I have only been here a few hours, so I can't really say much about Brisbane yet. Let's get caught up on the trip to get here. It was my first overseas flight of that duration.
My last post got me to Newark. The flight to Vancouver was fairly comfortable. It was only about half full, so even in economy class there was plenty of room. I watched The Darkest Hour on the video service. The fun started when I got to Vancouver.
Vancouver has a beautiful airport, modern and spacious. On my way to meet my connection to Brisbane I was stopped at a desk and asked to show my boarding pass for the flight I just got off of.
"It was a boarding pass," I said, emphasizing *boarding.* "Once I boarded the flight I threw it away. I had a leg of my original itinerary cancelled and I had to rebook from a different airport. I had so many boarding passes I got rid of the ones I didn't need."
"We will have to call security" said the young man at the desk.
"Because I don't have the boarding pass for a flight I just got off of?" I said. "Obviously I had one, I boarded the flight. That's what a boarding pass is used for. Once I am on board, I don't need it anymore"
I felt outrage arise within me. I was at risk for really flying off the handle here.
Instead, I sat there while they notified the security people. It was 1:30 am in the morning in Vancouver. No one else was around. It was just me.
It turns out what they wanted me to do was go back through a special area of passenger screening as if I had just driven to the airport to get on the flight. Ok, this is a stupid as stupid gets, I could not be in the area of the airport I was in if I had arrived by any other method than a commercial flight, but reason wasn't going to get me anywhere.
The Canadian border security guy was nice enough, but my boarding pass for the flight that I need to get on next wouldn't scan in his system. After carefully examining it, we discovered it was for the wrong date. It seemed that the gate agent in New York had booked me on a flight that was scheduled to depart a full 24 hours later from Vancouver to go to Brisbane.
"Air Canada made a mistake here." I said. "Don't you think they would have told me about a 24 hour layover in Vancouver?"
The border agent was sympathetic. "Since there's nobody else here, let me run down to the Air Canada desk and see what they say. If I sent you out there to resolve this yourself that would cause you to have to re-screen in another part of the airport and I don't think you would make your flight."
"Ok" I said. I was seriously considering the possibility that I might see a bit of Vancouver before I ever got to Brisbane. I did purchase travel insurance. My coverage had been triggered by the cancellation, so if I needed to spend some money here I had resources. This would be at most a hassle, it wasn't going to cost me money in the long run.
After a few minutes he returned and explained the problem was with his system. The boarding time for the flight was on one day, the flight was on the next day. Somehow, that messed this all up.
He put my stuff and me through the xray and sent me on my way.
I got to the gate after my boarding group had already been called, so I literally walked right on to the plane, never breaking stride from the security SNAFU. I felt myself lucky to be on another mostly empty flight. I had another row to myself in economy.
That was important because I could stretch out horizontal across three narrow economy seats to sleep. It was a 14 hour flight.
I got more sleep than I expected. I also had time to watch Cabaret, Singing in the Rain, and Blades of Glory on the video service. It was like hanging out on the couch for fourteen hours. It did not turn out to be the endurance challenge I expected.
Passing customs in Australia was a matter of navigating a series of electronic kiosks. It seems like they could do all this at one stop, but what do I know? My bag was the second one to come off the baggage carousel. Cabs were waiting out front. The driver knew my hotel when I mentioned it to him.
I've showered and had a little rest. Now it's time to go explore Brisbane.
