Karma in Airports-I believe: Montreal

Following a rather weird incident involving Canadian customs in Montreal (see previous entry (http://travelingladyjaz.blogspot.com/2011/11/customs-where-even-most-calm-and.html). My traveling companion and I were a little pissed off and tired to say the least. We rushed over to our second connecting flight to another city in Canada before flying home (cheapest ticket). We got to the gate and noticed it was pretty crowded and overheard people saying the flight might be overbooked. Since I had never experienced that actually happening to me before I just naturally assumed it wouldn’t happen (I was new to traveling). Also since we were just searched for drugs by security everything else would work out alright (Again, new to traveling). About 40 minutes before the flight was to take off the flight staff announced, “Ladies and gentleman this flight has been overbooked and we will need some people to give up their seats”. I couldn’t believe it. All I wanted to do was get home. They made the announcement a couple more times and no one was budging. Then they said, “For anyone who would be willing to give up their seats on this flight we would accommodate with a first class seat on another flight and 100 Canadian dollars. My friend said, “We should ask if we can just get a direct flight back home. We don’t need to be on this flight.” We went to the woman at the desk and asked if there were any direct flights to SFO leaving that day. She took a couple of minutes to look it up and confirmed there was. When she told us the time and we did some quick mental math we realized that we would still get to SFO around in same time we would if we took two flights to get there. Not quite understanding how that worked (figuring out time zone when you are already jet –lagged. Not happening!) we accepted the offer.
We were lead to a separate area to get our 100 Canadian dollars (woohoo!). We were informed since now we were flying first class we could enjoy the Canadian airlines first class lounge. I didn’t even know that was a thing for first class flyers but apparently it is. While resting in the lounge I took advantage of the FREE FOOD and INTERNET! As someone who is alwyas traveling on a strict budget I can’t stress how important taking advantage of free anything is. I ate more than I really needed to but I needed to seize the moment.

Once on the plane we were immediately given drinks of or choice (even alcoholic if we so choose) before the flight even took off. I told the flight attendant this was our first time flying first class so it was a little strange how nice they were being towards us. After we took off the attendant came over to us with a bowl of hot towels. I didn’t even think that was a real thing! We took one towel each and patted our faces down in the way I assume frequent first class flyres would do. It didn’t serve any purpose. Making my face temporally hot and wet did not enhance my flight experience at all but dammit if I didn’t milk every moment of it. Then the food came. I am not talking about plane food, which I think most of us are comfortable saying there is no real food in plane food. This was served on actual plates and looked like effort was put into it! It was a chicken something and was actually quite good and a pretty big helping as well. After eating I got ready to put a movie on and try to sleep in my bigger than normal first class seat. Then I saw another cart headed towards me..with a gigantic cookie! They bring up the cart to us and before they say anything I exclaimed, “We get dessert too??!! Is that a cookie?!”. She laughs and said, “We are serving a warm cookie with cream.” I was reaching for it before she got to the cream part but it was a great addition to the cookie.

So the flight was quite great. I wondered why I don’t fly first class more often. As soon as I got home I looked at the general price associated with upgrading to first class and decided, well that was a nice onetime thing. This was my first lesson in airport Karma. We dealt with the frustrating process of customs and being suspected of smuggling drugs. But were rewarded in first class..and most importantly, free gigantic cookie and 100 Canadian dollars!

(Note: I didn't have any pictures from this particular event because I was too tired to take any. So I am using a humorous pic of me looking bigger than the Colosseum.I think it has a karmic feel to it.)

Customs: Where even the most calm and collected person will be tempted to flip their sh*t.

One unavoidable aspect of traveling is going through customs security. Most of the time it is a simple but annoying process. Then there are those times that customs and security are so mind-boggling frustrating that I am tempted to say, “ Can I see what’s in YOUR bag”, or “I just went through security, what could you possibly find that team didn’t 5 minutes ago?”. I also have a fantasy of throwing my belongings at the airport security and yelling, “I don’t need to take this, Jaz out!” I understand that these people are just doing their jobs. However airports and train station security have given me experiences that I will remember for a life time. I give you the ongoing series: Customs.

Canada edition: Yeah, Canada.
After a wonderful trip to Italy my friend and I were regretfully flying back to the states and our normal lives. We had two stops in Canada before flying back to San Francisco and our first stop was Montreal International. Since we already gone through security in Rome and were riding the same airline we only needed to go through customs/passport control to fly back into the states. We decided only to bring carry ons for the trip. Most airlines allow one carry on for the overheads and one to place under your seat at 22 pounds each (so basically two items). After getting off our flight we walked to passport control and presented our passports to the officer. He told us since it was now a domestic flight we would need to re-check any luggage we had (not true, but it didn’t matter). I told him we didn’t have anything checked in and only had carry ons. He stopped what he was doing and said “Two women, and you don’t have any checked luggage?”. I ignored the sexist part of that statement and replied, “No, it’s easier without it”. He says again, “But, Two women..”. I kindly replied, “Well people back pack through Europe all the time so it’s not that crazy”. He looked at us skeptically and instructed where to walk after we had gotten our stamps. We followed his directions and found ourselves at a security line. I was confused since we already went through this in Rome. Since we weren’t leaving airport grounds we should not have to go through a check twice. The guard looked at us and directed us to take off our shoes and brings our bags up. He told the employees we were sent from the passport control line. The woman from behind the scanner (who never smiled) came up to us and said, “We need to open your bags”. We of course said OK and they began to search. This woman proceeded to use some sort of scanner on everything she touched and asked me what each item was. Even though she was clearly holding a shoe she would ask me what it was. About half way through this I started to connect the dots. The man at passport control perked up when we said we didn’t need to check any bags. The people in the security line knew we were coming. One employee during the check was smiling at our clear confusion. It dawned on me that we didn’t look our best either. We had our sweats on, hair in messy ponytails and no makeup. I didn’t think we looked THAT suspicious though.
I looked at my friend and whispered “I think they are searching our bags for drugs”. She looked at me and said, “Yep”. I was tempted to ask the lady if there was a problem but talking to her didn’t seem like the best idea. I also wanted to point out that there wasn’t a drug in Rome that I couldn’t possibly get in San Francisco, and of better quality. (Please note, I do not use or endorse drug use. I am merely stating a fact). After we were deemed not to be drug lords we were allowed to catch our flight. An awesome chain of events followed this that included us ending up getting first class but I will save that for the next entry.
Tip for traveling: I recommend using the two carry on strategy for two weeks or shorter trips. You don’t really need a whole bunch of clothes and it’s OK if you wear repeats. You won’t be seeing the same people day after day anyway. This also saves the hassle of checking in luggage and picking it up. Of course you might be suspected of smuggling drugs overseas but whatever. It will make for a good story.