Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Canada & Hawaii 2016
Points failure
It was time to begin the transition to the next phase of the trip - Hawaii! - but with a cautious approach of one step at a time. Today's relatively modest objective was simply to return to LAX and meet up with Bruce, so that we could head for the 50th state together on Monday. Vancouver's weather appeared to have changed for my departure: it was now cloudy and cool, and reminded me of a typical September day at home. Deciding to opt for the breakfast buffet was a mistake, as the previous day's freshly prepared dish proved to have been infinitely superior.
 |
 Passing the time at YVR. Top left: a bad omen? |
 |
I relaxed until shortly before the busy 11am shuttle bus was due to load for the airport. After check-in, I had my first experience of US pre-clearance, that is going through US Immigration and Customs formalities in the country of departure rather than on arrival in the USA. This turned out to be relatively painless and gave the considerable benefit that I would arrive at LAX as a domestic passenger. There was no Admirals Club available, so I found a reasonably quiet corner and settled down to await the arrival of the aircraft and the commencement of boarding. Once the plane arrived, there appeared to be a flurry of activity: first I observed staff having a heated discussion with a couple at the desk, then calls went out for a business-class passenger to volunteer to be rerouted via Phoenix, then the request was for a volunteer to be downgraded with compensation. Finally, the words I didn't want to hear: "Would passenger <name> please come to the podium". That's right - me!
It turned out that one of the seats was faulty, so
I asked if it was mine, knowing full well from the overheard
conversation that it wasn't. They admitted that the faulty seat
wasn't mine and said I was being selected for involuntary
downgrade because I was on an award
ticket. I won't bore you with the rest of the argument, except that
it ended with "Sir, this is happening." I was moved to 9D, which at
least was Main Cabin Extra, and given a voucher for USD500, which at
face value didn't seem too shabby at all. Of course, I suspected that the
real reason
for my selection was that as a foreigner, I would find it
relatively difficult to spend the voucher within its period of
validity, but I resolved to give this little challenge my very best shot!
After all the fuss, it was a reasonable enough
flight, but it further irritated me that I was completely ignored
while on board. How difficult would it have been for one of the
flight attendants to come up to me and say "Sorry about all that,
Sir. Can I maybe get you a drink from the front?" But I guess that
would have been too much like good customer service. I met up with Bruce
at the luggage carousel and the conversation soon turned to how my journey
had gone. He was very surprised at the basis given for my selection.
Following a busy transfer to the Hilton, we settled into a reasonably nice corner room. The evening was spent in the lobby lounge, catching up on each other's non-AA news and enjoying drinks and small plates of food. We didn't let it turn into a late night, as Bruce had experienced a 3hr time difference and it would be an early start for both of us the next day.