Canada and Other Third World Countries
Technology has advanced to a level unprecedented in Earth's history which, of course, has completely disrupted any reasonable attempt to get from point A to point B in time to catch the connection to point C.<p>
While evidence of the phenomenon that reliability in transportation is inversely proportional to the level of technological progression in society presents itself constantly, a series of glaring examples experienced on a single vacation this past June serves to convince even the most fervent cynic.<p>
Recently, myself and a small group (6 in all) flew Air Canada for a total of 4 legs of a journey - from Chicago to Toronto, then Toronto to London and back again. We had given ourselves at least an hour, closer to two, to change planes in Toronto. Obviously we had overestimated the airline's ability to accurately gauge the timing of our flights.<p>
When we arrived - two hours early - at O'Hare to check in, we discovered that our flight from Chicago to Toronto was delayed.... by two hours. Ultimately, this ended up being three and a half hours, but who's counting? <p>
We managed to hold up the entire line of impatient passengers (who probably managed to miss all of their flights because of us) for nearly 30 minutes while we tried to completely reschedule our flights to London, since we would not come close to making our original flight from Toronto. With our original flight being delayed two hours, we managed to arrange some seats on a later plane bound for Heathrow and still have some time in Toronto to explore the terminal.<p>
When we arrived in Canada, we had precisely 7 minutes to hop a bus to change terminals and sprint to where our plane was patiently trying to leave without us.<p>
Happily, we made it and had a fairly comfortable trip to London.<p>
After two weeks of missing trains and a French air traffic controller strike that forced us to take a ferry across the Channel (everybody else in France knew about this well before hand and booked every seat on the train, just in case they might want to go to London during the strike), we finally checked in for our return flight to the states via Toronto. We actually took off within a few minutes of when we were supposed to, and it seemed like smooth sailing all the way home.<p>
We should not have made such an assumption.<p>
As we approached Toronto, the Air Canada staff handed out not one, but TWO sets of customs forms - one for Canada and one for the US. We were going to bypass the horrendous customs in Chicago by going through US customs in Toronto. Wonderful! Or so we thought...<p>
The Toronto airport is currently a war zone. We had to get our luggage off the plane to go through Canadian customs, then re-check our luggage. This was done in a zombie-like state since the process was never really explained to us before we were thrust into the mix. We came to understand that, after re-checking our baggage we had to take a bus to another terminal where US Customs would be waiting to interrogate us about the canisters of English tea I mistakenly brought home. It was upon this realization that we became slightly concerned, since we had about 15 minutes to catch our next flight. We weren't too concerned, though, until we got to the other terminal and realized that we had to get our luggage AGAIN, take it through US Customs, and then check it AGAIN. With 10 minutes left, we made it into the line for US Customs. It wasn't too bad... it would only have taken about 15 minutes to get through the line.<p>
We managed to flag down someone who looked like he worked there and gave him the 15-second version of our predicament, at which time he guided us through to the head of the line. We breezed through the first agent who asked the questions and rushed to the x-ray machines. We all put our stuff on the belt and walked to the other side where we were to pick up our baggage and race to the gate. In theory, that would have been perfect. In practice, I was told to unpack my solidly-loaded backpack because the agent was certain she saw aerosol cans which apparently represented a heinous violation of national security. The funny thing is, I didn't have any aerosol cans -- I had tea. Three tiny little tin canisters of English tea was about to make me miss my flight.<p>
I ripped apart my pack to show her the object of her paranoid interest and stuffed it back together, swung the pack on my back and rushed to the Air Canada people who were responsible for putting my pack on the wrong plane. While they were wildly successful at not sending my backpack to the right place on the trip to London, they managed to bungle their job so that all of our luggage somehow arrived in Chicago on the same plane on which we travelled.<p>
And all the while the Air Canada people acted like this was normal. Sadly, maybe it was...<p>
Latest Messages
| Messages left for this Researcher | Posted |
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| Air Canada and Toronto | Feb 25, 2003 |
| take your time. | Feb 26, 2002 |
| Oh, so we're a Third World nation because you can't travel w | Jul 31, 2000 |
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| Oh, so we're a Third World nation because you can't travel well... | Jul 31, 2000 | No Replies |
Lasikadamlasik
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