Last week I posted about Traveling with Luggage. Part 1. Where my luggage visited more Airports than I did.
You would think that would have been my last and final adventure with luggage on that trip.
It wasn’t.
Leaving Ireland wasn’t bad, I got to play Airport tag with the Irishman. Turns out when you both leave from the same airport and have the same connecting flight, you can play tag in the airports around the world.
My flight from Dublin left on time and we landed at our connecting city of Toronto at our scheduled time. Now I was hoping that this time it would be a breezy two and a half hour lay over. Plenty of time to get my bags, go threw all the checkpoints and be on my next plane. However I stated this “breezy” layover by sitting on the tarmac for a gate for about 10 minutes.
Now this is where the “fun” began.
At Toronto airport you have to pick up your bags go, then go through Customs, re-check your bags, then go through airport security, and then find your gate.
Part One: Customs.
Customs wasn’t an awful experience. In fact, it was pretty well-organized and the line moved at a reasonable speed. Start to finish, I was in and out in 10 mins.
Part two: Claiming my luggage.
I’ve been to the zoo before, I just didn’t think Toronto airport had one at the baggage claim.
Have you seen a herd of animals around a watering hole before? Well the baggage claim I had to use, looked very much like that but with 300 people. You see, we had one luggage carousel and 3 international flights.
I lost all sense of time waiting for my luggage to come out. People where complaining left and right, then when some luggage started to come off, they turned into vultures seeing if it was theirs. Eventually mine popped out, I took it and I left.
Part three: Re-checking of the luggage.
One must recheck their luggage when traveling Toronto airport. So you gotta line up with the rest of them.
This is the starting point of me
HAVING TO RUN THREW THE AIRPORT AGAIN.
I had handed my ticket to the lady and she said the words no one wants to hear, “You’re plane is boarding, if you check your luggage now it wont make the flight, it will if you take it with you.”
I’m sorry what?
How long was I waiting in the land of baggage claim?
What time was it?
The three guys behind me where apparently on my same flight and the following happened.
Step four and Five: Airport security & finding our gate.
Three guys and one redhead then proceed to RUN ACROSS THE AIRPORT trying to make our flight, that is now boarding.
We ran down hallways, on to a tram to another terminal.
Me with my carry-on, suitcase, and purse.
Them with their massive backpacking backpacks.
The guys politely asked the woman in charge if we could cut in and she said “No sir, I’M not allowed to do that”. Then they asked the people in line if we could cut through and make our plane. Protip- Ask the customers, not the staff to cut in line. To those people, thank you, you truly are nice and polite people.
Now airport security was a breeze until one of the guys got chosen for a random search for his bag. He flat-out said “You know what, you can keep it, I don’t need whats inside. I just want to go home and my flight is boarding”. Airport security handed back his bag and said have a nice flight.
WE MADE THE GATE!
The guys handed over their tickets, got scanned in and then I handed over mine.
“This isn’t your flight. Your flight is such and such gate and leaves in 25 mins”
ARE YOU F!@#$ING KIDDING ME?
I JUST RAN ACROSS A BLOODY AIRPORT!
Turns out the woman at baggage reclaim read my ticket wrong. Me being jet legged and not knowing how long I spent at the luggage zoo, didn’t check. As I walked to my CORRECT gate, I realized, I was very thirsty. So I set out to find a reasonably priced bottle of water.
Guess who I found at the airport.
It’s not the greatest photo of us, but I love it none the less.
Step six: Get on plane.
We even managed to get on the same flight together. I had to explain to the woman at the gate why I had my luggage with me and checked at the gate.
It was an uneventful flight from Toronto to Vancouver, just the way I like them.
It was an excellent trip to Ireland and I can’t wait to go back.
Although I did learn that if I’m ever going to have connecting flights, I’m going to have a 5 hour, at the least, lay over to avoid having to run through yet another airport. Or, I’m just going to fly direct.
