Tag Archives: Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport

Toronto to Los Angeles to Sydney to Canberra (YYZ to LAX to SYD to CBR)

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I’m grateful that my flight out of Toronto and beyond went relatively well. The journey up to Toronto was a little out there. Toronto is the largest city in Ontario (and Canada) and is the provincial capital. The Toronto Pearson (YYZ) airport is a lot larger than the Ottawa airport (YOW). I spent an hour or so in the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge and enjoyed a couple of glasses of diet coke. My flight from Toronto to Los Angeles was really good. I sat next to a friendly passenger and the entertainment system in the Air Canada aircraft is very good. They have a USB port for recharging and connecting your smartphone and all the programs are on-demand. During my five hour flight I watched quite a few situation comedies that are not yet screened in Australia. I really enjoyed a compilation from the latest Winnipeg comedy festival.

I got into Los Angeles with a reasonable amount of time to spare (two hours) and managed to get into the United Lounge in terminal seven. It looked like United Airlines was continuing to have problems with its flights from that day. There were large lines of unhappy passengers asking to be put onto other flights, some of them were being sent to other airlines while others were being told to spend a night in LA.

When I got on board flight UA839 I thought we were going to have a trouble free flight except we didn’t move for more than an hour. At first we were waiting for domestic connections, then we were waiting for passengers from the last evening’s cancelled flight to turn up and collect their duty free, and then there was an on-board computer failure and the engineers were called. None of this really mattered given the prevailing tail winds and after an hour or so of delays we ended up being in Sydney about 15 minutes late. For me the flight was great. I was really tired and after watching Star Trek XI (2009) and eating dinner I fell asleep and didn’t wake until about 0300 AEST. The last 90 minutes of the flight was a little bumpy but not really bad.

Creamy garlic salad (iPhone)

Prawns and lime (iPhone)

Garlic bread (iPhone)

Tenderloin and gnocchi (iPhone)

Cheese (iPhone)

Sundae (iPhone)

Sundae (iPhone)

Fruit and yoghurt (iPhone)

Egg and sausage (iPhone)

Egg and sausage (iPhone)

I’m glad I’m back in Canberra. I’m tired and will sleep well tonight I hope.

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YOW to YYZ (Ottawa to Toronto)

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I woke up this morning a little sad that I was going to be leaving Ottawa and Canada. I’ve enjoyed the weather and the meeting I came here for. I always enjoy meeting with Canadians and colleagues from similar countries. I also had a feeling of happiness that I’d be returning to Australia and I’d see Bron again soon. I’ve missed her ❤ I really am not that happy to return to the cold and dry weather of Canberra.

When I woke up I knew that I would be flying in the reverse order of the flight to Ottawa, i.e., Ottawa (YOW) to Chicago (ORD) to Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) and then finally early Sunday morning I’d fly on to Canberra (CBR). My flight with United Airlines to ORD was due to depart at 1241 local time. I left the hotel at 1000 to give myself time for an international connection and in case anything when wrong.

In an unexpected twist I am now flying via Toronto (YYZ).

My flight to Chicago (ORD) was cancelled yet I wasn’t told (they have my mobile telephone and hotel number). When I arrived at the airport (YOW) I was told the Chicago flight was full and I was bumped to the Newark (EWR) flight which left at 1650. That would be a six hour wait at Ottawa airport.  When I asked if that gave me enough time in Los Angeles I was told I had an hour which doesn’t seem long enough for there. I was told to then go on-line to check-in because they couldn’t do it at the check-in counter. I proceeded to check-in on-line and discovered a discrepancy. I went back to the counter and asked them to change this. This is when I was told my Chicago flight had been cancelled and I was then told the Newark flight was now delayed. I was then told to go to the Air Canada desk to get a flight to Toronto and then to Los Angeles. They didn’t give me a boarding pass for my flight from Los Angeles to Sydney (SYD). I should point out the entire conversation/interaction lasted fifteen minutes and was very cordial. It seemed the United Airlines computer system is very slow.

I went to the Air Canada desk and they laughed because United Airlines does this regularly. They were also concerned that it looked like my flight from LAX to SYD was now cancelled (it had also been cancelled the night before). They printed me a UA boarding pass on AC card so I’ll see if I get back to Australia (I’m currently writing this in the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge in Toronto).

Security at the Ottawa airport was very thorough. Even though I emptied all my pockets they had to run a handheld metal detector over me. My belt was off yet it pinged over my crotch. The bloke then patted and prodded my crotch and actually felt my penis. I then had to go through the full body scanner. It was totally bizarre.

When I got through security I discovered my flight to Toronto was delayed by 30 minutes. Such is life.

AC451 YOW to YYZ. I have my US visas in my old passport and I need to carry my new passport as well (iPhone)

I also found the Toronto airport very confusing in terms of passing through customs to get checked in for a transit through the USA. I wish I could read French because the French language signage seems to be more comprehensive than the English signs.

The YYZ Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge is very comfortable but there isn’t a view to speak of.

AC795 YYZ to LAX The BlackBerry is still delivering me lots of work e-mails to respond to :-) (iPhone)

I’m sorry if it sounds like all I do is complain. I suppose blogging about the experience is my way of ventilating and feeling like I’ve shared a lesson identified and hopefully a lesson I’ll learn from.

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