it off any later than 12:30am - meaning I needed to leave the island by midnight. Bummed about this I went up to my room about 10:30pm, and started packing. I decided I'd try and sleep from 11:00 to 11:50pm - which didn't really result in a great amount of rest.

I caught the ferry on time, and the taxi driver was waiting for me when I landed on the main island. I said hi, he said 'no hablo englais', so, looking on the bright side I thought I might get some sleep over the next 3.5 hours... I had forgotten how potholed the road was for the first two hours of that ride. At some point the road turns from potholed mud ridden bumpfest to actual pavement. At this point we were able to get up to speed. Just about the time I started to nod off the van came screeching to a halt from 50mph, coming within inches of hitting a set of cows crossing the highway. With a renewed paranoia of the road, and the three ridiculously well lit toll booths we had to cross in the last hour of the drive I was sure to get no sleep.

We got to the airport at about 3:45am. Faster than I had expected. I walked to the front desk where the attendant spoke very little English again (I was very sorry I hadn't continued to press on with my Spanish books-on-tape I had started a while back.) Anyhow, he was able to communicate that my flight was actually 4 hours delayed, that I would not make my connection in New York, and that he could not find a flight to move me to since New York had a huge snowstorm which delayed 500 flights, so I would have to figure out how I was getting to Ontario once I got to New York. I felt this was fine anyhow because I was having a very difficult time communicating with him, and I knew I'd be talking English to someone in New York.

So, I went to go through security - but security was closed since there were no flights heading out for a long time as a result of my flight getting delayed. Furthermore there were no seats anywhere nearby that weren't taken up by people sleeping on them... I decided to go sit against the wall to wait until security opened. Although the person working security told me it would only be another 5 mins, I waited about 45 mins before they would let me through.

It's now about 5am, and after going through security I found my way to my gate. It showed my flight boarding time as 9:45am, which is a long time to wait (almost 5 hours)... I noticed the gate was completely empty, just me there, so I laid down across 3 chairs, put my safari hat over my head, laid my arm on my carry-on, and tried to sleep. To no avail unfortunately. To make a long story short, the flight eventually left to NY a bit later than expected, but at least I was on my way...

New York (Sunday)

Immediately upon landing I rushed to the nearest Delta agent I could find to check the status of my flight. She told me that it was currently boarding, and there was no chance I could make it. My flight was originally scheduled to board at 12:15pm, and it was already past this time, so she told me she could get me onto the 8:30pm flight, but that my ticket was already gone for the 12:15.

I picked up my bags, and brought them through customs as fast as I could. Although I was almost sure my flight was gone I decided to make a run for it anyhow. When I got to Delta's gate 25 it was pandemonium. They were perpetually boarding 3 flights at the same time, and one of those flights that was boarding was my 12:15 flight even though we were now north of 2pm... The Delta agents at the desk were trying to deal with the mass delays, but were not staffed for it. I tried to get in line to see if I could somehow get my ticket back for the original flight I was on so that I could appropriately connect to my Toronto->SSM flight, but the receptionist was so flustered with just trying to keep people from rioting that she would not talk with me, and directed me to a line I needed to stand in that was 60 or so people long... Given my flight was "boarding" I knew standing in this line wasn't really going to help me... So, I first walked around to see if there was another gate anywhere nearby that was free where I could talk with a Delta agent, I didn't find one... I asked around, was pointed to the direct dial customer assistance phones. 3 of the 6 sitting by gate 25 were free, so I picked up the first. The person at the phone beside me indicated that the phone I was using was broken. I asked if the other two were as well, they said "yup"... I found out the one in the corner had a lose connection, so if I could hold the connection long enough I might be able to get pushed through in time to make my flight. The connection seemed to drop every minute or so, so I knew this wasn't going to work. I asked the folks on the phones that worked how long they had been on hold, and it seemed like nobody was getting through anyhow.

So, I went in the 60 person line. Waited for 10 mins, then was directed to another line which they were using to split up the larger line. I waited at this new line for 10 mins. After 10 mins the attendant left, and we were all directed back to the end of the original line we were waiting in... It was a mess. I knew I was going to miss my flight - I actually called Cheryl to see if she could get through online to see what was going on. To make this part of the story shorter, I didn't manage to get on the flight I was scheduled for, but I did buy 1984 to read, and that was basically what I planned to read until my 8:30pm flight.

Turns out that gate 25 was always perpetually boarding 3 flights. As I sat down I watched flight after flight get delayed 15 minutes at a time, for hours on end, flights went in and out of "boarding" status, people couldn't leave to go to the bathroom because they were paranoid and did not want to miss the call for their flight. Given the static in the announcement lines it was really hard to tell what was going on, so all three flights worth of people were crowding around the displays at the front desk, and it was just a disaster.

Eventually my flight time came up, and went... I thought maybe I missed an announcement, so now I too was going to start mulling around along with 3 other flights filled with upset passengers who had been delayed for hours... My flight changed from 8:30 to 8:45, to 9:15, to 9:45, to 10, to 10:45, to 11... I was giving up, but we eventually got on the flight just after 11... The good news is I had really gotten far into my 1984 book which was starting to get interesting.

Once on the flight the flight attendant notified us that she would be handing out drinks (water) in advance given we were expected to be in heavy turbulence for the entire length of the flight to Toronto. This was not good, and anyone who's talked to me about flying knows I'm more sensitive to turbulence than I probably should be... At this time she also determined that there were three open seats, and called in to have them filled.

Meanwhile I was thinking I would try and get some sleep. I was seated in row 13B, which is the far back row, right next to the toilets. First of all, the seats do not recline, and I really have a hard time sleeping on planes to begin with. Second of all, since our flight was perpetually boarding for over 3 hours, everyone on the flight had to go to the bathroom - every time the door opened it hit me in the shoulder, and there was a perpetual stream of people both large and small jabbing me as they tried to get through to the toilet.

I already thought this was comical, but it got better.

One of the three people that came on was given my seat number... They said "excuse me, but I think you're in my seat"... I double checked my ticket which was clearly printed 13B, theirs was written in hand writing, and at this point it was going to take a fork lift to get me out of my seat anyhow, I'd say printed beats handwriting like rock beats scissors. After a lot of hubbub, the attendants realized they had made a mistake, and let one extra person on. The problem was, his wife actually had one of the other seats, so they sat and argued about whether or not one of them should fly, or if they should both wait out the next plane (which, at this point was likely to be tomorrow morning given the captains latest comments).

This back-and-forth went on for a while, but eventually we were on our way. The captain announced "Message from the flight deck, we are 5th in line for take-off", he announced when we were 3rd, 2nd, 1st... At this point I was starting to relax, and thinking I would get a bit of sleep before we hit turbulence. But then "Message from the flight deck. We have just been informed that our flight attendant has timed out, so we have to go back to the terminal"... Needless to say, this didn't go over well with anyone on-board. I mean... Really, in the last 10 seconds before flying she timed out? Couldn't we have saved 10 seconds of time somewhere in the past 4 hours of delay?

The captain had made '8 calls' into the terminal to try to find another flight attendant at midnight... In about 30 mins they had managed to find someone whose flight to Dallas was canceled, he boarded, and we started the process again. "Message from the flight deck. Sorry to have to tell you this, but it appears the grounds crew has gone in for the night, and legally we need someone to be outside before we can turn the engines back on"... Ok, this was starting to get silly. After the captain made a few calls to the terminal they were able to find a person to get us out - but, by that time we had idled long enough that we needed gas "Message from the flight deck. We are looking to find a fuel truck, but they seem to be all out for the night, I'm sorry, but if we can't get out of the gate soon we will have to unload and try again tomorrow"...

Eventually they found the gas truck, filled up, we had an attendant, and we also had a grounds crew person to lead us out... "Message from the flight deck, not sure if you guys have ever watched the twilight zone, but dooo dee dooo doo.... We are 5th in line for takeoff..." Ah, here we go again.

The good thing was that magically our flight took one hour instead of two somehow - big tail wind I suppose. So we left around 1am, and got into Toronto just after 2...

Toronto (Monday)

In Toronto I also had to go through customs again. The problem was, the carousel where you put your bags after going through customs was now shut down. I asked the attendants what I needed to do, and they said I had to exit and after going to terminal 1 I would need to go back through security... I asked them if there was someone over there at this time of night, and they said "I don't see why not, you should be able to get in"... So I was off.

After getting the bus to terminal 1 I found that I was the only one on the 'connections' level except for some of the cleaning staff. It was now 2:30 or 3, and I called Cheryl to see if she'd ever heard of this before... It was only midnight Seattle time, so she was still awake luckily. The only thing I could do was go up to "Departures", and see if anyone could help me up there.

Departures was a disaster as well. Apparently Toronto had canceled 400 flights the day before, so it was in a similar state to the NY airport. When I got to departures there was a line about 500 people long, some sleeping, some playing guitar, uno, solitare, etc... most looking pretty upset. I couldn't possibly imagine that would be the line I should be in... I mean, I was just in security already, so I should probably just have to drop my bags and go back in - right? I noticed this line started at the ticket purchase line - which didn't seem logical to me. The check-in departures line seemed a lot shorter. After talking with the 10 or so people in that line I decided they were all in the same boat as me (got in too late for the carousel, and were transferring to a domestic flight), so I got in that line, kept reading some of 1984, and even laid down on the floor to try and catch a few zzz's before the flight attendants opened shop (which we were told would be at 4am - it was now about 3:15, so that's not too long to wait). Almost immediately an argument broke out as some folks from the larger line were in a heated exchange with the first few folks in my line - "Hey, we were told we had to go wait in this long line, we've been there for hours, and you shouldn't be there" vs. "Ok, we'll wait for this line to open up and see what happens"... I decided I would just lay on the floor rather than become a part of this argument.

At 4am a flight attendant came to the desk, so everyone got up and started getting their things together. "Sorry, I'm just grabbing some stuff, we open at 4:30"... Ah crap, another 30 mins on this floor.

At 4:30am 3 flight attendants came up to the desks, huddled for about 5 mins - talking about their strategy for dealing with this many people one can only assume. Then they came back and told everybody, the short line, and the long line, that they were in the wrong line, and in reality they needed to go downstairs.

This was where things got nasty. The end of the 500+ person line was in a particularly good spot to become the front of the downstairs line - you can imagine how civil the next few minutes were. Everyone was racing at once to lead this new line. I was a zombie by this time, so I just followed the crowd while everyone ran downstairs and eventually passionate walking and running turned into passionate looking, and confusion. There was no obvious line to form here... Some kept looking, others went upstairs for clarification - I was one of those later folks. Apparently by "Downstairs" they meant "two floors down"... Great - A+ all around Air Canada. Blah.

By the time myself (and hundreds of others around me) found the line it was massive - at the front there was an empty desk unlike the now empty line upstairs, this line does not open until 5am, then a set of the typical switchbacks that define about how far the line should really never surpass, then a line of hundreds of upset people about 3 or 4 across stretching half a kilometer.

It was now about 4:45am. From this line I could clearly see the rental cars. The line I was in was well over a 3 hour line, and the flight I was trying to get on was leaving at about 8am, so the physics of the situation were not in my favor. To make things worse, the lines to customer assistance were blocked and essentially useless.

At this point I decided that the rental car was a better alternative to waiting in this crap line, and that I would go explore other options rather than wait like a sheep in this line. Now, at this point I would like to say that the rental car would most definitely NOT have been a better option - it's about a 7 or 8 hour drive from the Toronto airport to Sault Ste. Marie, and the roads are often not good this time of year - since I hadn't really slept since Friday night... taking a rental car would have been a death wish. But, I was not thinking straight.

So, I stormed out of line, and went upstairs where the 3 attendants were tending to an empty line - they had successfully told everyone they had to have a numbered seat on their card to be in this line - which nobody waiting all night had of course. I walk right up to the desk since there was nobody in line, and a lady stops me just before I get to the desk .."Do you have a numbered ticket?" - To which I say "yes"... She looks at me a bit surprised and says "Ok"... I walk up to the attendant, who asks me for my boarding pass - She says "You have a numbered seat correct?" This is where I start making stuff up. "Yes, I do, the delta agent insisted I had one, but couldn't print off the card. Can you tell me what my seat is?" - "Certainly".. She takes my info, and looks up on the computer - Ah, you've been put on the Tuesday flight... Great.. more than another day of sitting around in the airport.

I asked if they would put me up in a hotel, the answer was no. I told them that it was unacceptable, and that I would then cancel my flight, take a rental car, and bill Air Canada for it. At which point she said "Well, I think I can get you on the 10:30pm tonight" - Keep in mind it's 5am, and this is over 17 hours away at this point... I agreed to it, and asked if I could check my bags. "No, it is our policy that you cannot check your bags if you're not within 4 hours of your departure time". This seemed odd to me. I mentioned that the only reason my bags weren't checked already was because I got in so late last night the carousel at customs was closed - but that didn't help. She said I had to pay to have my bags stored if I didn't want to drag them around for the next 15 hours - so I did.

At this point I didn't want to pay for a hotel for two reasons. One was on principal, and the other was because I thought I could get on an earlier flight if I kept trying. Since I didn't want to sleep on the floor I decided it would be a good idea to go into downtown Toronto.

Downtown Toronto

I found out the TTC now has a bus line that reaches from Kipling station to the airport which is awesome. That means it's only a couple of dollars to go from downtown to the airport.

I got on the bus after paying to have my bags stowed. Unfortunately I left my mitts and toque in my bags, and it was freezing cold at 5:30 in the morning. I got to Kipling, and then tried to determine where to go downtown Toronto. As you can tell I wasn't thinking that straight at this point in time. I soon realized that there probably wouldn't be many consumer oriented stores open at 6am. I was pretty confident there would at least be shelter at the Yorkdale Mall, so that is where I decided to head. I was in the subway with the early commuters, and I was very excited to find out that Tim Horton's was open at the Yorkdale Mall.

I went to the Tim Horton's desk, and asked for a large coffee. I sat down, drank the coffee while continuing to read my 1984 book which was really starting to get interesting. In the background, the local radio was playing. I heard something like "Wow, we're here at Yorkdale Mall where Sears, and The Bay are having their crazy 24 hour sale!!" - Which essentially meant there were shops open for me to peruse in my daze. I went through Yorkdale to find those shops. Everything else was closed, but I did manage to get some Christmas shopping done at Sears. By the time other shops had started to open I sent a few text messages to Steve (my brother) who told me mom was on the 4:10 flight to SSM. I forgot to mention this, but mom/dad were leaving the Dominican a day later than myself, so to see they were going to get in ahead of me felt wrong. I also felt that I might be able to convince a flight attendant to let me on the same flight as my parents - sob story etc... So, at about noon I decided to head back to the airport.

Pearson's International (again)

I came back into the airport, and decided to see how the line was doing downstairs. The people who were in front of me before I stormed out of line were now not even to the switchbacks denoting what usually would be a long line there. They looked pretty upset too.

I walked back upstairs where there were 3 tellers, and a line about two people long. Got back in that line to the same harsh question "Do you have a numbered seat?" Which I did at this point. I went to the desk to plead my case to get on my parent's flight. They said there was a 22 person waiting list (it's only a 50 person flight, so this was not good). I was bummed out. I asked if I could check in my bags - to which they said "sure"... I wasn't sure why now the "4 hour policy" was not in place, but I went back to bag storage, paid them, and then re-checked my bag. It is absolutely dumb I had to pay for storage to begin with, but I'm too tired to argue at this point.

I get through security, and head directly to the Air Canada desk where I plead my case again. The lady there was really nice. She found out that my parents were actually on the 6:10pm flight, and she thought she could get me on it. Now, why couldn't I have gotten on that one rather than the 10:30pm? Nobody knows, and again, I was too tired to really argue that at this point. She said that she would go look for my bag, re-tag it, and that she would call me back when she had a confirmation I was on the earlier flight.

I went to grab a drink, and in 20 mins got the call to go back to the front desk. The guy behind me in line was openly complaining about what a mess his flight was, that he was three hours late, and that he couldn't believe what a pain this was. After I told him I had been traveling without sleep since essentially Friday night he stopped.

So, I was on the 6:10 flight. Sweet, now I decided I would try and find out what gate my parents were coming in on, and when. This... is where I started to both see and hear things.

Yup, I was starting to hallucinate.

Suddenly I started recognizing a bunch of folks that were in the Dominican with us. I heard Jamie right behind me - it was someone else, I saw Chris and Pat Kirby, though when I walked up to "them" they looked nothing like them. Then I heard mom calling my name, looked back and saw/heard nothing. Eventually I saw who I thought were my parents coming down the escalator, I got my stuff together to go meet them, and when I got about 20 feet away noticed they looked nothing like my parents (this happened multiple times). I even started seeing folks who I hadn't seen since High School. It didn't take long before I just stopped trusting what I was seeing. At this point I hadn't slept Saturday or Sunday night, I'd been racing around airport after airport, and it was pretty late Monday already.

It got bad enough that I saw someone that I swore was my dad. He had the same mannerisms, wore similar clothes, had a similar watch, and the same glasses. The one thing strange about it was his hair was a big longer than I would have expected. I thought - well, we've been swimming the past week, so maybe the fact that his hair was almost always wet when he didn't have his hat on hid its length... So, I walked right up to this person. I didn't introduce myself - because again, I didn't trust what I was seeing - but I stood there with the logic that if it was my dad he would recognize me. I was less than 10 feet away at this point - probably more like 5 feet. That's when I saw this person pull out a philosophy book - at which point I was certain it was not dad.

Not too long after that dad/mom/pat started coming down the escalator. I walked slowly towards them, they recognized me, and all was well. They thought I would have been in the Sault for a whole day, so were very surprised to see me. "Aaron! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you have been home a day and a half ago??"... "Ask me about my flight" I said.

Mom/Dad bought me a drink, and we reminisced on the week after I sat them through this tour de force you're now undoubtedly sick of :)

When it came time for our flight to board, a delay was posted - Here we go again! Luckily the delay was only a half hour, and we actually did end up boarding. Better news was the aircraft was swapped to a jet from the prop plane it was supposed to be originally, so the flight took under an hour. The bad thing about that was there was really no time to sleep since we essentially started descending as soon as we hit elevation.

Sault Ste. Marie (Monday)

We got in shortly after 8pm, and went home. I didn't immediately go to sleep, I sat around talking to Nathan, Michael, Steve, Adam, dad/mom etc... I went to sleep at around 11pm. Not having slept Sat/Sun, I thought I would crash as soon as my head hit the pillow, but, my eyes were so sore, and my eyelids kept fluttering violently. This made sleep difficult. Eventually I did nod off, and woke up about 8 hours later.

Things were much better after that :)