Stranded in Montreal
Thanks to Air Canada and their amazing hospitality, I’m wondering in the streets of Montreal trying to get back to India.
Yesterday, I was supposed to take the Lufthansa flight from Montreal to Frankfurt and from there to Bangalore. A 23 hour journey. But to my surprise I realized that the Lufthansa flights were operated by Air Canada. The flight was supposed to take off at 7:40 PM EST. I was waiting since 4:30 PM at the airport. At 7:30, they announced that there was a minor mechanical problem in the flight and the flight would take off at 8:10 PM, 30 mins late. At 8:10 they announced that they discovered some problem with a part and they are trying to replace the part. [Most of these announcements were in French.] This waiting continued for another hour before they declared that the flight won’t be able to take off.
What started as a minor mechanical problem, resulted in the cancellation of the flight. Lucky, they were able to find a flight in Toronto which could be used instead. So then they told us to wait till mid night before we could fly.
They came out with 10 boxes of Juice for about 300 people. To their surprise they found that within seconds the juice was over. Then they came out with tiny packets of snacks. Which apparently was our dinner. While all this was happening, they asked us to check with them about our connections. Within matters of seconds, the line grew to about 150 people long. So I kept waiting for the line to get smaller. Finally at 12:45 AM, the line got to about 20 people long. After waiting for 30 mins in the line, they told me that there is only one flight that flies from Frankfurt to Bangalore and I’m not going to make it. [Apparently my laptop was lying to me that there are 4 flights everyday from Frankfurt to Bangalore]. So I’ll have to wait in Frankfurt for a day, before I can board the next day flight. To their surprise they discovered that for some reason on earth, I did not have a Visa for Germany. Which means, I cannot stay in Germany for more than 12 hours. [The person was telling me that it was purely my mistake that I did not have a VISA for Germany. Some place that I had no idea I would be staying in.] Anyway, they told me, I cannot travel today and will have to wait till the next day in Montreal to take the flight.
If you have not experience what it feels to be treated like “Crap”, you need to meet the Air Canada executives. The tone of the people on counter was pretty much as if I did a big sin by choosing to fly with them. During this conversation of 30 odd mins, there was not a single mention of the following words: “sorry, please, inconvince, cooperate, try, …” . It was like a commando giving me directions that I had to follow and not question.
Anyway, since I was not allowed to travel the same day, they told me to come the next day. I explained to them that I’m not from Canada and don’t have a place to stay for the day. Initially they told me that was not their problem. After arguing for about 15 mins, they agreed to provide me accommodation. They asked me to collect by bags from the Baggage claim and meet an Air Canada Agent in their office.
Without having an option, I went through the customs, argued with the customer’s officer why I was coming back, waited for 1 hr before my bag [completely wet] showed up on the belt. Finally at 3:00 AM when I reached the Air Canada office, it was closed. After desperately trying to find someone, at 4:00 AM, I finally found the next shift people come in. Took me 30 mins to explain them the situation and by then it was 4:30 AM. They told me there was not point giving me accommodation.
As insistent I’m, I argued and made sure they gave me an accommodation to stay. At this point, I realized that I did not have a reservation for the next day’s [rather the same day’s] flight. Like I did not have enough, they told me they cannot find any flights. So I’ll have to wait till 29th before they can ship me back. If you have tears in your eyes, don’t feel sorry for me. Just think about this next time you travel in Air Canada.
After all this misery, I found a manager, who finally booked me on Air India flight. Now I’ll be reaching [hoping to reach], Bangalore on 29th Oct 3:30 AM. If I survive all this, you might see another blog from me. Else, it was good knowing you all.
