Distractions, reflections

David Ing, at large … Sometimes, my mind wanders

2007/02/26 Working despite air travel delays

This was an exceptionally bad week for travel. I arrived at the airport at 7:15 a.m. for a 8:35 a.m. flight in Houston. When I used the check-in kiosk, my boarding card gave me a flight time of 6:50 p.m. The flight had been cancelled, and Air Canada didn’t call me to let me know that.

Rather than battling traffic back home and then out to the airport again, I checked my luggage and went to the Maple Leaf Lounge. With an Internet connection, it was as almost as good as being in an office.

Maple Leaf Lounge, Terminal 1

I spent the whole day in the lounge, and saw the sun set. Terminal 1 has been enlarged to handle more flights, but a lot of the gates are still not being used.

Pearson Terminal 1 U.S. gates

I’m trying to not schedule my travel as tightly these days. Flights are pretty full, so I’d like to get to my destination early, check into the hotel and work at a relaxed pace. By the time I arrived at the hotel in Houston, it was 12:30 CT. That’s about 12 hours later that I had expected.

P.S. On the return flight on Friday, I was packing at 8:30 a.m. to catch a noon flight. My mobile phone rang, and Air Canada told me that all flights back to Toronto had been cancelled due to bad weather. They gave me a seat on the Saturday 6:30 a.m. flight. When I requested a slightly later flight, they told me that if I didn’t take this option, that I would have to wait for Monday. Just getting from point A to point B is an achievement these days.

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