Travel Story

Flying on Friday the 13th, I wondered if I would have any jinxes show up. And, of course, frequent visitors to the blog will recollect my many other travel stories without it being a cursed day.

Canada is considered an international flight and, therefore, services like Super Shuttle try to get you there the mandatory 3 hours early-- even when you are already checked in, have printed out your tickets, and have no baggage to check. The gentleman driving the Super Shuttle got to my place right at 5:40 am, the very beginning of my 15 minute window. He then proceeded to go to the next stop by what can only be described as a "roundabout" method. After a couple of u-turns, we reached the next person's home, picked her up, and continued. Luckily, the next home, an elderly couple, was close by. However, he banged two more u-turns getting there, as well.

He finally got us to LAX and, just like last time, even though I told him I could be dropped off at the security check area instead of the Air Canada door, he took me to the Air Canada door. Luckily that is very close to security, so it is not a far walk.

A multi-tool (that does not have a blade on it) I have attached to my key chain, which hasn't been a problem any other time I've flown out of LAX, caused a baggage search this time-- but I was soon cleared. I had a solid 2 hour and 45 minute wait until boarding commenced on my flight, so I settled in at my gate, grabbed my book, and did just that.

About 15 minutes before we were supposed to commence boarding one of the AC reps came over the loudspeaker and announced that our flight was delaying "indeterminately" due to a mechanical problem with the flight. They were calling United mechanics to come over and try to repair it.

My plane was supposed to take off at 10 am and we actually started boarding at 11 am. Quite a few people were squeezed into other planes so they could make connections, so our flight wound up being not as crowded as it otherwise could have been. In my seats, the gentleman and I had the middle seat free and could stretch out a bit.

Luckily I had a slightly over 3 hour layover in Toronto. With the first flight actually taking off 1:30 late, it turned out okay. Ironically, the fight from LAX was so smooth and uneventful that we made up time in the air and came in about 20 minutes earlier than our newly established arrival time. So I still wound up with a nearly 2 hour wait after customs. The second flight from Toronto to Saint John was similarly smooth and uneventful, with no seat mate and plenty of room.

This was my first try flying only during the day and arriving in SJ late at night (after the four hour time change). I think I prefer it for a couple of reasons:

1. With the red eye flights, I am generally up from 6:30 am the day of the flight until noon or later on the following day (since I haven't yet been able to get more than an hour or two sleep on the plane-- and that poor sleep). So, even taking into account the time difference, I am usually up fairly well over 24 hours even if I go to sleep after getting home.
2. With this method, I just wake up early, get on Super Shuttle, and head out. It feels a bit like 8pm my time at midnight, so I stayed up fairly well after midnight before I fell asleep, but it was still better and I was much more alert and functional today.
3. You can see where you're going. Some of the land over which these flights fly is quite stunning. And it is fun to watch yourself go from desert/arid to lightly forested to farms and then to the dark green/forested Canada. You can see just how big those so-called Great Lakes are (and they are freaking huge). It is stunning.
4. While the red eye from LAX makes you one of the first flights to get into Toronto (it is an airport that shuts down from 10 pm to 6 am), now that they have totally revamped Terminal 1 that doesn't seem to be a problem. Everything is much more wide open and there are plenty of concierges everywhere to help you get where you are going.

My one complaint continues to be the elevator you have to take in Toronto to get back up to the concourse for a connecting flight. The signage pointing you to the elevator could be clearer and they could make it more obvious that you want to press for floor 2. Instead, the floor 2 button on the elevator has a large "Parking" sign under it as it is also the level on which you can reach the parking lot. There is a smaller sign away from the buttons that also says "Connections" in small type. That could and should be much clearer, in my opinion.

All in all, after the huge delay to start, a good trip. Now I'm settling in and enjoying my time here.