June 16, 2025Monday, June 16, 2025

Just a thought… …all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. [John Steinbeck]

Boy, it can be hard to leave Vancouver Island. But not for the reasons you think!

Last Wednesday, for the second time in a month, I said good-bye to a sister who visited us here on Vancouver Island. And also for the second time, the travel gods conspired to make it as challenging as possible for her to leave. And it wasn’t even the same airline! So settle in, grab a cup of something, and I’ll tell you our stories, grateful that both ended well, especially in light of last week’s Air India tragedy. These tales are trivial in comparison, I know. But they’re the light adventures I’m here to tell you about today.

I’ll start three weeks ago when my sister Les and her husband came to Victoria for a brief visit. We had a super time until the night they were to leave: Leslie’s phone dinged and we assumed it was a reminder that their flight was due to leave in a few hours. As Rob and I prepared to chauffeur them to the airport, only a 15-minute drive away, Leslie read aloud from her phone: their WestJet flight to Kelowna that evening had changed. Instead of going to Vancouver with a brief stop and then on to Kelowna that evening, the airline was sending them much later to Calgary, where they would spend six hours overnight in the airport and fly out in the early hours to Kelowna.

After a lot of panic, we decided to take a long shot: call the airline and hope to speak to a person. Miracle of miracles, Les got through to a helpful agent who agreed when she said that we’d found a different, later flight to Vancouver that would eventually get them home the same night. After numerous checks and double-checks, we were able to ensure our guests were on a flight and headed back to mainland BC instead of spending a night lying in the Calgary airport.

So that’s the first story. But there’s a first half to it I’ve skipped over: on the way here their flight to Vancouver was scrapped (Leslie told them it was because the flight hadn’t sold so they would have to take one four hours later, and it wasn’t denied.) That erased an entire day’s plans in Victoria, including a special reservation to celebrate Leslie’s 60^th with High Tea at the Fairmont. A whole day blown, they finally arrived in the evening for a three-day stay. Thankfully, Leslie has recently discovered and taken to heart the “Serenity Prayer” and the dogs didn’t learn any words they hadn’t already heard!

Then we come to last week’s second (or is that third?) travel debacle.

After flying home to the island, accompanied by my sister Cindy who lives in Mexico, we spent five days together.

On Wednesday she had packed and repacked her bag to fit in her shopping finds, and was ready to go. Then it happened again: the dreaded ‘ding.’ The message said that her Air Canada flight to Vancouver was delayed due to air traffic control problems at YVR. Okay, we thought, you’ll make your 11 pm Aero Mexico flight home. About half an hour passed and there’s another ding. It’s delayed another hour. That’s when Rob said, “Your flight is going to be cancelled – you watch.”

Cindy didn’t think that was likely, but Rob went online and checked the FERRY schedule. To make a long story shorter, Cindy finally relented and we ended up getting her, not on her planned 7 pm flight, but to the nearby ferry terminal to catch the sailing to south Vancouver. She took an Uber to the airport, got through security and was seated in the lounge by about 9:45 pm. She made her Aero Mexico flight to Mexico City, spent six hours there overnight, and flew on to Guadalajara, then took an hour-long car service home. Mio Dios!

Oh, and that Air Canada flight to Vancouver? Rob was right. It was cancelled.

Victoria’s a glorious place to visit, but beware: if you’re taking a short flight to or from  Vancouver, you might want to plan on being a walk-on passenger on the ferry. Never mind Planes, Trains and Automobiles – our family story seems to be Planes, Boats and Automobiles. Once again we’re counting our lucky stars that Porter Airlines is providing direct flights out of here to Toronto and (at least for now) to Ottawa. There are a lot of things we lucky Canadians take for granted, but flights that go when they’re supposed to, and land on time? Not anymore. Flyer beware.