Monday July 1st to Tuesday, July 2nd, 2024
My trip didn’t get off a great start at the very beginning. My first flight was supposed to depart at 5:13 am but of course after getting myself to the airport 2 hours ahead of time (I woke up at 2:45 am), the flight was delayed 2 hours for a broken PA handset. It was such a minor thing that we were given the go ahead to fly, provided that the correct paperwork was filled out before we took off. We left the gate only 20 minutes late, getting my hopes up that I might still make my tight connection, only to have to return to the gate to sit some more. Excruciating.
During the wait, I frantically tried to rebook the next flight to Calgary, on the fence about whether it was better to continue to DFW or get off in Miami to rebook the whole flight. I’d actually been scheduled to fly the next day, connecting through Chicago, but I’d been nervous about that tight connection and leaving everything until the day before we were supposed to start the hike. So I changed my plans to fly a day earlier, allowing myself some breathing room. Best made plans…now it seemed like I would have been better off with my original schedule.
American Airlines had no customer service agents available to take a call at 7 am. I was on hold for over 45 minutes before I had to hang up, since we were finally departing. The flight attendants were telling everyone to use the AA app to simply rebook, but I’d been trying that with no success for the past hour as well. I clicked through all the prompts only to find that there were no available flights all the way through the July 7th…a whole week! I thought it must be a glitch so I went to the AA website to see what was scheduled, finding plenty of seats still available for purchase for a flight to Calgary, departing Dallas at 7 pm the same day. I had a premonition that I was going to get screwed if I didn’t take matters into my own hand, so I decided to buy a seat at a cost of $623, which was $100 more than I’d paid for my round trip ticket when I bought it back in early February. I figured that when I was finally able to talk to an agent, they could cancel the new reservation, rebook me to the seat I’d bought as a ‘placeholder’, and refund the full cost. That or there would simply be seats available for rebooking through the app and I could cancel the new reservation for a full refund.
In Dallas, I stood in line for 2.5 hours to talk to one of the 2 agents available to assist over 50 customers that had been stranded due to delays. I got a call back from an agent on the phone after 2 hours. She told me there was nothing she could do. There were no flights available to rebook for the next week and the flight I wanted to take that night was sold out. This was again a lie, because I’d just checked the website and there were still seats available at a cost of over $2k. She told me I’d have to file a request\complaint for a refund and that I could probably only get credit for the part of the flight to Calgary that I’d missed from my original reservation. Unbelievable.
When I hung up in disgust, still standing in line to talk to someone at the airport, I noticed a commotion nearby in the terminal. An elderly lady had collapsed to the ground. Someone was just starting to perform CPR and the paramedics arrived minutes later. They tried CPR for more than 30 minutes, by which time I could tell she was gone. Her husband, son and grandchildren were all standing around in anguish. I felt so bad for them. At least this put my situation into perspective…things could always be worse. All this was happening while I was still standing in line.
It was a complete waste of time. I got the same run around from the person behind the ‘help’ desk. No flights for me to rebook for over a week, I could go suck eggs. She made it sound like I should be happy I was even able to buy another ticket on the flight… apparently you just have to pay twice for a flight on AA, because paying once doesn’t guarantee you’ll get there. I was also very concerned for my checked bag. I wanted to just go pick it up at baggage claim and recheck it, but she told me that was basically impossible. Quoting her, “it could take over 10 hours to locate it in the pile of thousands of bags in the holding area below and that it probably would make it to Calgary.” If not, I’d just have to wait to file a missing bag claim. She refused to do anything more and was extremely put off when I requested meal vouchers… something they were obligated to offer when passengers are delayed due to a fault of the airline (but not for weather delays).
Again, I decided to take matters into my own hands and went to the baggage claim to look for my bag anyway. This meant I would have to go through security a second time but I didn’t care, I had time. I didn’t see my bag but was able to talk to a baggage agent, who at least was able to enter a request to have my bag redirected and re-categorized to my new record locator. Apparently this was a necessary step that the help desk agent was unable or unwilling to do to ensure my bag made it. By now I had zero trust in any airline employee, but was hopeful the baggage lady had actually done something to rectify the situation.
My tent, ground sheet, stakes, spare shoes, trekking poles, and resupply food for nearly the whole trip were all in that bag, so I desperately needed to find it. But in the meantime, I texted Woody about my situation and he was able to throw some extra gear into his bag that would get me by for a week or so. I easily went through security again and rode the train to another concourse and gate to wait 8 hours for my flight. It wasn’t yet posted on the departures board and the help desk lady hadn’t bothered to tell me any details, so I had to go to the ticket desk to ask where it was. The lack of customer service was appalling.
At least I was able to use the 2 $12 meal vouchers to defray some of the costs of the expensive airport fast food. I also spread out my sleeping pad and bag to try to take a nap, since I hadn’t been able to sleep on the first plane. It was nice that I had some of my gear still with me. Finally, just before boarding my flight, I asked the gate guy about my checked bag. He was able to track it to the gate loading bay, confirming that it was ready to be put on the plane. Whew. I boarded and got settled in my seat, second from the last row, reeking of toilet smells and hot as hell, but still I breathed a big sigh of relief.
The flight was completely full but we were all boarded and ready to leave on time. The 7 pm departure time hit and the crew announced that we just had to wait a few more minutes for some last bags to be loaded. Time ticked by, then another announcement: the pilots had just timed out and we’d be delayed until the airline could find some others. Everyone’s phones started dinging with the delay notification and I about screamed. But we all know what happens when someone loses it on a plane, so I gritted my teeth and buried my frustration and disbelief. I’d just texted my friends that I was finally on my way.
By the time some new pilots made it, the flight attendants had also just timed out, so we had to wait hours more for their replacements. I couldn’t understand why AA assigned them to this flight in the first place, when they were all so close to the end of their shifts. Incredible incompetence…that’s the only answer. I also realized that the claim of loading bags at the departure time had just been a stall tactic by the crew, ensuring that we were delayed enough that they hit their time limits and could get off the plane. I was so sick of being lied to all day long! I was also sure they were just going to cancel the flight and all 200 some passengers would just be SOL through the busy 4th of July travel period. They even said people could get off the plane to stretch and use the bathroom then announced 20 minutes later that if we did get off, we couldn’t get back on! Several people had already exited. Unbelievable!
The fallout of a Westjet worker’s strike also meant that there were thousands of their passengers seeking seats on other airlines… everyone trying to get to and around Canada. It was a perfect storm of a travel debacle that I was stuck in, with 6 months planning and thousands of dollars in reservations and supplies for 2 months of travel all in jeopardy. It was a small consolation that I’d bought travel insurance. I saw my whole hike going down the drain in a flash. I guess I’d been incredibly lucky to have made it to all my other hikes with relatively no problems. In fact, I’d always felt that things had gone incredibly smoothly. I had serendipity on my side.
We did finally depart…after the time we were already to have landed. A 3 hr flight turned into over 6 hours. We touched down in Calgary just past midnight, at which point it was a new day and everything finally did start going right. I breezed through customs, with not even a single person asking about my declared giant bag of food. Woody had gotten in about 30 minutes before me and was waiting in the baggage claim. It was so great to see a familiar face and have a friend to tell my woes. Lo and behold my bag came out and I cheered! We split an uber to the hotel and I fell into bed around 1:30 am. I’d been up well past 24 hours but it was the stress of the situation that got me…plus the additional $623 I’d had to put down on the trip. I would have to waste more of my time to try to get it back.
We spent the next day getting our food resupply situated and packing it all into multiple boxes. We joined Vince and Georgie for breakfast in the morning and started talking trail and strategy. This was all stuff I was familiar with and was fun for me. The day ticked by fast. I tried to take a nap but didn’t have much luck. My migraines started up and I felt pretty crappy all day. At least we were staying at a very nice hotel, the Residence Inn by Marriott, all thanks to Woody’s mom gifting him a few nights with her rewards points. Our room was so sweet and the included breakfast amazing. Thanks Woody’s Mom!
We all went to dinner and met with Ryan, who I’d been put in contact with through Rory, a prolific hiker I’d given a ride to Billy Goat Days. Rory and Ryan were both Canadian and Rory had also hiked the GDT. Ryan lived in Calgary and had generously agreed to hold my roller bag with all our extra stuff for our return in 2 months. We treated Ryan to a beer for his help and it was fun to learn some perspectives from a local. For instance, the Florida Panthers hockey team, who had just beaten nearby Edmonton for the Stanley Cup, were actually liked by Calgary because a number of Panther players were of course from nearby. A spot on the team was highly desirable because Canadian players liked living in the warm climate over the winter. And here I couldn’t wait to escape it for the great north. The grass is always greener.
I went to bed way too late again, but at least we’d gotten a lot done and were still on schedule to start the hike the next day. A small miracle given how terrible airlines are these days. Vince and Georgie flew Westjet and almost got stuck in Toronto when their flight was cancelled. They wisely flew 3 days beforehand, so had time built in for delays. They had to buy a ticket on another carrier to get to Calgary but at least Westjet was offering to reimburse them (though they never did). Hiking thousands of miles is preferable to flying there, the way I see it.