World Cup & Nearly Bust!

It was Friday the 13th, and the day had already gone off to a bad start.  Nearly packed, and ready to head out the door, I realized that I had no battery charger for my waterproof camera.  I had bought it to take some great snorkeling shots in Bonito, as well as some beach shots around Copacabana.  Instead of leaving to meet my Girlfriend, I had to wait a couple of hours for the nearest photography store to open so I could get a charger for the trip.

After I got the charger, I had realized that I had left Kooks’ neck pillow in my condo.  It was going to be a long trip – Toronto to New York City to Sao Paolo to Rio – over the next 24 hours, so a neck pillow would at least make the overnight flight somewhat bearable for her and for me as well as I wouldn't have to hear about her sore neck along the way.

World Cup of Bust!

Finally I was en route to Kooks’ house where we got a cab together to the airport.  Thinking everything was going to be smooth sailing from this point on, I relaxed in the back of the cab while Kooks talked to the driver about our Brazil trip.  My relaxation was short-lived as the car in the lane next to us nearly plowed into the back of a transport truck before almost cutting off our cab driver.  Surely this was the sign of bad things to come as my gut feeling was telling me.

We arrived at the airport on time albeit a bit perturbed about the bad omens that we experienced this morning.  Checked in and ready to go, we made our way to our gate waiting in anticipation for our flight to New York City for 3pm that afternoon.

At first, the ladies at the gate reassured us that our flight was still scheduled to leave on time.  Then they said there was a “slight delay” due to inclement weather, but nothing to worry too much about.  15 minutes passed.  Then 30 minutes.  Then an hour before finally the dreaded announcement was made by Air Canada that our flight was cancelled due to the weather in New York City.

Kooks and I were just a couple of passengers out of 20 or so all heading off to Brazil for the World Cup - most who were expected to attend matches in less than 48 hours.  The lady from Air Canada told our disgruntled group that due to the cancellation of our flight, we had to head to baggage claim, grab our luggage at Carousel 11, and re-check in with Air Canada for alternate flights.

Sounds easy enough, right?  Yes, but some things are easier said than done.  What we didn't expect in this situation was the gross mismanagement of communications between the Air Canada employees at the gate check in and baggage claim!

Before our flight was cancelled

While we were told that we had to go to baggage claim to grab our luggage and re-check in, what the gate staff failed to mention is that we would still be required to fill out forms for Canadian customs.  Rather than mention that to us, our Air Canada rep just opened the door that would lead us to Customs and baggage claims and just told us “to follow the signs.”

We were all in a rush to get our luggage and find alternate flights to Brazil, so for us to be asked to fill out forms for Canadian customs was both surprising and disgusting given we hadn't even left the airport let alone the country!  Air Canada should have had the decency to let us know about this policy.

After wasting another 10 minutes filling out forms and checking through customs, we all arrived at Carousel 11 with no sign of our luggage anywhere.  There was no one at Air Canada, either, to direct us or give us more information about the whereabouts of our luggage.  There were, however, three guys from Air Canada baggage claims a few carousels over sitting at their booth doing absolutely nothing.

We sat and waited for our luggage.  15 minutes passed.  Then 30 minutes.  Then an hour passed before everyone’s patience began to wear thin while two other flights had arrived to Toronto and picked up their luggage at Carousel 11 during this time.  Where the fuck was our luggage?

Extremely agitated at this point by the lack of direction and customer service by Air Canada, I headed towards the three Air Canada baggage claims representatives to find out the status of the missing suitcases along with a couple other passengers on my flight.  The head of the group had told us that “no one had told them that our flight was cancelled nor that they were to put the bags on Carousel 11.”   Bullshit!  They all had walkie-talkies on them, so they had the means to communicate with the gate staff who cancelled our flight.

Not a happy Air Canada customer!

As we stood there in utter disgust and disbelief, I clearly heard a person on the other end of the walkie-talkie tell the baggage claim staff that they were supposed to have our luggage on Carousel 11 over an hour ago and that it was sitting on our airplane.  What the fuck?  You are telling me for the past hour while these three buffoons stood here doing nothing, our luggage was just sitting on the plane?  Un-fucking-believable!

Caught with their tail between their legs, the baggage claims staff quickly called in the rest of their team to get our luggage onto Carousel 11 as soon as possible.  Within minutes, our luggage appeared on the conveyor belt.  Everyone’s luggage that is, except for Kook’s!  Seriously, Air Canada?!?!

After not seeing Kook’s backpack on the conveyor belt, I went back to baggage claims extremely pissed off at this point wondering what the fuck these guys were getting paid for and how the hell they could lose a backpack on an airplane that hadn't even left the tarmac?  A few minutes later, Kooks’ bag finally showed up on the belt, so we scrambled to grab it quickly and go back to Air Canada to check into another flight.

As we got to the second floor of the airport, I used the grey customer service phones that Air Canada had directed us to use to re-route our flights.  This was the only bit of information Air Canada gave us that was actually correct surprisingly enough!

Unfortunately, the passengers on our flight had already been on the phone with Air Canada reservations for more than 15 minutes at this point getting nowhere with them, so the prognosis was not looking too good at this point getting the next available flight to Brazil.

Dinner compliments of Air Canada

After being on hold for what seemed like an eternity, the Reservations Agent on the other end had the gall to tell me the next available flight to New York City would be the following day at 4pm afternoon.  You read that correctly!  She was trying to get me to re-book the same flight route to Rio 24 hours later.  “Unacceptable,” I said as we were to be in Rio Saturday afternoon to meet up with the rest of our tour group.  Had we gone with this flight, we would have been in Rio two days later when our tour group would already have been in Curitiba by that time!

Nearly a half hour later with this Agent, I finally asked her if there were any flights that could get us to Sao Paolo for the next morning in order for us to make our connecting flight to Rio.  “Well, there is a direct flight from Toronto to Sao Paolo that we have.  Oh, but that departs in 30 minutes, so you can’t book that now!”

Really?  You knew I was originally booked with Air Canada to have a flight from Toronto to New York City and then switch with your partner, TAM Airlines, to go from New York City to Sao Paolo then Sao Paolo to Rio for the past 30 minutes only to tell me just now that you had a direct flight from Toronto to Sao Paolo?  Making the situation even worse was the fact that she admitted to me that this flight was leaving with 10 available seats!  This would have covered all the passengers on our flight who were going from Toronto to New York City to Sao Paolo, including Kooks and I!

Accepting that we were going to miss out on our first day of the tour, a hotel that we already paid for with this tour package, and a flight that we had already paid for to get us from Rio to Curitiba on the second day of the trip, I had asked the Reservations agent if there was any way possible that she could re-route us to Sao Paolo and then take a flight from Sao Paolo to Curitiba instead of Rio so we could meet up with our tour group there.

“Well, actually there is.  We can send you to Mexico City tonight, comp you for a hotel room since Air Canada is at fault here, and then have you in Sao Paolo Sunday morning where we would then re-route you to Curitiba instead,” she said excitedly.

A slight "detour" through Mexico

“Alright, we will take that,” I said while Kooks was busy calling our tour company, G Adventures, about the dilemma we had getting to Rio in time for this trip.  “How do we get comped for this hotel in Mexico City then?”

“Well, Sir.  I am not really sure how that will work.  You will have to speak with our Guest Services team in Mexico City once you land in the airport.”

“Alright, thanks for your help!” I had sighed in frustration and relief that our nightmare experience with Air Canada was nearly over.  Or so we thought.  What we didn't realize at the time was that this was only the beginning of further problems to come with Air Canada.