I'm home, I'm broke and I'm back to reality. Sigh.
Best way to cure end of trip blues? Start planning the next one!!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Canada - En Route to Ottawa - It Ain't Over Til It's Over!
As I embarked on my ridiculous transit route home, I was filled with the excitement of going home, the disappointment that the trip was over and the terror that I would miss my connecting flights and my bags would be horribly lost (see Flight to LA, January 2009). I had heard very bad things about British Airways losing luggage, about Heathrow and O'Hare being the world's worst airports, and had had bad experiences with American Airlines rebooking connecting flights.
My travels home began pleasantly enough, with my bags (there are now TWO, the backpack and the duffel bag) weighing in at 34 kg combined, up 21 kg from my departure last January. I was delighted to learn that I could check my bags straight through from Vienna to Ottawa without having to move them to security or between terminals along the way. I did triple confirm that I wouldn't have to reclaim them in Heathrow, since I was handed an intimidating manual on how to change terminals there along with my boarding passes.
Heathrow itself was certainly massive and busy, but it was well organized and signs were posted intelligently to redirect passengers. Better yet, I managed to score the shortest security line by far to get into my next terminal (about thirty people shorter than the next shortest queue). And wandering around for my two hour layover was actually fairly entertaining. All the Christmas decor was up (there was nothing in Ethiopia; I had actually forgotten Christmas is coming) and it felt just like being on the set of Love Actually, minus Billy Mac's hilarious tune Christmas is All Around. Things were looking up.
And then the other shoe dropped. Having boarded our plane to Chicago completely on time, we then sat at our loading gate for 45 minutes while a minor traffic jam was addressed on the runway. Not a problem, thought I, since I have a four hour layover to kill in Chicago anyways. One less hour to wait at O'Hare, right?
Which would have been dandy, except about forty minutes into the air, the flight attendant goes on the intercom to ask if there are any medical staff on board. Turns out a passenger with a heart condition was having a tiny medical emergency in the back of the plane. We had to make an emergency landing in Shannon, Ireland to evacuate him to a hospital (don't worry; the paramedics got him under control and safely to the hospital). Thank goodness it hadn't happened midway over the Atlantic where there is nowhere to land!
Now, Shannon is only a domestic airport and it was off course for us, so it took no less than three hours to reroute our flight and landing time with Chicago, not to mention we were NOT ALLOWED OFF THE PLANE because they didn't have adequate security to process us. So we had our light lunch grounded on the runway and took off three hours later with the promise that the pilots would make every effort to make up the lost time. Unfortunately, since planes already go so fast, there's not a lot you can do to make up time. There isn't a network of shortcuts they save up for such occasions or anything. And there goes my connecting flight to Ottawa.
As I hurriedly enter O'Hare airport twelve hours later, I learn I now have a connecting flight at 9pm (a three hour layover still) with my dear friend United Airlines. The only downside of United is that it requires me to reclaim my bags, go through US immigration and customs and re-check them since they have to change airlines now and need new tags. Boooooo. At this point, I have been awake for 25 hours due to my 4am departure from Vienna and the seven time zones I had crossed. It tok every ounce of determination not to pass out at my gate before my flight, as I knew I would be OUT and therefore would likely sleep through the boarding call.
I did however pass right out as soon as I hit my seat on the plane and pleasantly awoke to find out the flight attendant was passing out Canada landing cards since we wer on our descent already. My immigration officer was incredibly nice and welcomed me home very genuinely and I cannot tell you how happy I was to see my parents waiting for me with my winter coat, my bags safely rounding the luggage carousel and the ground still clear of snow!
Home sweet home, indeed!!
My travels home began pleasantly enough, with my bags (there are now TWO, the backpack and the duffel bag) weighing in at 34 kg combined, up 21 kg from my departure last January. I was delighted to learn that I could check my bags straight through from Vienna to Ottawa without having to move them to security or between terminals along the way. I did triple confirm that I wouldn't have to reclaim them in Heathrow, since I was handed an intimidating manual on how to change terminals there along with my boarding passes.
Heathrow itself was certainly massive and busy, but it was well organized and signs were posted intelligently to redirect passengers. Better yet, I managed to score the shortest security line by far to get into my next terminal (about thirty people shorter than the next shortest queue). And wandering around for my two hour layover was actually fairly entertaining. All the Christmas decor was up (there was nothing in Ethiopia; I had actually forgotten Christmas is coming) and it felt just like being on the set of Love Actually, minus Billy Mac's hilarious tune Christmas is All Around. Things were looking up.
And then the other shoe dropped. Having boarded our plane to Chicago completely on time, we then sat at our loading gate for 45 minutes while a minor traffic jam was addressed on the runway. Not a problem, thought I, since I have a four hour layover to kill in Chicago anyways. One less hour to wait at O'Hare, right?
Which would have been dandy, except about forty minutes into the air, the flight attendant goes on the intercom to ask if there are any medical staff on board. Turns out a passenger with a heart condition was having a tiny medical emergency in the back of the plane. We had to make an emergency landing in Shannon, Ireland to evacuate him to a hospital (don't worry; the paramedics got him under control and safely to the hospital). Thank goodness it hadn't happened midway over the Atlantic where there is nowhere to land!
Now, Shannon is only a domestic airport and it was off course for us, so it took no less than three hours to reroute our flight and landing time with Chicago, not to mention we were NOT ALLOWED OFF THE PLANE because they didn't have adequate security to process us. So we had our light lunch grounded on the runway and took off three hours later with the promise that the pilots would make every effort to make up the lost time. Unfortunately, since planes already go so fast, there's not a lot you can do to make up time. There isn't a network of shortcuts they save up for such occasions or anything. And there goes my connecting flight to Ottawa.
As I hurriedly enter O'Hare airport twelve hours later, I learn I now have a connecting flight at 9pm (a three hour layover still) with my dear friend United Airlines. The only downside of United is that it requires me to reclaim my bags, go through US immigration and customs and re-check them since they have to change airlines now and need new tags. Boooooo. At this point, I have been awake for 25 hours due to my 4am departure from Vienna and the seven time zones I had crossed. It tok every ounce of determination not to pass out at my gate before my flight, as I knew I would be OUT and therefore would likely sleep through the boarding call.
I did however pass right out as soon as I hit my seat on the plane and pleasantly awoke to find out the flight attendant was passing out Canada landing cards since we wer on our descent already. My immigration officer was incredibly nice and welcomed me home very genuinely and I cannot tell you how happy I was to see my parents waiting for me with my winter coat, my bags safely rounding the luggage carousel and the ground still clear of snow!
Home sweet home, indeed!!
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