We boarded the plane, we settled in for a long flight and then the speaker announced a slight delay in takeoff while they checked a minor problem.
Well that “minor problem” turned out to be an internal fuel leak. We were grounded. We had boarded the plane just after four and by just after seven we were getting off again. So here’s a first hand account of what it was like being on a canceled flight.
First thing was they announced we would have to wait to get off the plane. The stewards and stewardesses brought around water and newspapers and we all kept watching our on board flights while they sorted things with the airport and hotels. They handed out customs and immigration forms but eventually announced we wouldn’t need them.
We got off the plane in a semi-organized fashion. They told those with duty free purchases to check in with the gate attendants (who knows what that means). We went through the airport all over again. They sectioned off rows in all the checkpoints for passengers of the canceled flight to try and streamline the process.
It was pretty quick. There was some waiting but when you abruptly dump 300+ (how many seats is an Airbus?) back into the airport that’s pretty unavoidable. We picked up our luggage which had been sorted into piles next to the carousels and headed over to the duty-free check desk.
That’s when it started to feel chaotic. One stewardess told me my boxes of sweets weren’t duty free and I’d need to declare and import them another said just take them to the hotel. They told Mr Magpie they weren’t collecting the duty free alcohol we purchased and I knew that wasn’t right. Since I didn’t want 3 bottles of liquid (well over 100ml) confiscated at security tomorrow I went back and asked again and there was much apologizing and they took the bags, tagged them and let us know we can pick them up at the gate tomorrow.
Then we headed to the line to find our hotel. Once again there was much apologizing, this is the theme of the article. That took awhile but eventually we were assigned 2 rooms at the Airport hotel mystays which has a shuttle bus to it every half hour. By that time it was 10 past 8 so we waited at bus stop 16 with everyone else from our flight while buses from every area hotel came and collected groups of people half a dozen at a time. It sucks for us to not fly today. I think it’s a more difficult day for the school group, and the seniors tour group on the same flight. Or at least for the organizers of those things. I can’t imagine it’s easy to wrangle 30 students who have been sitting in an airplane for 3h give or take and get them all to a hotel, fed and back to the airport tomorrow for a flight at an as of yet undisclosed time. All we were told was come back tomorrow at 12-13:00.
We got checked into the hotel by nine and received coupons for dinner and breakfast. The three restaurants had set menus for the evening and also closed at 9:30 or 10 so we had to hustle. We settled on the main restaurant, the Gardenia, which was serving a hamburger steak set. Hamburger steak is essentially Japan’s answer to meatloaf. Miss Crow got pork with tomato sauce instead because of her allergy. All came with rice, salad, “soup” (I put soup in quotes because it was a brown broth with a few pieces of onion, like French onion soup but less so), and a fruit and yogurt mix. It all came on a big plastic tray so looked a lot like cafeteria food. It tasted ok, just kind of bland. But we were hungry and any food is is better than no food.
Then I took a bath and changed into the PJs that were in the room. It’s kind of nice because they’re fairly big, fairly soft plain cotton jammies so I don’t have to unpack anything. Next up will be a cup of tea from the stash in the corner and then some sleep before another day at the airport.
The hotel did a really nice breakfast buffet though. The boys got cereal for the first time since getting here. I got my rice and pickled plum AND a croissant and Miss Crow was just happy they had allergy symbols on all the buffet items so she had congee, fruit, an inside-out daifuku (ohagi) and hot buttered toast. It’s a multicultural mish mash in here, and now inside me! Mr Magpie also got something called “lactic beverage” it kind of tastes like pineapple flavor milk.
We lazed around till checkout at 10:30 and then waited around for the shuttle to the airport. They had one special for all the A10 passengers. I’m not sure if they’re trying to be accomodating or they just don’t want us clogging up the regular busses. Then we returned to the Air Canada line at Narita.
It took awhile but we got put on a flight leaving for Vancouver at 4:50 and another flight from Vancouver to Calgary. They also gave us some vouchers for discounts on future flights and 2000¥ as a spending allowance for lunch. To be honest most of that was put into fun, last minute souvenirs because we all ate huge breakfasts. We also had 4h to kill at the airport. This flight ended up slightly delayed but only by 20 minutes and so far everything else has gone alright, if a bit turbulent.
We also made a few friends since when you’re being shuttled around with the same group of people who all got booted from the same flight it’s pretty easy to start a conversation.
Overall Air Canada really did try their best to accommodate us I think. Literally every person we talked to apologized at some point. I think it would be a lot worse if we were older, traveling with littl’uns or had a more rigid schedule because they couldn’t get us out sooner and didn’t give many times in advance, there were a lot of maybes and a lot of waiting places. It’s a bit annoying that we have to switch to a flight with a stop over but on the other hand this is a nicer plane but more on that in the post about the flight home!
Migratory Magpies 