Air Canada: Drama in the Air

It's been a long time since posting here, due to busyness of course.  Will eventually get this blog going again with more updates.

The Christmas week was an enjoyable time visiting friends and family in Vancouver were I'm originally from. More on that in another post.

But getting back to Shanghai was quite the story.

The airline was Air Canada.  Generally they are quite good, and today was like that.  The best part is the in-flight movie entertainment.  The flight attendants are quite attentive and friendly.  They serve at least two meals on board for the 12 hour direct flight.  Today's flight was just a little more than half-full which was great, as I could catch a bit of sleep on the flight.  Moreso than usual.  What sucks, however, is the policies with check-in baggage, and of course, the all pervasive airport security.  That shouldn't come as a surprise nowadays, but it still sucks big time.

Somehow I had this feeling that the flight would not go uneventfully, and that was indeed the case.  For starters, an hour delay.  No big deal, it was relaxing to chat with friends at Starbucks beforehand and then eventually go through security.   But the package I was delivering for friends had a problem with security.  There were two large bottles of Vaseline and other lotions, not to mention boxes of baby powder.  The powder they let me carry through, but the liquids had to be either checked in or given up.

I decided to go back through the line and check them in, hoping that Air Canada would not charge $70 for the extra bag this time, as they had said at first.  The initial charge for the second bag was what made me carry the huge extra bag as carry-on luggage in addition to the laptop and other carry-on bag.  At the check-in desk, the person was friendly, but she still insisted on the $70 extra bag charge.  Apparently my ticket only entitled me to one check-in bag, not two as in previous times.

Despite the usual attempts to smile, tell a story, and add some humor, the clerk wasn’t going to relent from the $70.  So the conversation went something like this:

"I have an idea, how about mailing these two bottles of lotion to Shanghai?  Is there a post office in the airport?"

      "Yes, there is a 7-11 store that can do that here.  It will still cost a lot, perhaps half of what is the fee for checking in the bags."

       "Hmm, I see."

       "What I can do for you is this … can go ahead and put the luggage tag on this bag, then you go and find out the cost of shipping.  If you decide to mail it, then will take off the tag and you can carry the bag on.  If not, will check it through.  Either way, the gate closes in 20 minutes."

      "I see."

      "Either way, it is going to be very expensive lotion."    (laughs)

I appreciate the humor, but this wasn't exactly a laughing matter at the time.  With a half-full flight, the airline could have easily checked the bag through with no problem at all.  But no, Air Canada was a stickler for the rules.  In this day and age of air travel, and especially in the land of Canada, that should come as no surprise.

So I got on the phone and made arrangements for my friend to come back to the airport, pick up the lotion bottles, and then someone else would carry them through separately on a different trip to Shanghai.  I’d still transport the baby powder.  In hindsight, knowing about this stupid recently changed one-bag policy would have made me pack the bags differently.

Once through security for the second time, I got subjected to a random body search.  The options were either a pat down or the body scanner.  I chose the scanner.  The airports in North America are beyond ridiculous with their security now, and it only one more reason out of many to keep living overseas.  Even so, despite my views on these goddamn scanners, I had to cooperate and play by the rules.  The way I see it is this. I only go through the scanner once and am then on my way, while the chumps who operate the scanner have to face it every day.

Once on board the flight, there was a problem.  As the plane taxied out of the gate, a sick woman on board basically collapsed in the aisle.  Oh no, all I could think about was if she was OK or not.  The captain was smart to make the call to return to the gate, and the paramedics came on and took the passenger off the airplane.  More waiting after that, as the airline had to do a crew change due to labor regulations.  All told it caused a 4 hour delay.  This was extremely unpleasant, but the flight attendant told me later that the alternative would have been far worse.  That is to say, if the sick passenger collapsed while in the air over the Pacific, they would have to turn the plane around and fly back.