Air Travel Should Be Easy

AHH- now that I am all showered up, squeaky clean and comfortably plopped in front of a fan, I am ready to share our flight ordeal with you all.  I will try not to rant, but I’m making no promises.  Oh, and one more thing- I have a potty mouth.  Sorry, but I’m pissed off and I can think of no other way to convey this tale to you than to use expletives.  Yes, my Mom and Dad did teach me better than that, but understand my frustration…
It all started in Red Deer after a quick Google search for flights back to Laos.  I have to mention that I am a rather skilled at Google searching, and after all our travelling, I have become fantastic at finding cheap flights.  Something else I should mention- flying to Laos isn’t easy, nor is it cheap:(  I threw up my hands and after some deliberation, Dan and I decided it was best to call a travel agent to take care of the details as we wanted to spend our free time with family- not scouring to internet for deals.  We decided to call the Flight Centre in Red Deer.  I have to give a special shout out to Flight Centre…. Hey Flight Centre….. I hate you and will never, ever use your services again!!!!!!  Now that that is out of the way… :(  We met with our travel consultant (who's name I possess but will not be so immature as to print it on my Blog- though I am tempted) and after some work on her part we found a flight that would leave at a perfect time.  The layovers were nice and because we were looking forward to getting back on the road we decided to book it.  Oh wait- funny thing is that Flight Centre doesn’t have Travel Visa information and because we weren’t 100% sure of Laos Visa requirements, we missed out on that particular flight.  Dan spent days, literally days phoning every Laos consulate to find out if we would be allowed to fly into Laos without a return ticket.  The only Embassy to even answer their phone was in Tokyo- Now for my special shout out to Japan… Hey Japan, you are bloody brilliant.   Your people are so helpful and pleasant and when we have the funds we will travel to your amazing country and spend loads of tourist dollars.  We love you Japan!!  Armed with the appropriate knowledge we went back to Flight Centre and sat down again as our travel consultant looked for a new flight – after some waiting, she found a few that would work for us.  Here it a simple question for you- Don’t you think travel agents should have some travel experience?  I was slightly alarmed when she not only had no idea where Laos was but proceeded to try and sell us tickets with layovers that where impossibly short and would be impossible to make.  I’m not even sure that she had ever flown before- maybe to Mexico :(  URG!  We settled on a slightly more expensive route that would fly us to Tokyo, Japan then to Hanoi, Vietnam and finally to Vientiane, Laos.  Perfect.
Fast forward one week.  After saying our goodbyes, Dan and I boarded our Air Canada flight from Calgary to Tokyo.  Upon our arrival, we made our way to the Transfer counter, which was easily pointed out by a large, ominous sign (picture below). 

We made our jokes- laughing and thinking we were so special, until it became apparent why it was posted.  Surprise, surprise, Air Canada fucked up.  Now, I am blessing my stars that they did, but it still pisses me off that they are incapable of providing a consistent, reliable service.  I hate Air Canada.  We were standing there, at the ticket booth, dumbfounded by what we were being told. Air Canada neglected to check our tickets properly when we boarded in Calgary, and thus missed the fact that for Dan and I to fly through Vietnam on a connecting flight, we would need a Transit Visa!  WTF?????!!!!!!!!!  Now, I haven’t been to Vietnam yet but I am beginning to hate them and their government too.  The first incident after trying to enter Vietnam (see previous post titled As the Wind Takes Us) was completely our fault and I take total responsibility for that but I’m just curious… what kind of backwards, money-grabbing country requires a Transit Visa to get off one airplane and onto another?? (Other than China of course.)  Seriously, AHHHHHH, so frustrated.  We felt like we were being fucked three ways- one by Flight Centre for selling us a ticket with a connection we couldn’t make, two by Air Canada for letting us fly out of Canada, knowing we would be stuck in Tokyo and finally by Vietnam for all their over the top border restrictions.  We were utterly shocked that all these factors had added up to the stupid, stupid situation we were in.  Luckily, for whatever reason, Dan and I have horse shoes up our asses and were blessed enough to have landed in Tokyo- the home of efficiency and organization.  Since Air Canada had made such a huge mistake in flying us half way around the world, it was up to them to fix the situation.  Our Tokyo, Air Canada representative spent hours sorting out our options and was able to change our flight path, allowing us to fly through Thailand and not Vietnam. Not only did we not have to fly back to Canada and forfeit our flight (one of our only options) our baggage was diverted, we made our new flight by the skin of our teeth and we arrived in Laos on the same day as previously scheduled.  Again, we love Tokyo.
Drama, Drama- why do we attract all this drama?  Oh well….. at least we made it safe and sound.  I do feel sorry for the supervisor at Flight Centre in Red Deer though- I am gonna tear them a new one.

Dan catching some ZZZZ at the Bangkok airport.  We have become very, very good at sleeping

anywhere we can find the space to lie down.