Home sweet home; thanks Air Canada!...Jim's deals of the day

TORONTO - Bit of a long trip, but on the whole that was quite painless.

Up at 4:30 a.m. in London (11:30 p.m. Wednesday night, Toronto time), then a short jaunt to Heathrow. Arrived at 5:30 and thought, "Uh, oh." There were a couple thousand folks milling about outside Terminal 3, where Air Canada flies out of. It looked dicey, but Air Canada had passengers lining up for three flights: Toronto, Halifax and Vancouver.

At first, they put me inside the terminal with another couple, but they quickly said it was a mistake and we'd have to go back out in line. Naturally, I said fine, but I wasn't going to lose my spot in line because they made a mistake and sent me indoors for two minutes.

Not a problem, as it turned out. They had lineups for people who had booked and confirmed tickets for today's flights, and they formed a small pool of folks over in another area; folks that had tickets for other day. Made sense. They were quite pleasant and as reassuring as they could be without making promises.

There were some nervous moments leading to the 8:30 a.m. departure, but around 7:15 or 7:30 they told us it was fine and we could go check in. Great stuff.

It was a touch chilly outside; about 6 degrees for a couple hours of waiting. But in the scheme of things no trouble at all.

They got me a good seat, I watched a couple movies (quite enjoyed Sherlock Holmes, as well as Crazy Heart), and that was it. No sweat. There were at least four or five empty seats on the plane as far as I could tell.

So it's lovely to be home. I can only hope other travellers have similarly good experiences. I suspect not.

A guy who works for Air Canada in London had been stranded in Dubai. He couldn't get from Paris to London directly, so he took an Air Canada flight the other day from Paris to Toronto, then wanted to fly back to London.

Canada Customs and Immigration smelled something funny, and hauled into the private room for some quick interrogation, he said. They found it hard to believe his story, but he ultimately won out and made a very, very long trip for a journey that should've been an hour or less.

What some guys will do to get to work!

JIM'S DEALS OF THE DAY

Canada is 60% off with VIA Rail. Sale ends April 25, 2010
http://www.travelalerts.ca/ccount12/click.php?id=3068

 

From $89 - Add $70 & receive two 18-hole rounds of golf and breakfast for two at Horseshoe!
http://www.travelalerts.ca/ccount12/click.php?id=3069

 

$467 - Toronto to Puerto Vallarta, 1 week 4* all-inclusive holiday ($748 w/tax)
http://www.travelalerts.ca/ccount12/click.php?id=3070