I have used the Greyhound bus service between Maidstone and Saskatoon more than 40 times.  The defining characteristic of this route is that the bus is always late.  I do not even recall it once being on time when I used it, though it could have happened.  The question is always “when” and “if” the bus will arrive, making this a highly suspect service you cannot rely upon.  On this occasion, I waited a combined 3 hours outside or in a car in -30 Celsius weather for two different buses that did not come and missing a full schedule of meetings for work.

Although small, Maidstone is prosperous and rapidly growing community benefiting from a boom in the

Greyhound Bus Schedule: Maidstone to Saskatoon - Realistically the bus never arrives to depart from Maidstone in schedule.

Saskatchewan petroleum and agricultural sectors.  The greyhound website claims that there are three eastbound buses per day from Maidstone to Saskatoon.  There is no deport, just a simple shack connected to a business on 307 Main Street  which serves as a depot for ticket sales and courier services during business hours, from 0900 (9am) to 1730 (530pm).  Honestly the bus is always late, at least 15 minutes but often up to 30 or 45 minutes.  Sometimes it is so late that you do not know if the bus will arrive.

I attempted to take the 1730 (530pm) bus on the evening of January 6, a deep Winter day with a temperature hovering between -25 and -30 Celsius.    The bus stop is very limited with the business open only during the 1015 (1015am) eastbound bus.  It closes when the last bus should arrive, but because that bus is always late, you are forced to fend for yourself.  In the Winter this can be tricky.  Either you stand in the street, have a car to wait in or you wait in the unheated shack with nowhere to sit and windows that are covered in frost in the Winter, making it impossible for you to see out or a bus driver to see you are waiting.

Maidstone Bus Stop/Depot - imagine spending 3 hours here in the -30 celsius of the Winter for buses that never came

To add to the experience, there is no way to tell when or if the bus will show up.  You could try calling the Greyhound’s toll free number (1-800-661-8747), but you need to write it down because it is not to be found at the stop.  Nor is it in the local North Battleford or Lloydminster phone books, which provide the numbers only for the local depots.  You are very lucky if anyone bothers to answer you call at these two bus depots.  So you had better get the telephone number from Internet before leaving.

In total I waited more than 2 hours on my first attempt to catch the 1730 (530pm) bus which never came.  I began waiting at 1715 (515pm) because, even though the bus was going to be late, it could arrive on time.  Over the next couple of hours I went through waiting in the car of two different driver two different times each, waiting on the street and waiting in the unheated shack.

At first I did not have a number to call, but one of the driver’s was able with luck to get ahold of the bus depot in North Battleford (1 306 445 4453) long distance from home while I waited on the street at 1830 (630pm), being told the bus would arrive any moment.  My feet turning number for the cold, I knew better and asked her to return so I would not have to wait in the cold.  At 1900 (7pm) I began to suspect that the bus was not coming and tried calling the North Battleford depot about a dozen times, with no one answering.  There was a toll free number you could call, if you had a pen and paper handy to write it down, but which would not be helpful with the local delays.  I was anyways running out of credit.

At 1920 (720pm), having burned a good amount of fuel keeping warm, we gave up to return home where I could use the phone to try to figure out what was going on.  The Greyhound agent on the national toll free number for Canada said that there was no information saying the bus was even late (!!), but that I could try to take the 410 (410am) bus otherwise and try the Saskatoon bus depot (1 306 933 8000) to try to find out what was happening.

When I called Saskatoon, the lady there said she had no idea where the bus was or if it would come, having herself only recently even found out it was a couple hours behind schedule (it seems communications within the company are not the best).  She advised against my taking the 410 (410am) bus, saying that it might not come.  At this point I had to call the person picking me up in Saskatoon, who had the previous week been forced to wait an 45 minutes when that bus was late on the same route, to know that I was not going to make it that evening.  We drove back to the Maidstone depot just in case the bus was still coming, and waited an additional ten minutes.

I had only one shot now, which was to wake up at 330 (330am) to try to catch the early bus.  I had taken this bus once before.  Previously you had to wait on the highway and flag it down when you saw it approaching (seriously, that is what you had to do).  Now I was told by phone, seeking reassurance from the Greyhound agent from the national telephone number, that the stop was now in town at the regular bus stop (pictured) above and that, despite the warnings from the Saskatoon depot, that the bus would arrive.

It did not.  In the morning, having transported my heavy baggage in and out of vehicles and houses a dozen times, I tried again to catch my bus to Saskatoon.  I arrived early at 400 (4am) and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited, listing to the radio.  At 435 (435am) I began to wonder if this bus would come too?

I drove around for 10 minutes hoping it would arrive.  Because it was so early and far too cold to wait without a shelter , I had to borrow are car which I would leave on the road for someone to pick-up.  I gave up at 445 (445am) meaning I had waited for around the 3 hours in total in the dead of Winter on two buses that were either very late or did not come at all.

Now I am going to try the 1015 (1015am) bus to see if it will come.  I will have missed an event I was supposed to speak at followed by two meetings.  I have to see if I can salvage the rest of my trip and still catch my flight on time.

The bus service on this route is by far the worst I have ever experienced.  It is also the only route that my luggage has ever been lost on, and it confounds me that it can always be late yet the schedule never be changed.  It is frustrating that there is no way to tell if the bus is even going to arrive compounded with the pain you have nowhere to wait.  My on experience is that even with a day in advance you cannot be sure you will be able to attend scheduled meetings or flights, so you have to be very careful if you are going to use this bus because it might not come.

See also:

Greyhound has more than enough problems with its service, like unheated buses through the Canadian north in the Winter (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/01/06/greyhound-bus.html) between BC and the Yukon.  That could only be very cold.

One of the difficulties with traveling is getting a good haircut.  Of course this depends on how you are traveling.  If you are are just backpacking across Europe, you may not care what kind of haircut you get beyond the local bargain barber or trainee shop for hairstylist students that offer bargain rates (like Toni and Guy in London which offers 5 GBP haircuts at their student academy on Tottenham Road in London, UK, at certain times of the week).

On the other hand, if you are on the move, and you need to look your best, or just want to avoid the butchering an unknown barber might give to your hair, you may want to know the best place to get your haircut and at the best rate.

Here is some advice for getting your hair cut if you are in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

At the top of the list is Ethos.  It is an Aveda concept salon and is one of the best places to get your haircut in Saskatoon, with a men’s haircut costing around $30.  I know two people in Saskatoon who are very particular about their haircut, male and female.  These two HAVE TO HAVE the best haircut and both introduced me to Ethos.

Ethos

Recently I was in Saskatoon though and was not able to get an appointment at Ethos.  I had no choice but to experiment with another hair salon.  I am not sure if it was just the stylist “Karen” who did a good job or if it is generally a good salon.  I got a good haircut and it only cost me $24.  The name is Midtown Stylists in the Midtown Plaza Mall.  Their number is (306) 652-0202.

In July I took for the first time in 7 years the train in Canada.  Flying can be very inconvenient and if you fly a lot, you probably want to find other options whenever possible.  To do this I try to travel by train rather than by plane, and here are some reasons why, using the trip between Montreal and Toronto with VIA Rail (www.viarail.ca) as an example.

In this case I found a great option, taking the train on a round-trip from Montreal to Toronto.  The trip takes around 5 hours by train.  It seems much longer compared to the 1 to 1.5 hour flight, but in reality it is not.  Factor in the time it takes to get from to the airport or from the airport in either city, having to be at the airport an hour or more ahead of the flight plus the good chance your plane will be late for departure and/or arrival, and the time works out to be pretty much equivalent.  With the train you are Downtown in either the case of Montreal or Toronto when you leave or arrive, meaning you simply have to hop in the local transportation (Toronto Transit Commission http://www.stm.info/ or the Société de transport de Montréal www.stm.info) to get where you need to go.  This saves you the cost of a taxi or in the case of Montreal the $15 bus between the city and the airport.

Not only that, but the train costs significantly less than the plane in this case.  You can travel this trip for as little as $150 on a round-trip if you book in advance and take advantage of the discounted regular fares.  In my case I booked late and had to take a discounted first class VIA 1 ticket for one half of the trip, but even then the fare was quite affordable at $230 and probably saved $150 on flying.

Booking online was easy, though I did have to redeem my ticket at a kiosk at the train station prior to departure.  This could be done at a regular ticket booth or a computerized kiosk, where I simply had to put in my credit card I had booked the tickets with to have them printed.  (There are other options than using your credit card to get these tickets.)  Since I did not have easy access to a printer for the ticket to be printed for presentation to a ticket agent, the computerized kiosk was highly convenient.

Traveling by train was a real pleasure.  First of all there was not the stress and heavy security of the airport check-in.  It was so nice to not have to take off my shoes, my belt, empty my pockets, and still somehow set off an alarm of the metal detector.  The train stations were both very easy to access and the trains were on-time.  They were not overly crowded like many airports.

When traveling first class on the Montreal to Toronto leg of the journey, I was able to wait in the lounge prior to departure.  As it was an 06:45 morning train though, the lounge opened only about 15 minutes prior to departure, which didn’t help me much as I had arrived earlier and was forced to just wander around the station.  In fact, the lounge was nothing special, just a little nicer to sit-in and a newspaper to read.  The only advantage was being able to board ahead of the long-line of passengers waiting in the regular classes to board.  Even then, with assigned seats, this was not a major advantage.

The advantage of the first class seating was the meal you could order ahead of time, and according to your dietary restriction.  In my case I ordered a vegetarian meal and the meal was okay.  There was also regular coffee and tea service.  There was also a little more seating room over the regular class, though to be honest both are generous with VIA and in fact infinitely better than what you get on an airplane.  Even in the regular class (which VIA calls the Comfort Class) you had a food cart you could order from.  In addition to the seating space it is just nicer and easier to get up and walk around on a train than a plane, with more room.

The added plus of traveling by train are electrical outlets at the seats.  This means if you bring along you laptop it can make the trip pass so much quicker, whether you have work to get done or watch a movie.

VIA also advertises Internet access for most of its trains on the route between Quebec City and Windsor (the Quebec-Windsor corridor) which includes Montreal and Toronto.  For me this sounded great because I would be able to use my laptop and access the Internet.   This was the one BIG disappointment with the trip.

For about $10 you can purchase access for 24 hours (there are also other options to buy a pass for a month or a highly expensive pay-per-minute plan).  VIA does warn that the technology for the Internet access is not perfect and like cellular technology outages may occur or transmission speed may vary.  http://www.viarail.ca/wirelessinternet/en_index.html

For the trip in first class from Montreal to Toronto the access was not good but usable.  It’s transmission speed harkened back to the old days of dial-up Internet.  What I found myself doing was to have several webpages loading at the same time, while I also had Word documents to work on, in order to make the slow transmission speeds bearable.  Then there were still long periods when the Internet would not connect at all.

I am not sure if first class has better access to the Internet (which as written above was not good at all), but for the trip from Toronto up to Montreal in regular class it was completely unusable.  I had a number of things I wanted to get done while on the train but after 1.5 hours of trying to open just a single webpage, I gave up in complete frustration.  No one else I spoke to on my car was able to access the Internet either.  So that was a waste of $10.

(When I contacted the customer service of VIA Rail the next day I got no comment and no chance to recoup the lost cost. From my experience and what I have spoken with other people, it is best not to go waste the money on this Internet service which essentially does not work.  I would love to get feedback from others who have used it however.)

Overall, other than wasting money on an unusable Internet service, VIA Rail was a pleasurable and affordable experience which was much better than flying between Montreal and Toronto.  I would recommend this option over flying to anyone, with fairly frequent daily trains.

In fact I recommend taking the train over the plane whenever possible.  I started doing this last year (2007) when I booked online in advance in the United Kingdom for a business trip between London and Dundee, Scotland.  The round-trip only cost 56 GBP. I had researched the prices online with The Trainline http://www.thetrainline.com/ but believe I had actually done further research and ultimately booked with the National Rail Enquiries website http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/, having the ticket delivered to my door by mail.

The whole trip took around 8 hours with a change and short delay in Edinburgh.  Like the VIA Rail trip trip described above it was much more convenient with less stress, convenience of location and convenience of service.  There were also electrical outlets so I was able to keep myself busy on my laptop for good parts of the journey.  Though British trains are not terribly spacious, they are more so still than the planes.  Plus the costs of traveling to the airports, with the time lost, can run up the overall costs of your flight significantly.  Only Heathrow is connected to the expensive London Underground and traveling there costs half (or less depending on if you have an Oyster card https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/entry.do) than the 15 GBP of traveling to the other airports.  Add in the time lost getting to the airports and the stress, and in the end even the 8 hour trip by train is not that much different than flying, with a lot less stress and less inconveniences, and probably cheaper.

My advice, whenever possible, take the train over the plane.

The added advantage is that you will reduce your carbon footprint and put less pressure on our environment.

There are many different websites with opportunities to volunteer abroad.  Here are a couple of the better ones.  Hopefully this can turn into a long list.

Volunteer Abroad – www.volunteerabroad.com

Volunteer Abroad is a popular website listing opportunities to volunteer abroad with organizations around the world. It lists a variety of opportunities abroad other than just volunteering, such as internships, scholarships, studying and eco-adventures. It is a pretty useful site worth taking the time to explore if you are interested in going abroad but not simply as a tourist.

Idealist – www.idealist.org

Idealist is one of the longest established websites listing opportunities to volunteer or work with progressive non-profit organizations in your home country or abroad.

Have you ever looked at sites online to book an airline ticket in Europe, yet not been able to find the great fares quoted? Ryanair is particularly notorious for advertising low price fares for which there are in reality very few seats available.

Well, the European Union’s Consumer Commissioner has taken notice too. Check out this article from the British newspaper the Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/one-in-three-people-buying–flights-online-is-ripped-off-825410.html

One in three people buying flights online ‘is ripped off’

By Amol Rajan
Saturday, 10 May 2008

Consumers are being ripped off, deliberately confused and misled by the websites of leading airlines, a report for the European Commission has found.

A survey of 386 websites in 13 European countries discovered that just under a third were breaking the law, either by concealing charges or misleading the public with promotional offers that were not in fact obtainable.

The European Commission is taking enforcement action against 137 of the websites. Ryanair, Austrian Airlines and the Finnish airline Blue 1 were among the offenders, according to Swedish and Norwegian authorities, while third parties such as tour operators and travel agents also came under fire.

In total the websites are administered by 80 companies, which have 12 months to demonstrate their compliance with trading regulations or face hefty fines and even closure.

Fifty-eight per cent of them discreetly added extra charges that were not included in advertisements, such as booking fees, “airport charges”, or fees relating to credit card payment, priority booking, luggage and fuel. Forty-nine per cent of the illegal websites broke regulations relating to pre-checked boxes on booking forms which required consumers to specifically decline a service in order to avoid extra charges.

The other main problem was the lack of seats available at the fares seen on advertisements.

Meglena Kuneva, the EU’s Consumer Commissioner, said that despite repeated warnings, many airlines had refused to improve their online operation. “It is unacceptable that one in three consumers going to book a plane ticket online is being ripped off or misled and confused,” she said.

Earlier this year I bought a Kensington all-purpose travel adapter. It sounded like a good idea. It supposedly would act as an adapter for all the different plug-ins I deal with in my travel: American, British and European models. It would supposedly be able to receive plugs from each type, which is great as I have electronics bought in the American, British and European models. It would supposedly also be able to fit in each of the three wall plug-ins. It would allow me to leave behind the myriad of different adapters I would carry around with me, including the frustrating Italian model for a country where the prongs of the plug on the sockets of the plug-in are slightly smaller than the standard European model, requiring a separate adapter.

I made a mistake. I took off on a trip without my old adapters, without having first tested out the Kensington adapter. It turned out to have a major flaw. Its sockets were too small for the round prongs of my European plugs and also for the third round prong for my American model laptop plug. This meant I could not use the Kensington model for either my laptop or my travel iron, two of the most important electronic devices I travel with. This made the adapter essentially worthless, while I was left scrambling looking for adapters in each country I visited on my trip. This was annoying because it was a lot of work to find the adapters in some cities, taking up time I did not need to loose while traveling and would not have had I not bought the Kensington plug.

So while it is a good idea, I give the Kensington adapter a failing grade for both not working and the inconvenience it caused me on my recent business trip. Hopefully a better model will come along. I also wasted $35 on it, more than the cost of all my other adapters, which I also had to then buy back again while traveling.

The top picture is of the Kensington adapter from the side. The bottom picture was the horror of my laptop plug being stuck in the sockets of the Kensington adapter, which actually bent the third prong of my laptop plug. Fortunately I was able to extract it without further damage.

The rest of the account of the trip from London to New York, stuck on my stopover at Pearson Airport in Toronto …

As my trip was now delayed by close to four hours, I arrived into Pearson Airport, Toronto, the same time my connecting flight was originally to have arrived at New York. The problem for me was that I was in transit I could not contact the person who was picking me up (my “ride”) in New York, and by the time we got into Pearson they were already waiting for me at the airport in New York. I did try to ask Air Canada staff if they could contact their colleagues at New York’s La Guardia airport to convey this information for me to my “ride.”

The Air Canada personnel would not help me while I did not have a cell phone number for my ride. Several Air Canada personnel try to claim that my ride could simply ask at La Guardia I was on the airplane or not. That was a ridiculous suggestion probably meant just to shut me up, hoping I was foolish enough to believe it. For security reasons and personal privacy, NO airline will supply information of who is arriving on their flights.

In the end I was around 4 hours late to La Guardia. I found my ride sitting and reading a magazine, having spent the entire time waiting for me, hoping I would be on the next Air Canada flight in from Toronto. We were supposed to have had a meeting that evening to prepare for an event the following evening, which unfortunately we could not carry-out. She was an one hour drive from home so it made more sense to wait for me than to return home, hoping I would be on the next flight. Thankfully for her, I was, but it was close. A problem at Pearson almost cost me another delay.

In order to help kill time in a trans-Atlantic trip that was turning into a minor nightmare of stress, exhaustion, delays and simple endurance, I saw there was an ice hockey game being shown on a big screen at a pub/restaurant called the HMS Host. I thought I could finally relax for a bit, waiting for my next flight. It turned out to be far from that.

The HMS Host turned out to be understaffed and poorly staffed, with highly confrontational waiters. After a slightly long delay waiting for a hostess to seat me, a young lady appeared to seat me. I had 30 minutes to kill until boarding, meaning in the worst case scenario 40 – 45 minutes or else I would be in danger of missing my plane. My departure gate was just 3 minutes away.

I sat and waited some time, over 10 minutes, with an empty table and no waiters coming near. I was actually quite hungry after all of this flying, and did not know when my next meal would come. However, at this point I knew it was impossible to order even anything quick. In fact the lady sitting next to me said it would be “good luck” if I actually got served by a waiter. They were completely ignoring our section. The lady next to me suggested flagging down the hostess, to was the only staff person appearing anywhere near us.

Probably I should have enjoyed the chance to just sit and watch the game. It would have been nice to have something to drink while watching it, but I also would have been unhappy if after 20 minutes a waiter finally appeared and I would have to guzzle it down in 10. I decided to flag down the hostess for her help in ordering a drink, which she did. It was then a few minutes afterwards that the waiter finally appeared, quite unhappy that he had been rushed over to me. He asked for my order, rudely. I asked why I had to order again, and he simply repeated himself. “Luis,” the name on his name tag, was quite upset with me. It was not a promising start to our relationships.

I simply repeated what I had ordered, with no idea to the price, and hoped that I would not be served two drinks out of this process. As the waiter already appeared confrontational, I could only imagine that would make matters worse if I had to refuse a second drink.

I made a mistake. I should have realized that with such service, I would have to pay up-front so as not to be delayed in my departure to my plane. It this point I was extremely exhausted though as I was 7 time zones out of sync, and had spent nearly 20 hours in planes and airports at this point. I was not at my quickest and it was now 2:30 am London time.

Over the proceeding 15 – 20 minutes I grew more nervous as time went by, with how to pay my bill. Heck, I did not even know to whom or how to find the staff. I was also pretty unhappy with the service at this point. I was watching as other customers got slowly seated and, with perplexed looks, dealt with the lack of service. One pair of ladies sitting a table away from me, who with time look more and more unimpressed, decided to pick up and leave after 15 minutes without a waiter coming to visit them. I wanted to do the same, as my plane would not be getting ready to board.

Not sure what to do, I made obvious motions packing up to leave, hoping that someone would come to take my bill. No one did. I was not getting into the critical stage of when my plane would be boarding. I was not going to miss my plane, after my day’s travel ordeal, just because my waiter did not want to serve me. I left hoping someone would see me in the process.

No one did. I saw that my plane was boarding. I started to hurry off for it when I heard finally someone chasing off after me. He was scolding me out loud for leaving without paying; I’m not sure if he realized my plane was boarding ahead.

I was not happy with his attitude still, but I thought there would not be a problem. I had $10 Canadian in my pocket so I could pay him. The bill though was $13 for a single beer! I was shocked by the price, I would not have ordered at that cost, but that also meant I did not have enough money to pay him off hand. Meanwhile he was threatening me with security.

I was really stuck in a hard place because it was crucial I caught this flight to New York, and would have been to say the least upset to have missed it because of $3. I hurried back to the HMS Host to pay my bill by card. Well, as it turned out I could not either pay with my Canadian Debit card, which is almost unheard of in a country were some people have quit carrying cash, paying for everything by debit.

At least I had my credit card on me. Meanwhile through all this I was having to put up with Luis scolding me loudly for not paying, perhaps his way of overcompensating for his own fault of inattentiveness in this situation, telling me about how in “this country we have to pay.” I was to say the least, while my plane was boarding through this, not in the best of moods. I needed him to shut up and hurry-up. I responded to his behavior by loudly and repeatedly telling him to “hurry up” and be “faster.”

It was at this point that his colleague We’id (this is the name I saw on the other waiter’s name tag, though it seems strange) said that Luis should call security on me. I was at this point livid, but had the bigger picture to worry about. I had to be in New York for a fundraiser the next day for a humanitarian medical relief project I was helping to organize. It was to say the least much more important than such a petty situation. It did not help though, We’id quickly just said he was going to call security.

Finally Luis finished processing my credit card. I paid and hurried away, as I was sitting around the 40 minute market from when I originally started this testing experience. Really, what was happening was that there were probably not enough staff for some reason that evening, an airport is a very busy place and the staff were probably overstretched. Luis was probably in his 40s and a Hispanic immigrant, so this was probably not the most ideal job. I decided I did not want to make his life that much worse, so I turned around to essentially call a truce, to say that I was sorry for pressing him but to explain quickly how he was costing me. It would take just 1 minute and probably make this man’s evening a whole lot better.

He was having none of it. He simply launched off again into his tirade and it came up that I wanted to see his manager. This woman appeared quickly enough and Luis walked off. Before I could say anything to her We’id walked up and claimed that I had called Luis a “bastard.”

It was a lie, maybe to support his colleague Luis. Perhaps he misunderstood me, but it was ridiculous. To be honest I would not even call him a bastard. I come from a small rural White community where bastard is not really considered so much of an insult. It seems to tame to use when you are unhappy. If I had called him a name, I would have used much harder wording.

At this point my flight was in jeopardy but I was a little concerned, as the two waiters now appeared somewhat dishonest to me, that they might cause me a problem as I left or should some extra expense suddenly appear on my credit card. I quickly explained my situation to the night manager (she was not the overall manager) and asked her if she could produce a business card for me to follow-up with the managers. She at least listened sympathetically and thankfully returned with the information within a couple minutes.

I quickly said something about how they should not treat customers this way but had to hurry off to catch my flight. I saw a security guard standing near the entrance as I left. I wondered if We’id had called him, or if it was a coincidence I was the last one on my plane and we departed soon afterwards.

I arrived into La Guardia not much more than an hour later. The one consolation through all of this was that I got a beautiful view of New York at night, lit by its own golden lights.

I was pretty worked up still when I arrived at La Guardia and found my ride sitting alone, bored, reading a magazine.

I have come to detest air travel and avoid it whenever possible. In fact, days like this one described in these two postings are like a mild form of torture. Even my attempt to relax and watch the hockey game had turned into a near catastrophe, and just added stress exponentially to the day.

Well, at least I escaped with my life. The police killed a Polish man at a Canadian airports just recently.

]]> http://jertravels.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/air-canada-endurance-run-hms-host-battle/feed/ 2 Jer http://jertravels.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/avoid-heathrow-and-maybe-london-flights-possibly-air-canada/ http://jertravels.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/avoid-heathrow-and-maybe-london-flights-possibly-air-canada/#comments Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:08:56 +0000 Jeremy http://jerglobetrotter.wordpress.com/?p=17 ]]>

If there is one universal truth in this world, British service is not good service. Whenever you purchase a product in the UK, you can expect something that is far overpriced compared to what you receive. The trick is hype. The British like to over-hype a product, giving something very mundane a fancy name, nice packaging and a steep price tag.

Nowhere though is this more apparent than in their service industry, where so much is promised but not much delivered. Nowhere is this more apparent than if you have to endure a trip through a British airport, most notoriously Heathrow. It is nothing but a stressful and unsatisfying experience where management is trying to cut every little corner but not providing enough service personnel, and those personnel that are hired are disenheartened by bad management. Today a flight to New York was a reminder of just how bad this experience is.

I thought I was lucky, because I was flying through Terminal 3; I had some fear that I would have to fly through the “ultra-modern” Terminal 5, which had been nothing more than a catastrophic debacle of hundreds of missed flights and thousands of lost bags. So I felt that I would be to get away relatively easily.

Heathrow airport is not really so nice of a place on its own accord. It is an old airport that is overcrowded and underserviced. It is a typification of the long line ups, monotony and stressful security checks that make air travel seem more like a torture of endurance. So when something goes awry, such as a major delay, you are already by this point in a foul mood.

On this occasion I arrived with two hours to spare before my flight and had to find a way to while away the time. I am not a shopper and duty free has limited appeal. I anyways did not want to buy anything else to carry. Eventually I joined the hundreds of other people camping out at the departure gate for our airplane.

A quirk that adds to the unpleasantness of a visit to the old Heathrow terminals is that you have to pass security a second time at the entrance to your departure gate, and then are stuck in a claustrophobic room with nothing to do, lots of people and no bathrooms. On this day the experience was enhanced because there was a malfunction in their public announcement system. It was not working so the staff had to stand up in the middle of the room yelling out announcements, which was nearly impossible to hear due to poor accoustics.

What I did learn was that there was a mechanical problem with the plane. I knew at that point we would not be away at least until 1pm, if we were lucky. We were not lucky. Soon the waiting passengers were asked to leave the departure gate and return to the lounge. It was not clear what we were supposed to do or when/how we would catch our flight.

Having experienced confusing delays in the past at this terminal, I went straight for the Air Canada ticket office to try to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately they had not really much information either, figuring the plane would leave at 2pm or in two hours (I was not certain) and told me that I could in the meantime get something to eat, complimentary on the airline, from one of two different eateries in the departure lounge, not being sure for how much money. The staff person said that if I presented my departure ticket the staff at these eateries, little cafes, would know.

It turned out to be worth 5 pounds, which is very little money at an English airport, where just a cup of coffee is 2 pounds. In fact, it was even less money than was awarded on a different flight I had taken in 2007 that was 5 hours late at Luton airport on one of the European budget carriers (almost a flying bus), EasyJet, which had given 6 pounds.

The next step was the confusing part. There were no public announcements or clear indications on the departure board when, where or how the passengers for my flight were supposed to depart. Instead we were given confusion. What happened is that the Airport Authority left up a notice that our 1205 flight was still departing and that the gate closing. At the same time there was a notice for another flight at 1500 with AirCanada to Toronto.

Now was it 2 pm or 2 hours (which would be 1500) that I was supposed to take? No one knew.

By 1320 I was getting nervous. I found a random Airport Authority personnel person helping some passengers with the departure board. When I tried to determine with her where I needed to go for my flight, she too was unsure but urged me to hurry to the gate that was indicated for 1205 Gate Closing, lest I should miss my flight.

Of course I arrived to find several other passengers milling about in front of a dark, locked departure gate. What were we to do?

From this point I knew there would be tremendous confusion for not having indicated in any way where and when we were supposed to go. What I was certain is that we would not get away until after 1500, because almost surely many passengers would not know when to show up, trickling back to our plane, and probably many of them would think that the separate 1500 flight to Toronto was the rescheduled one for us. Sorry to be them.

AirCanada’s plane had the mechanical failure. However, the infamous British Airports Authority (BAA) could have handled this a lot better. It did not help that the intercomm system was not working at our departure gate, BUT, they should have provided some information as to when our flight was rescheduled for and not left the passengers of our flight in such a confusing situation.

What made matters worse was how I would contact the people in New York waiting to pick me up, to say that I would be 4 hours late. This will be my next entry.

My advice is to avoid flying through the UK, if you have not already learned this lesson. Try to connect through airports in Germany, the Netherlands or elsewhere, if the UK is not your end destination. You will save yourself a lot of stress and time. And probably money too.

Update:  Here is a good article on how to avoid Heathrow and even London airports when booking  your flight:  http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/17/travel/trfreq18.php

For some reason whenever I am in Montreal I find that I do not have any money in hand and cannot find a bank ATM (ABM) anywhere nearby, ending up walking around for ages. It seems as though Montreal does not have as many ATMs in as many expected locations, as in other cities.

So, to help you out in case you have some of the same problems, here are links to ATM locators online for the major Canadian banks:

VISA’s ATM locator: http://visa.via.infonow.net/locator/global/

Mastercard ATM locator: http://www.mastercard.com/atmlocator/

Bank of Montreal ATM locator: http://www4.bmo.com/bmo/tools/ABMLocator/step1

CIBC branch locator: http://cibc.via.infonow.net/locator/inter/?LOC=en_CA

Royal Bank of Canada branch locator: http://maps.rbc.com/index.en.asp

Scotia Bank ATM and branch locator: http://www.scotiabank.com/branchlocator/

TD Canada Trust branch locator: http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/locator/index.jsp

Credit Union branch locator: http://locator.cucentral.com/

HSBC branch locator: http://www2.hsbc.ca/HICServlet?cmd_GetCAMap=&accept-language=en-ca

Citizen’s Bank of Canada locator (for Credit Unions, HSBC and National Bank of Canada ATM locations): https://www.citizensbank.ca/Personal/Products/BankAccounts/HowtoBankwithUs/ATMs/ATMLocations/

Yesterday we drove down to Brighton to take in a beautifully sunny day in Brighton, sun being a premium these days in London. By mistake we took a long route leaving from north east London around to the West and south, but still, it took only about 1.5 hours by car to get to Brighton, which is about 90 km (55 miles). It was a beautiful day, a coastline day trip in the shining sun, which soon turned sour when we hit the London traffic.

We came into the city during rush hour on the M25 to slow moving traffic crawling along in a line for kilometers leading up to the Dartford Tunnel. This is something you might expect in such a major urban center in London, which added at least an extra hour onto our trip back. However, what made this frustrating is to see how the City of London actually caused the problem through its own ineptitude rather than it being just a case of traffic over-congestion.

Prior to the Dartford Tunnel there is a toll where each vehicle has to pay a fee, in our case a car and the fee for a car was £1 (about $2). The effect though was to slow down traffic for kilometers leading up to the tunnel, greatly increasing travel time and inconveniencing thousands of drivers coming home from work in a city where personal time is already at a premium. As my buddy said, “What am I paying council taxes for anyways?”

All this inconvenience just so the government can find another way to take a small little tax. That sums up the ineptitude and poor management that plagues the UK and causes problems like Terminal 5 at Heathrow.

A great country to visit but a stressful and expensive place that reduces your quality of life if you decide to live there; at least in London.