Two people went to the airport... but only one makes it to their destination...

I decided to go with an ominous title today, rather than the profanity-ridden one floating through my head.

Similarly, I had much more profound plans for my next post than a rant, but circumstances have changed a little.

I am supposed to be sipping apple cider by my parents' fire place at the moment, but instead I am aggravatingly back in my apartment with a headache, close to $60 broker in useless taxi costs.

God Bless Air Canada.

The story thus far...

Today I was set to return to HomeTown for the holidays. The Duke and I managed to get flights to our respective destinations leaving at around the same time. He was smart enough to fly WestJet (Air Canada's competitors), whereas my destination is so small that there is no choice of airlines.

He was greeted by no line up and pleasant customer service, while I was greeted by broken check-in machines, and huge line-ups to check-in, and again to drop of my baggage.

We have lunch, then say our holidays goodbyes (*sniff*), and head off to our respective terminals.

The air is abuzz as I sit down. I overhear phone calls about delayed earlier flights, rumours that we will be flown to a town midway between BigCity and HomeTown and bused from there, etc, etc-- but no word from the airlines.

After waiting for some time, a blinking sign finally informs us the flight has been delayed.

We wait.

An airline worker speaks onto the intercom. She says that unless she calls out your name, you are not on the flight, and even if you get on, she can't guarantee it will make it to its destination.

Names are spouted off through the static. Mine is not one of them. I overhear her telling another passenger that the earlier flight never left due to weather condition, so we have to compensate by carrying the passengers scheduled for that flight. I overhear someone else who wasn't able to get their flight yesterday. People are on the phone, telling their loved ones that if this flight doesn't make it, they are giving up on any more travel attempts.

At the last moment, after most everyone has boarded, they call my name. I clutch my boarding pass with glee, and make my way to my seat.

The flight attendant gives the safety spiel with full accompanying gestures. The pilot tells us the length of the flight. We start speeding down the runway. We stop. We start. We stop. We wait. This goes on for half an hour until that familiar intercom voice, punctuated with apologies, comes back on, and tells us that the flight has been cancelled due to weather conditions at our destination.

A woman with a cowboy hat starts laughing hysterically and shouts to her friend "Your turn to pay for the hotel tonight!"

As there is no flight crew to bring the plane back, we are stuck on the runway. However, we are allowed to use our cellphones. One man speaks to a friend at our destination, who says the sky has cleared and it is remarkably sunny. No matter, apparently.

We get off the plane, only to be greeted by a snappy worker who just hands us pieces of paper with a phone number on it and bids us adieu. I ask her if I could get compensated for my cab fare, as it will easily cost me nearly $100 with the back and forth trips to the airport, and she looks aghast that I would suggest such a thing.

So, yeah, back on the plane tomorrow, with bells on and fingers crossed. My apartment is unfortunately devoid of any remotely perishable sustinence, as I was expecting to be gone for 2 weeks. I'm going to drown my sorrows in a girlie movie with a friend, and sticking needles in my Air Canada voodoo doll.

(To be fair, I understand weather delays can't be helped-- but what can be helped is keeping the passengers uninformed for hours, and being completely unhelpful to those stranded and inconvenienced. I'm just grumpy because it doesn't feel like a holiday right now-- tonight was supposed to be my family birthday dinner, and instead it may be an ichi-ban night).