Kat's (Poorly-Written) Christmas Odyssey (So Far).
I have been in the Halifax airport for 13 hours now.
I went up to Halifax, purchased a nice red shirt, and got to the airport early so I wouldn't have to drive in blowing snow and sleet. That was a good plan.
I asked a guy at Air Canada how soon I could check in for my flight, and wound up getting put on a flight in the evening instead of having to wait 'til morning. That was a good plan.
There was a false fire alarm, and we missed boarding, and consequently missed getting off the ground. We're all pretty sure that we would've been in Toronto, were it not for the fire alarm. That sucked.
Air Canada has cancelled all its flights, and it is impossible to get through on the phone line that you HAVE to call to be able to re-book. That sucks.
WestJet had some extra seats on the Calgary flight. That is helpful. I have paid for it, and at this stage am not entirely sure I care whether Air Canada gives me my money back or not. I'm hoping we can work out some sort of exchange where I can put the money I had spent on Halifax-to-Toronto-to-Minneapolis into a Calgary-Minneapolis deal, but we'll see what happens when I get to Calgary. I refuse to try to book anything prior to that. Unless I can get on the phone, which is unlikely. I might look into it at the airport, 'cause then I'd technically have nothing to lose, but there is absolutely no money going down prior to that. And I am very unimpressed with Air Canada.
I called home to check with mum's gut about Calgary, and we were on the same page. Good things. I called again one I was through security (for the third time this evening), and she told me Mike's new motto for Air Canada: "We're not happy until you're not happy." True.
I made a friend while waiting for our baggage to be chiseled out of the plane. (No, seriously, there was an announcement saying that ground transportation had heavy equipment out and was chipping the ice off our plane so they could get us our bags.) His name is Ian.
We had coffee at Tim's, waited in line for Air Canada (in vain), and while doing the latter, watched 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' and 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' on Gavin, and the first part of 'Nicholas Nickleby' on his iPod. We parted when I went to book on WestJet, but I did give him my e-mail, and will hopefully hear how he fared in getting back to North Carolina.
They're now ploughing and sweeping the runways. It keeps varying between looking reasonable outside, and then looking a bit more blizzardish. I'm hoping the wind stays relatively died down, and that a lot of the blowing snow right now is also due to snow removal, and not just wind picking up.
I've made another friend, whose name I've yet to learn, who is studying law at Dal, and trying to get home to Toronto.
It's an Odyssey, all in all. It is, however, kind of cool that I get to be home for Christmas, at least in some way, and then also at Sarah's home. However, it also looks like I'll be getting into Minneapolis on Tuesday at the earliest, and that really sucked after having been up for 20 hours and given the run-around by Air Canada. And I'm good in these situations. I feel so bad for people who lose it at the drop of a hat.
And... that is what's going on so far. I might get to see my grandparents, or my mum, or my dad, or gods only know who. So that will be cool, if it works.
And... yeah. Waiting for WestJet to take off. The Toronto flight that my newest friend is on is good to go, so the Calgary flight should be okay.
I really need sleep.
I went up to Halifax, purchased a nice red shirt, and got to the airport early so I wouldn't have to drive in blowing snow and sleet. That was a good plan.
I asked a guy at Air Canada how soon I could check in for my flight, and wound up getting put on a flight in the evening instead of having to wait 'til morning. That was a good plan.
There was a false fire alarm, and we missed boarding, and consequently missed getting off the ground. We're all pretty sure that we would've been in Toronto, were it not for the fire alarm. That sucked.
Air Canada has cancelled all its flights, and it is impossible to get through on the phone line that you HAVE to call to be able to re-book. That sucks.
WestJet had some extra seats on the Calgary flight. That is helpful. I have paid for it, and at this stage am not entirely sure I care whether Air Canada gives me my money back or not. I'm hoping we can work out some sort of exchange where I can put the money I had spent on Halifax-to-Toronto-to-Minneapolis into a Calgary-Minneapolis deal, but we'll see what happens when I get to Calgary. I refuse to try to book anything prior to that. Unless I can get on the phone, which is unlikely. I might look into it at the airport, 'cause then I'd technically have nothing to lose, but there is absolutely no money going down prior to that. And I am very unimpressed with Air Canada.
I called home to check with mum's gut about Calgary, and we were on the same page. Good things. I called again one I was through security (for the third time this evening), and she told me Mike's new motto for Air Canada: "We're not happy until you're not happy." True.
I made a friend while waiting for our baggage to be chiseled out of the plane. (No, seriously, there was an announcement saying that ground transportation had heavy equipment out and was chipping the ice off our plane so they could get us our bags.) His name is Ian.
We had coffee at Tim's, waited in line for Air Canada (in vain), and while doing the latter, watched 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' and 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' on Gavin, and the first part of 'Nicholas Nickleby' on his iPod. We parted when I went to book on WestJet, but I did give him my e-mail, and will hopefully hear how he fared in getting back to North Carolina.
They're now ploughing and sweeping the runways. It keeps varying between looking reasonable outside, and then looking a bit more blizzardish. I'm hoping the wind stays relatively died down, and that a lot of the blowing snow right now is also due to snow removal, and not just wind picking up.
I've made another friend, whose name I've yet to learn, who is studying law at Dal, and trying to get home to Toronto.
It's an Odyssey, all in all. It is, however, kind of cool that I get to be home for Christmas, at least in some way, and then also at Sarah's home. However, it also looks like I'll be getting into Minneapolis on Tuesday at the earliest, and that really sucked after having been up for 20 hours and given the run-around by Air Canada. And I'm good in these situations. I feel so bad for people who lose it at the drop of a hat.
And... that is what's going on so far. I might get to see my grandparents, or my mum, or my dad, or gods only know who. So that will be cool, if it works.
And... yeah. Waiting for WestJet to take off. The Toronto flight that my newest friend is on is good to go, so the Calgary flight should be okay.
I really need sleep.