Tochi's Hut

Ever wonder what to do if your flight is cancelled? You hear such news every now and then. Freak snowstorm hits the Northeast or Midwest or Colorado. Thousands of flights cancelled. Millions of travellers stranded in airports. You pity those poor souls for half a second and move on. Until it happens to you. :(

One of the most stressful all nighters I've ever pulled.

Saturday, March 17:
00:23 - Check flight status online: CO 2136 from YYZ to EWR - Flight CANCELLED.
00:24 - OMG. WTF.
00:25 - "Due to severe weather system in the NorthEast, New Jersey is expecting up to 6 inches of snow. All flights before 12pm on March 17th in and out of Newark have been cancelled"
00:27 - Scramble mode. It's past midnight, what to do?
00:28 - CO's website is utterly useless. There are no instructions on what to do. Only find CO's reservation number online... dialing.
00:28.5 - "Thank your for calling Continental Airlines. All of our agents are currently busy, and you have been placed in priority sequence. Expected wait time is 290 MINUTES."
00:29 - Phone on hold. Listening to bad music. Preparing for a long night.
00:30-3:30 - Using cellphone, tried calling various hotlines, including the Cantonese hotline. Found out Continental Airlines is called "大陸航空". I had to hear it twice to believe it. lol.
04:05 - "Hello? Hello? Anyone there?"
04:05 - Wake up and "ME! I'm here! Hi Hi" - scrambling to find my itinerary. Connected to Reservations Agent! (after only ~200 minutes! yay!). I was so tired by then. "Sorry sir, for weather cancellations, we can only arrange you on other Continental flights. The earliest I can fly you out to HKG is on Wednesday, and you'd arrive on Thursday." -_-;; I asked if there were other routes that can get me to HKG earlier. "I can fly you to Houston on Tuesday, then off the Guam, with a stopover in Honolulu, then towards Japan... and I don't have a CO flight from Japan to HKG." Okay okay, Wednesday is better than nothing. "Sorry, someone took the last seat on Wednesday's flight. This is not good.... Earliest is Thursday now." After 15 minutes, the Wednesday seat was available again. Take it! "Please hold sir, let me get my manager to approve this arrangement"
04:20 - "Sir, I'm very sorry. Did you buy your ticket from a travel agent? Because the ticket code is BULK (I have no idea what it means), we cannot do anything to your ticket. Your best bet is to call your travel agent tomorrow morning. Thank you, and good bye."
04:21 - Shocked.
04:25 - Still shocked.
04:30 - This is ridiculous. If I were at the airport, they won't ask me to call my travel agent. I have nothing to lose, so loaded up my stuff in the car, and off to the airport!
05:09 - Got to the airport. There were 5 people in line at Continental check-in.
05:15 -
Me: "Hi, my flight to EWR this morning was cancelled. I want to see what other arrangements I can make."
Lady: "Where is your final destination?"
Me: "Hong Kong"
Lady: "Oh my God"
Me: --- I didn't need to hear that again ---
Lady: "Let me see,... our earliest flight out is Wednesday, that's not good. Let me see what else is available."
Impatient guy next to me: "Hi, I have to get to EWR today, get me on a flight"
Agent to impatient guy: "You know your flight has been cancelled, why are you at the airport?"
I really wanted to interject and comment about their useless reservations hotline. However, I didn't feel sorry for the guy, and I didn't want to jeopardize my position with my agent.
Lady: "Northwest has a flight today, let me check with them to see if they have a seat."
Me: "Today?!?"
Lady: "Darn, they won't give up a seat. Not good."
Me: :(
Lady: "I can fly you on Air Canada to Narita, and you can fly NorthWest on to Hong Kong. Let me call Air Canada."
Me: "Is this today?"
Lady: "Yup, you'll leave at 2:25pm and arrive in HKG at 10:29pm. "
Only 3 hrs later than planned. I'd take that!!
Lady: "Air Canada isn't picking up their phone. :("
Lady: "Tell you what.. I'm here all morning. You just run over to Air Canada in Terminal 1, and try to check in! If it doesn't work, come back here and look for me"
I could kiss this lady on the spot.
05:35 - Train to T1, went to Air Canada check-in. My booking wasn't in the system, as expected. Fortunately, they have enough seats available, so they confirmed my new flight plan for me. Since my flight was in the afternoon, it's too early to check-in my bags. I had to come back around 10am. While my heart was filled with relief and joy, my body just sagged - too tired to express anything else.
06:15 - Got back home to finish packing... I didn't dare to sleep, in case I won't wake up in time.

To answer that question on "What to do when your flight is cancelled?" Go to the airport (weather permitting, of course) and skip the reservations hotline.

Got back to the airport at 10am to check-in. Instead of a stopover in New Jersey, I have a stopover in Japan now. I would say this is a better arrangement than before. :)

The Air Canada flight to Narita was only 2/3 full. The seat beside me was empty, so I was able to lie down (legs were bent tho) and sleep pretty comfortably. The air hostesses were awesome. I asked for another Cup Noodle (since I was so hungry), and on top of the noodle, they brought me some sandwiches as well. They also offered to give me another Salmon meal later in the flight. One cannot refuse such a kind offer. Watched the Prestige and Tomorrow Never Dies on the flight. Wanted to watch The Queen, but was too tired. The air hostesses all thought I was Japanese (I need a haircut). Spoke to me a couple times in Japanese. My confused look must have been too similar to my tired look. When they were handing out the Japan Immigration cards for non-Japanese residents, the hostess said, "Japanese?" and walked right on! I had to call her back to make sure I didn't need one for the stopover.

In Narita, my stopover was only an hour, and I still had to check-in to Northwest! By the time I got there, their line was so long! No time for shopping!! After talking to some folks, I found out that the Continental flight to Hong Kong on Friday (I was suppose to take the Sat one) had been cancelled! These folks had spent the night at Newark, and got re-routed to Narita as well. Their luggages were in limbo, since they weren't re-tagged.

By the time I got my boarding pass, they were already boarding the flight. I quickly ran around looking to pick up some "grass biscuits" or other trinkets. Then I saw this snack stand, selling ramen for 700 yen. I really really wanted one, but I couldn't take it on the plane. :(

The last leg of my flight went smoothly too. The guy beside me was a fellow Canadian, a Habs fan from Halifax. He was going to China to teach aboard. We shared some stories, etc. He went backpacking to Europe last year - Rome, Turin, Venice, Florence, Saltzburg, Vienna and Prague. Showed me some pictures from his trip, and gave me some tips on what to do and what not to do. The Canadian flag on the backpack helps! I need to get one. I cannot wait for the Euro2008 trip! :):):)

Got into Hong Kong at 11:09pm. Made my way home. It's been a really long day but at least I got in today (with my luggage). That's all that matters.