Travel has changed. For those who do it constantly, you already know this but for others who have not ventured south of the border recently, like me, the changes are startling.
In my case, I was going from Ottawa to Chicago. After considerable research, I decided to fly Air Canada from Toronto to Chicago after taking a bus from Ottawa to Toronto. The combined return air and bus fares were over $100 less than flying directly from Ottawa with Air Canada or any other airline. To make my connection in Toronto, I had to catch the earliest bus out of Ottawa at 1am. Surprisingly there are a lot of people who think traveling to Toronto on the 1am bus is convenient and the crowd swelled to 2 bus capacity before we left.
Two hours later I was awakened from sleep for our first and only pit stop at a Tim Horton's somewhere in rural Ontario. After buying a coffee and bagel with cream cheese and after a bus driver change (our bus driver switched to a bus going back to Ottawa) we were on our way again. This time I stayed awake and watched the familiar route on highways that were way past their "best before date". Eventually the familiar Toronto cityscape began to appear and we made the first city stop at Scarborough Town Centre next to the Transit station at about 5:15am. After dropping a few passengers off, we were on our way again and arrived at the downtown Bus Terminal at about 5:40am. The bus terminal is a few blocks from the closest subway station on Dundas Street West and I walked over to catch the subway to connect to the bus that would take me to the Airport.
I actually ended up on the subway platform before the first subway train had arrived and was able to examine what had changed since the last time I had been there 10 years before. For one thing the information/ advertising displays are now full color LED/LCD TV's that show how many minutes before the next train arrives. Remembering the frustration of a previous life waiting on past platforms wondering when the next train would come, I felt this was a definite improvement and allowed the rider to make alternate choices if the wait were too long. When one doesn't know, one tends to keep waiting hoping upon hope it won't be too long. One more than one occasion in the past when I had given up hope and decided walking would be faster, I would then hear the long-awaited train arrive as I was too far up the escalator to run back in time to catch it. At least now a countdown clock would give you better information to make the decision.
The next surprise was the subway train itself. I could tell from its approach that it was a new train, but the upgrade embellishments inside were phenomenal. The transit map, for example, now had little green and red lights. The green lights lit the stations already passed whereas the red lights were for stations ahead of the train. The station immediately ahead flashed in green until arrival. Other displays in the car showed the next station while a female voice announced the same information several times. As the train entered the station, the display would advise what side to exit the train. Toronto has a confusing and inconsistent design of platforms that are either separated on either side of the station, or joined together in one central platform, which means you never know (until now) what side of the train you'll be getting out on. Even those familiar with the system have been occasionally embarrassed by lining up at the wrong exit doors only to have the doors on the opposite side of the train open up when the train stops, and they then have to sheepishly turn around and cower out of the train hoping that no one else noticed, which of course everyone did.
But the biggest surprise was the train itself. Those familiar with traditional Toronto subway cars, or have even only seen the New York subway cars with the adjoining cars that allowed changing cars only by going through a risky set of two doors, would have been impressed by this totally connected train, no doors. Like a giant snake, the train is a series of cars that have these flexible, articulated connections that on straight stretches allows you to have an unobstructed view in either direction from the front of the train to the back. No risky moving from car to car with a possible catastrophic fall between the cars unto the train tracks. There was no "between the cars". Just the long, snake-like mechanical animal that allowed you to walk the length of its mechanical belly without pause. I was impressed. For contrast, I ended up on a more traditional train that had none of these enhancements after transferring to the Bloor line.
The bus to the Airport from Kipling was crowded, but because it was before the morning rush hour, it made good time and dropped me at Terminal 1 where my real adventure began.
If you're not familiar with Terminal 1, as I am not, it is a confusing mega-size airport terminal and you have to read a lot of signs to get to where you're going. The bus dumped us on the arrivals level and I eventually found the departures sign pointing upstairs. After going one flight up, I found express terminals for Air Canada and United, so I decided to save time and use one. Now these terminals require not only your booking reference number, but your passport (scanned) and your destination address in the USA. Of course I didn't have them ready when the screens appeared, so I had to dig through my bags. The computer terminal, like an impatient waiting agent, kept asking me "Do you need more time?" as I searhced for the documents. Finally in frustration I just hit cancel and headed up to the third level to join the unwashed masses lining up at the Air Canada counters. After seeing the thousands in the queues here, I reconsidered not using the automated kiosks, went back to the second level with all my documents in-hand, and breezed through the process getting my "boarding pass" in just a few minutes. Since I only had carry-on luggage, I headed back to the 3rd level to look for my gate which the kiosk had shown as F-66.
Once on the third level, the large alphabet numbers lead me through A to G when I saw a sign directing me to Connecting Flights and F, so I followed that sign. When the agent at the door to that area saw my boarding pass, she advised me that I had to enter through another F entrance around the other side and that only passengers connecting from flights could go through there. After walking around the hundreds of passengers lined up at the Air Canada counters and walking for another 500 meters, I finally did find the other F entrance which, incidentally, enters the same hall a few meters away from the original entrance I first tried. They're basically just two different doors into the same room - there's no other difference. The only difference I can see is that it saves walking for connecting passengers, which, I guess, is not a consideration for new passengers.
I had already grabbed the US Immigration card to fill out and planned to do so in the very long, snaking line (the first of many I would stand in). The agent at the door, however, insisted I fill in the card BEFORE joining the line, which I did, then waited until my turn came up with the next available USA Immigration Officer. Having already had my passport scanned and my hotel information entered in the automated kiosk, I now had to enter the same information on the Immigration form. Don't you love unfettered bureaucracy?
I should tell you that my passport expires next year. As a five year old passport with hair that is not as short as mine is now and perhaps it was a little bit thicker in that photograph, I guess I should forgive the agent for examining it closely and then holding it up in the air beside my face and comparing me to the image as he did this double-take several times before either convincing himself I was the same person, or perhaps deciding that if I was a terrorist his grandmother could take me out before I was able to release any weapons of mass destruction.
So released from USA Immigration, I then joined the snaking queue for USA Customs. Eventually I made it to an agent who made the standard questions, confiscated the Immigration card and dispatched me to the next snaking line waiting to be cleared through security. This scene was the most chaotic. People were half-undressing themselves removing shoes, belts and other metal garments so I knew the score by the time I got to the X-ray belt. But I had forgotten about the no liquids and had a can of shaving cream and a bottle of moisturizer that proved to be too dangerous for carry-on luggage. They were confiscated. I wonder if security agents working at airports ever have to shop for these products or if they just bag the confiscated goods and take them home? Or do they own corner stores where they repackage confiscated goods and sell them at discounts? Do you really think that all this discarded stuff ends up in landfill? Perks of the job, I guess.
So I was finally inside the security perimeter! Gate F-66 was almost within reach! Since I had nothing to eat since the Tim's pit stop in the middle of the night, I found a fast food place close to security that was open and who were serving over-priced "breakfast" items. I chose a tasteless bagel with western omelette and cheese, an oat bran muffin and a bottle of water which at $15.00 for everything wasn't completely unaffordable. Unfortunately it WAS completely tasteless. Still it was filling - and I knew there would be no food on the plane.
As I walked to my gate, I noticed that my "boarding pass" did not include a seat assignment. So at gate F-66 I approached the counter only to be intercepted by another waiting passenger who advised me that they were still working on getting out the United Denver flight and the Air Canada agents had not even showed up yet. We watched the drama of the passengers who had not showed up for the flight even though they were in the terminal (lost maybe?) and the one passenger who had somehow boarded without being on the passenger manifest, but they finally sorted all of the out and only left 5 minutes late at about 8:50am. Our flight was due to leave at 9:15am. By this time the crowd around the front waiting to speak to an agent had grown to about a dozen people.
Finally one of the agents made a PA announcement asking certain passengers to come to the desk. My name was not among them. Happy passengers made their way to the desk to claim their free upgrades to Business Class. A few minutes later they began calling names for passengers to get their seat assignments, and this time my name was on the list. So finally I was now ready to board my flight.
We now live in a world of "if you check it, I will charge you". Everyone has carry-on now. The trouble is even though the bags are designated as "carry-on" size, passengers feel that anything crammed into it, even if it bulges, is fair game. The squeezing, pushing, jamming of these bags into overhead carry-ons is enough to cause severe structural damage to the plane! I'm sure these carry-on racks are loaded way beyond their holding capacity when every square inch is crammed full. I'm just waiting for the lawsuits when the whole one side of carry-on collapses killing or injuring passengers seated below. The other effect of all this effort is longer loading times and we left 15 minutes late at 9:30am not only because passengers took more time in stowing their luggage, but also because the flight attendants then had to take lap bags away from people and add it to the scarce empty spaces above, or advise customers to stow them under the seats in front of them.
The flight was delayed taking off and delayed again landing so that we arrived at the Chicago Ohare terminal 1/2 hour behind schedule, and then had further delays as passengers struggled to release their captive bags from overhead. I made my way through the airport to tha baggage claim area, even though I had all my bags, and waited for my sister, Maria, who was picking me up. No Maria. Now I confess that while I planned my itenerary with care, minimalised my packing to the bare essentials I would need for a weekend trip, I did NOT think it was necessary to convert any Canadian to USA currency since Maria would meet me at the airport and I could always get US currency at the hotel. That is when the real adventure began. More in part 2.
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