Some days start out with a bang. Others with a lot of whining. I went to bed early last night anticipating getting up in the middle of the night, but the reality of 0245 is always worse than what I can imagine. Add to it that there is no way to take public transportation for any flight out of SFO earlier than about 0845 in the morning. BART doesn’t even get started till 0500. Then there is the hour + that it takes to get to the airport (line changes included). This leaves anyone with an early flight with the choices of Taxi/Ride Share/Family. At this point I actually think it might be cheaper to stay at one of the no name hotels near the airport than to pay the ride-share fee.
Anyway. Miriam gave me a ride. Since I hadn’t bothered to look up gates, I just assumed International Terminal for Air Canada. Wrong. Terminal 2 which is about as far as you can get, but still a nice quiet walk at that time of the morning. The counter people were wonderful, checking me in without problems and happily taking my suitcase at no extra charge. As it turns out, booking through United means that one can’t check in through United. And since my reservation wasn’t made through Air Canada, they didn’t recognize my reservation number. Go figure. It all worked out.
Let me just leave you with the following – this was a plane full of idiots who didn’t understand how to board and take their seats. Seriously. Discussions about which overhead compartment was more convenient, falling fishing rods, and people arguing when they attempted to place 2 or more things in the overhead compartment. Me? Small backpack under the seat in front of me and I will take SouthWest Airlines boarding any day.
Oh, I forgot to say – Vancouver, (British Columbia, not Washington State. Just in case there was any confusion in your mind) was my destination. I am providing you a couple of quick pix taken of the inflight progress just for your amusement.
First – the flight path…
The second – well, the distances are correct. But since we left ~ 0700, the only thing I can think of is UTC…
But then it should say1622, not 4:22pm…
Anyway, we landed around 0900. I had done the ArriveCan app ahead of time so it took me all of 3 minutes to get through the immigration process. Luggage showed up promptly. My hotel has a shuttle bus from the airport and the lovely ladies at the desk allowed for early check in. The rest of my plans for the day involve napping and figuring how to turn OFF the A/C in the room.
