14. Flying between Canada and Australia, overview. - 2022

 

Entry 14 – Flying between Canada and Australia, overview. – 2022

This could be called a “humorous entry,” probably worth reading and unfortunately was reality for us.

On finishing compiling this entry and re-reading the finished article we initially thought this entry to be too negative and possibly inappropriate to publish. We decided to leave it as is and add some further “positive” notations. When recording this entry we were suffering from “jet lag.”

For those reading this entry may we suggest consideration of adding your own thoughts of our entry and perhaps include memories of your flight experiences? Any thoughts for how we could do it better when we next fly?

So, here goes.

As long as we can remember, we have been bombarded through the media with constant publicity campaigns promoting flying as a glamorous lifestyle.

For us reality was another thing, even though we were not expecting to be pampered. To put it bluntly, it felt more like the live animal stock transport industry. We were pushed, shoved, copped the occasional whipping and eventually staggered out of their clutches feeling exhausted, battered and bruised.

Adding to our diminished state of well-being they had fleeced a substantial amount of money from us, including extra hidden costs.

So how can we avoid the real drama of the airline industry?

Unfortunately, you can’t.

We have listed “some” of the flight issues we incurred during our Canada trip 2022. This is our personal journal, recording our life experiences at given times. Will we travel by air again, most likely. Hopefully this information might help us the next time we look at flying again.

When booking a flight, you are required to pay in full at the time of making a booking, regardless if the chosen flight is in a week or a year. And you are locked in. As we found out the airlines can cancel your flights and you are still locked in. Grrr.

We booked our Australia to Canada flights with Air New Zealand who provided a more direct route with less stopovers. We paid a higher premium in comparison to cheaper flights available with other airlines to our chosen destination.

1           After a couple of months from booking our flights, one of our 2 flights was cancelled and we had to add an extra stop over. We could have obtained cheaper flights from other airlines for the same number of stopovers.

If we had decided to cancel our booked flights, we would have lost nearly 50% of our paid money due to imposed fees.

Culprits for fleecing our money and camouflaging the truth, Air New Zealand and Flight Centre whom we made our bookings through.

We found ourselves constantly checking the airlines flight schedule for any changes. This included the night before our early morning first flight and all appeared good.

2           We presented at the counter at the designated time to be informed our seats had been cancelled and we had no flight.

This flight had been arranged by Air New Zealand with an associate airline, Qantas.

Qantas staff were inflexible and we refused to budge from the counter. Eventually we were allocated other seats on the same flight. We saw other people seated in the seats we had originally been allocated.

Adding to this problem we were now required to collect our baggage at the arrival airport and personally book them in for our next scheduled flight, instead of the automatic baggage transfer between flights. At least we were advised of this requirement by the Qantas customer officer. Though it did add extra time pressures to make it on time to the departure gate for our next flight.

We suspect there had been a computer glitch either with Qantas, Air New Zealand or Flight Centre. Or was it human error? We rang Flight Centre 24-hour help line (6 am) and they informed us their records showed no flight seating cancellations. Thus no one took any responsibility. It seemed, once we presented at the airport we were on our own.

3           Our next scheduled flight from Melbourne airport departed around 2-hours late due to a comedy of events. It had landed late, everyone was on board for departure and we were stalled further waiting for some extra baggage to arrive for loading, once out on the runway a passenger suffered a medical condition and we had to return to the terminal for medical treatment.

When we arrived at our next destination we sprinted through the airport, constantly looking about for signage indicating the direction of our next departure gate. We arrived at the gate, boarding with the last 5 passengers. Thankfully at the time the airport wasn’t crowded and we managed to get through security screening with minimal fuss.

Appreciatively, our final destination flight arrived on time. Though, we were extremely exhausted feeling a bit like we had just negotiated our way through a war zone. It had involved plenty of weaving, ducking, side stepping, the occasional tactical attack with some retreating.

4           Whilst in Canada we took a flight between cities. We had to pay extra for baggage and paid an additional $60 fee for the privilege to be seated together. When checking in at the airport we were no longer seated together. The customer service officer couldn’t assist with our seating. We rang the help line and they claimed we hadn’t paid the seating fee as the receipt they had provided didn’t show the itemised payments we had incurred. And they refused to acknowledge our allocated seats together on the original receipt as proof of payment. And yes, the flight departed an hour late. Culprit Air Canada.

5           Another reason we had originally booked with Air New Zealand was due to their change of flight fee policy of $100 each plus any difference of seat fees. Due to personal reasons, we requested a change of flight returning home earlier than anticipated. We requested a certain flight that was showing available seating for the type we had originally booked. We were only provided with an option of a flight a day later which we had to accept. We had already paid an additional $700 fee for a sky couch. For our change of flights, the sky couch was unavailable and we were required to pay $1,700 in additional fees. We were not provided with an itemised account. Our thoughts, we had been charged the hypothetical full fare price, even though there were seats available at a cheaper rate on their web site for that flight. We were disappointed by the deceptive tactics of misleading information. Culprit Air New Zealand and Flight Centre.

For our return flight to Australia, we were to fly out from Toronto Pearson airport, Canada’s busiest airport. 2019 statistics show 50.5 million passengers processed. It was a big, vast busy airport.

Leaving Canada our first leg of the flight was with, Air Canada. It took considerable time to find a customer service officer to advise us the correct self-service kiosk we needed to utilize for the required check in. There were hundreds of self-service kiosks scattered out along about a 200-metre stretch in numbered areas. Our provided flight information showed no reference for a location to check in. Culprit Air Canada, skimping on required information.

Of interest during our time in Canada we had a conversation with a local business man. He travelled by air regularly each year. Air Canada had a monopoly on flights throughout Canada. He had no choice but to utilize Air Canada and he regularly incurred problems caused by a poor culture embedded with staff of Air Canada.

6           We travelled through Toronto airport security screening process reasonably pain free. From the screening room we moved into another room controlled by American customs. There were hundreds of people queued waiting to clear customs. It took us about 1 ½ hours to clear customs. Thankfully we struck a nice officer who cleared us within a couple of minutes. Avoid flights with transit stops in America. The provided picture shows a small section where we were queued, awaiting our turn to clear customs.

We were happy with our decision to arrive at Toronto airport 5 hours prior our departure flight. It had taken nearly 2 ½ hours to progress a few metres into the inner sanctum of the airport.

We had originally booked our 2022 flights with Air New Zealand as they provided flights avoiding a stopover in America. Sadly, we had memories of poor treatment by American customs/security in 2017 even though we were only transiting through America. Unfortunately, Air New Zealand had suspended their direct flights between Canada and New Zealand, including our original booked flight.

7           And yes, our flight from Toronto departed an hour late. We were provided with a couple of explanations via the intercom for our late departure, both we thought untruthful. Our assessment, more likely there was a problem with our plane. Culprit, Air Canada with a culture of misrepresentation. Picture attached showing our missing aircraft at our departure gate. Of note no aircraft docked at this gate during our time at the airport. When boarding we walked between 100-200 metres to another boarding location.

8           Leaving Canada we were transiting through San Francisco airport. We had researched the airports web site for the location of our arrival gate and next departure gate. This included the provided information how to navigate your way around the airport which was sketchy lacking detailed information. In this instance it was recommended to utilize a driverless sky train. There was no information relating to distances between the different sections of the airport. As per normal once you leave the plane you are on your own. We were an hour late for an allocated 2 ½ hour turn around. Thus, our anxiety levels were elevated before we departed the aircraft. As per normal there were no customer service officers about to provide assistance. As per normal, the much-needed advisory signage was lacking. We walked as fast as we could in the direction of the only visible displayed signage - baggage collection. It was around midnight, all the shops were closed, the internal airport lighting had been adjusted to twilight and thankfully on a positive it was nearly deserted of people. Basically, we saw no signage for the sky train. Well into the bowels of the airport we did find signage indicating the direction of our departure area. After about ½ hour of pacing out we stumbled into our departure gate. By then our bodies were screaming out, “No More.” Somehow, we had bypassed security screening??? Culprit, all airports should provide better guidance signage for their customers, these very customers, the sole reason for their existence! Even consideration of an app to assist customers to track their progress through the maze of passageways. And the airlines could easily provide reference information on how to move between arrival and departure locations they had locked you into! Hmmm.

9           Just to keep us on our toes, our next departure fight left on time. Prior to departure we were summoned to the counter. Evidently you could only board the plane with an original Air New Zealand ticket and not the Air Canada tickets we had been issued at our originating flight. There was no reference to this information we had been provided by the airline. Culprit Air New Zealand technicalities. Yes, a minor complaint but at the time we were getting rather frustrated with the never-ending lack of helpful information.

10         Our last transit airport was at Auckland airport. By then our brains were fried, our bodies were aching and we were suffering from sleep deprivation. At one stage during our flights when checking via the web the airport departure information showed our departure gate number had changed from the recorded one on our tickets. It was 5 am and the human traffic was minimal. The airport display board showed our departure flight time and next to that was displayed, “RELAX.” Yes, in this instance there was no need to rush about, we were on time and the airport had been reasonably easy to navigate. Unfortunately, there was no reference to any designated departure gate. It was a nice gesture but we were unable to close our eyes in case there was an announcement calling for us if we had deposited our bodies in the wrong location. Admittedly, we were “so,” over the fiasco of flying.

11         Over about a 37-hour period, we had spent nearly 24 hours in flight, seated in a cramped position with the rest negotiating foreign airports.

Our resilient younger bodies were no more, now aging too quickly, struggling to cope with the body punishment inflicted by plane travel. Though we did speak to a much younger person who had recently taken a 3-hour flight and it seemed their body had incurred similar fatigue.

Should we take some responsibility for our inflicted pain, with due consideration of our age? Any future planned flights, perhaps deliberation for breaking up the long journey with a few stop overs along our route?

Admittedly a number of problems incurred were caused by the “human element.”

More appropriately, perhaps the airline industry should be more accountable for the turmoil inflicted on its customers?

Would we travel by air again. Most definitely not at this point in time. The feeling of our fatigued bodies, questioning if we had been through some form, similar to child birth? Excruciatingly painful but over time the “pain,” memory diminishes and you do it again!

On a positive, once we were onboard Air New Zealand aircrafts the customer service and food was satisfactory to good. Their on-board entertainment systems had a section showing various exercises you could do from your seated position which our bodies appreciated.

Our bodies were extremely fatigued by the time we returned to our home. We had a couple of 12-hour sleep sessions over the following 48-hour period with a few siestas in between. We exercised in the garden and took a couple of walks around our suburb helping to reset our internal time clock.

The airline industry does provide movement around the world within reasonable timelines. It provides timely transportation of goods and people. Its existence has created a large international tourism industry, which we participated in. For like-minded people like us we are able to visit family living elsewhere in the world. There are many positives for the airline industry.

With systems in place for movement of people and goods, perhaps it is now time for the airline industry to be looking at ways to improve the services they provide? Like lessening the turmoil experienced by customers which in turn would greatly assist minimising the flow on impacts, operating their business?

Some of our thoughts; when transiting through various airports the appropriate airline take responsibility for your movement through the airport, the airports to provide an app where you can track your movement around the airport assisting with prompt passage and in turn the airlines could use this app to see if you were nearby at that crucial time, “about to close the aircraft door?”