Usually when I travel it's no problem: I sail into one airport and (eventually, often with some stops in between) out of another. Nothing interesting happens, and that is certainly a good thing when it comes to the actual transit part of travel.
Some days, though .......
I arrived at the airport two hours early, after saying goodbye to P. and his mom, M., who has come in to house sit and look after the P-man while I'm out of the country. I go to the express check in counter (hooray for the small benefits of traveling too much! ;) and I get my first heart stopper: the woman isn't sure my passport has enough time left on it. It expires this year, but not exactly soon and I certainly haven't had enough time in the country to apply for a new one. My plan was to do so as soon as I return from this trip. So here I am being told that they might not even let me out of Canada?! *sigh* She checks into it some more, I point out that I do have a return ticket, that I travel in and out of Europe rather regularly, etc ... and she decides that, yes, I will be allowed to travel around Europe at least one more time on my current passport. Holy heart attacks!
I brought a guitar with me this time, a small one to be sure but not small enough to just through in the Lufthansa overheads and so Air Canada makes me put it into the oversized baggage. I swear that it must be the smallest oversized bag in the load. Unfortunately the Russian junior hockey team and the Swedish ski team are simultaneously wreaking havoc on the oversized baggage security check. You can't make this stuff up.
I'm in that line for nearly 40 minutes when I decide that I need to take matters into my own hands here and so beg my way to the front of the line as my flight will leave without me otherwise. Social skills are useful. :)
Next stop: security. Of course, the line is horrendously long. I've never been through that side of YYC when it was that long. I was going to miss my flight now for sure. Not.
I walked right past the line, waited for the fellow who checks people's boarding passes at the entrance to finish with his current passenger and then interjected myself. I asked the people who were next for just a moment's grace and then pleaded my case to the gatekeeper. Turns out ... he used to work in oversized baggage and completely empathized. He said with an empathetic smile, "I probably shouldn't, but just this time ... just go through. I know how bad oversize can be!"
With the final hurdle cleared, I am now sitting at the boarding gate waiting for boarding to commence. Thankfully YYC now has free wifi so I can blog my pain in near real time. ;)
Porto, here I come!
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4 comments:
That's a heartwarming story, - and coming from you, completely believable. If ever there was an award for patience and diplomacy in the arena of FOSS, it would end up sitting on your desktop. (Rendered as a widget ofcourse) ;)
Your travel stories crack me up! I travel on OCCASION and never have a glitch. I think I can't travel with you...it might jinx it all..OR you have to travel with me..and we'd need fun t shirts to wear so everyone would know that YOU were with ME and not the other way around..thus avoiding the whole heart attack travel game! :)
Love you...be safe!
J
heh, sounds quite an achievement to me :) guess you're playing the airport level on a higher level than i am ;)
I experienced the same passport expiration malarkey. It used to be you could get on a plane anywhere even on the day your passport expired. Now some countries arbitrarily rule that they won't let you in if your passport expires "soon", where "soon" can be months after your return flight! So governments and travel companies "help" by not letting you leave, months before your passport expires.
I was joining a short July cruise in Europe with a passport that expired in November, when I found the cruise co. had a rule that your passport had to still be valid six months *after* the trip. I checked my government's regulations for each country I was visiting: for Denmark and UK it doesn't mention any expiration requirement, but for Netherlands/Norway/Sweden Big Brother says "The passport should be valid for at least three months beyond the date of your expected return." I presented this info to the cruise company and they deigned to let me on their boat. A jet-setter like yourself should probably get a new passport at least 6 months before the old one expires.
The only reason I can think of for this ridiculous restriction is countries are afraid you'll arrive, never leave, and when the authorities get around to collaring you and the other dirty goddamn hippies for overstaying your welcome, your passport will have expired and it'll be harder for them to kick you out on the rendition flight back to wherever. Or maybe the authorities watched that Tom Hanks "The Terminal" movie.
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