Countdown to Leiden - T Minus 0 Days

I fly so much that I find a phobia spreading over me in the days leading up to departure. The phobia is a feel of dread, because I've experienced so many screwups over the years. It's that racing through airport hallways -- or worse, stuck in an excruciatingly slow security lineup -- as I undertake another desperate and ultimately failed attempt to catch a connection: that wears me down the most.

I love traveling, especially overseas; once I am sitting in the airport departure lounge, the phobia leaves me.

Last night, 24 hours before departure, I began struggling with Air Canada's online check-in system. I was reminded of the words of Paul who warned against making definite plans for the future, such as, "We will go to such and such a city next week." In his case, he figured that God might have other plans before then; in my case, it was Air Canada's computer system.

Promptly at 5:20pm, I attempted to check-in through aircanada.com. It didn't work. Over the next 14 hours, I tried every so often. The part that puzzled me was that I could get part way through the check-in process before being kicked off with the uninformative "We are sorry..." message. Each time, it occurred at a different stage.

Since the process broke down at random places, I began to wonder if the problem was with Air Canada's computer, rather than something going wrong at my end.

This morning I finally got through all the way. The flight to London looks absolute jammed full -- ugh. London to Fankfurt looks quite empty -- no wonder BMI canceled its flight on us, forcing us to route through Frankfurt to get to Amsterdam.

I changed a set of seats so that my daughter and I sit nearer each other. (Our reservations are not linked, because she is flying on my United points). I printed off my boarding passes. I printed off hers.

Wait a minute! For the 3-legged trip, I only have two passes, while she has all three. I recheck my reservation online, and Air Canada has me down for only two legs. Gulp.

I called Air Canada's reservation line. The agent noted that other customers had also been calling to complain of the online check-in being flaky. He told me that their computer system has a limited number of requests it can handle, and so might be overloaded. Welcome to 2009.

He confirmed that I was in the system for all three legs, but that I'd have to get the third boarding pass at the airport. I asked if he could assign seating for the third leg, but he could not see our trip's two Lufthansa legs on his system -- odd, since I was able to see them through their Web site.

Eight hours to go before the phobia leaves me.

Comments

[Temet Nosce]

Afraid of overseas flights, huh? Now that's one payback to you American journalists ;)
Twice every year, I have to fly from DUS to the States (LAS, SFO), for all the CAD companies are at your place. You have my sympathy for the inevitable security frenzy though.
Don't worry, by the way, about online booking. As more and more Africans do indeed have cell phones, wifi and internet cafes have made it to Europe at last, too.
Again, take care and enjoy Europe,
Temet

[I also fly to Europe twice a year, but from my home in Canada. Ed,]

[Earl Kubaskie]

I have a few miles under my wings, too.

Sometimes you just want to scream, but I learned early on that you greet every airline employee with a smile - say please and especially THANK YOU - and in the end your travel experiences will tend to be better.

It is of course better for your own health to keep cool, but think about the job these people do, and the hacked-off screamers (and that's the sober ones) they deal with every day. If you can be one of the bright spots in their day, you'll find that sometimes they do everything they can to make YOUR day better.

I owe a lot of free first-class upgrades, re-bookings - exit-row seats if nothing else - to the simple policy of being a nice guy when I travel.

Good thing they don't REALLY know me ;-)