June 28, 2012
Adventure is to say the least! We arrived into Toronto with 45 minutes to get to our next gate (changing airlines to Air Canada) and the flight attendant requested everyone please stay seated so that we could exit first. She explained we had a tight connection but that it was doable if we could get off first …and to our amazement everyone did stay seated. She along with a few others said we would have to run about a mile… and they weren’t kidding!! Flip Flops on and our jogging pants we took off for the mile jaunt (which seemed like three miles). We arrived at the gate and they were boarding. Oh my gosh, WE MADE IT!!! …well, kind of made it??? I checked in at the counter, she looked at my ticket and said yes they were boarding now. We got in line and upon our turn to board, Dennis handed the guy is boarding pass along with his passport. The Air Canada representative clicked and looked at his computer for several minutes, clicked some more and then looked through several of Dennis previous connecting flight receipts… we had so many, we really didn’t even know what flight we had just gotten off of!!! … the representative clicked around for several minutes and then handed Dennis his passport and boarding pass back and told Dennis that he “had previously been paged” and should go to the front counter. I told the gentleman we were together and that I had already been to the kiosk counter… but yes, that is where I was directed as well.
Adventure is to say the least! We arrived into Toronto with 45 minutes to get to our next gate (changing airlines to Air Canada) and the flight attendant requested everyone please stay seated so that we could exit first. She explained we had a tight connection but that it was doable if we could get off first …and to our amazement everyone did stay seated. She along with a few others said we would have to run about a mile… and they weren’t kidding!! Flip Flops on and our jogging pants we took off for the mile jaunt (which seemed like three miles). We arrived at the gate and they were boarding. Oh my gosh, WE MADE IT!!! …well, kind of made it??? I checked in at the counter, she looked at my ticket and said yes they were boarding now. We got in line and upon our turn to board, Dennis handed the guy is boarding pass along with his passport. The Air Canada representative clicked and looked at his computer for several minutes, clicked some more and then looked through several of Dennis previous connecting flight receipts… we had so many, we really didn’t even know what flight we had just gotten off of!!! … the representative clicked around for several minutes and then handed Dennis his passport and boarding pass back and told Dennis that he “had previously been paged” and should go to the front counter. I told the gentleman we were together and that I had already been to the kiosk counter… but yes, that is where I was directed as well.
Upon returning to the counter and telling the same lady we
had just spoken to, that we were directed back to her, she took our ticket once
again looked at it and said, “oh, that is you! …you are Tull” I’m thinking, “that was me a few
minutes ago too!” She proceeded to
tell us we had been dropped from the flight. Now, you can imagine what was going through my mind! No, it was not – “are you kidding
me”. It was more like “are you
*%#!@ @%&$% kidding me!!!!” Keeping our polite composure though we
did explain that we wished we would have worn our tennis shoes and jogging
shorts after that mile run!! She
smiled at our comment and said she was sorry, but the flight was full, so you
can imagine how thrilled we were to hear that. And to think, we thought we were actually going to get to
Athens on time! But, it was not
happening on that plane!
She was very nice and commented since we had not arrived on
the original flight an hour earlier, that we were dropped. I have plenty to say to United – I
think they dropped the ball and didn’t notify Air Canada that our flight had
changed, so United is not on the top of my good list right now either.
But, our sweet Air Canada Representative, Georgia, said she
could still get us to Athens through Munich, Germany arriving 4 hours later
than we had planned to arrive, but at this point – we were just happy to think
we could still get there! We had
began to think we would be spending the night in Toronto.
Georgia asked for our luggage receipts, which after a short
period of frantic search I did finally remember where I had put them. She worked diligently on the phone with
someone trying to retrieve our luggage from the flight to get it on our new
flight she was trying to schedule.
After quite a while, she explained that our luggage was not there… which
did not surprise us! She had us
follow her from the gate kiosk to the main ticket counter. She explained she had us booked to
Munich, Germany, but she could not get confirmation for our connecting flight
from Munich on to Athens, Greece, but commented she was sure we could be on
that flight… the thought of being stranded in Munich was interesting!!! At this point we just went with the
possibility of our itinerary just looking different.
So keeping in mind that we have basically only ran through
airports as if we were on the “Amazing Race” trying to get from one connection
to the other… here in Toronto with the flight change and delay, this was our
first chance to actually use a bathroom not on the plane! And we took advantage of ordering some
sushi and a drink at a little bar… we should have had several drinks, but we then
scurried on our way to the boarding gate.
Arriving at the gate, we were fortunate to see our sweet
Georgia there working the counter again.
We just stayed to ourselves waiting to board when after quite a while
Georgia called us to the counter… I’m thinking “oh no, now what?” But she had good news and said our
flight from Munich to Athens was confirmed and she gave us the boarding passes
that we would need there.
Okay, so we were on our way to Munich! …but, still without any luggage thus
far! Now, if we can just get some sleep on the plane as we travel overnight…
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