Ray flew in to Regina on Thursday evening and we spent
Friday visiting each other and touring around a bit. Saturday morning we had a
leisurely breakfast and left at 9 arriving about 9:30 for our 10:40 departure.
We arrived to a very quiet Air Canada counter. About the
only person there was Loretta, one of our traveling companions from Weyburn. No
sign of Miles, another Reginan. Were we that early? No! They changed the
departure time to 9:55. And none of us had received notification. They told us
that the flight was “closed,” but that they would give us standby tickets
because there was a delay and we might be able to make it in time. We raced up
to security only to be discouraged by a very long line. Desperate, I went to
the front, told them our story, and we were invited to jump to the front of the
line.
After clearing security, we were relieved to find Miles
waiting for us. He was barely ahead of us, but had managed to keep his assigned
seat instead of being put on standby. We looked over at the boarding gate and,
despite the claim that they were “Boarding,” saw no action. Despite our near
panic and feverish rushing, we were now waiting.
After a while, we noticed some activity by the Departures
video screen. We wandered over and learned that our flight had been delayed
until 2 PM. Our connecting flight would be long gone by the time we reached
Toronto. Soon they made an announcement that all passengers connecting in
Toronto should go back to the airline counter and rebook their flights. Miles
was off like a shot and was near the front of the line. They told him that
another airplane had been sent from Vancouver to make that 2 PM departure, but
that there was still a chance that they could resolve the problem with the
original airplane and get away earlier. They said we would be in real good
shape if we got away at noon and we still had a chance at 12:30. After a while
they announced that they had resolved the problem and our flight would depart
at 12:15. Relieved, we again proceeded through security and soon were boarding
our aircraft. Whew! Problem solved.
Not so fast! Because they had originally revised the
departure time to 2 PM and because they had announced that people making
connections should rebook, people who were going to Toronto without connections
figured they didn’t have to be there until 2 PM. Some of them had apparently
gone home. The pilot made an announcement that there were six people missing
and they were trying to track them down. Eventually, most of them showed up,
but one did not, so they had to find his luggage and remove it. Finally, our
Embraer 190 was airborne at 1 PM, well behind our “maybe you’ll make it” time.
We arrived at the gate in Toronto at 6 PM Eastern Time (4 PM
CST). Our scheduled departure was at 6:30. After a brisk fifteen minute walk,
we arrived at our gate to find them just in the process of boarding. We
squeezed in a quick bathroom break and were soon aboard our Lufthansa Boeing
747. We finally got airborne just before 7 PM. More than once we had thought we
would not make it.
I was able to study the northern shore of Lake Ontario, the
St. Lawrence Seaway from Kingston to Montreal, and then the Appalachian Highlands
along the border between Quebec and Maine until it got dark approaching New
Brunswick. They served us a fairly nice
meal (for an airplane) at 8:30 ET.
Here is the group departing from Regina: (l to r) Ray, Loretta, Miles, & Glenn.
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