Look, I know that there are much worse fates in life than being delayed for your flight, especially at our very own YVR. Due to very well placed signage, I’m fully aware that our Vancouver International Airport has been ranked number 1 in North America for an unprecedented seven years straight. No offence to YVR or comedian Louis C.K. (who brilliantly makes fun of those complaining about air travel), but it still doesn’t make me want to spend any more time at YVR than absolutely necessary.
Cut to a few days ago: my wife, toddler, and our five-month-old baby were attempting to catch a 9:30am Toronto-bound flight. We woke up at 6:45am, fed the kids, crammed into a cab by 7:45am, and were at the airport at 8:15am. I wanted to get my shoes shined (because I don’t really know where else to get shoes shined) but my wife told me that I didn’t have time; we had to get to the gate for our 8:55am boarding time.
When we arrived at gate C50, the flight was already boarding. Awesome! No time wasted! Get in and get out! Then the dreaded PA system crackled to life. “For the information of passengers on Air Canada Flight 116 to Toronto, we have to temporarily suspend the boarding process. We have detected a minor maintenance problem.”
If you’ve travelled even a little bit, you know as well as I do that the second they suspend anything when it comes to your flight leaving on time, you could be entering into a never-ending purgatory of airport irritation. The next announcement: “The problem is worse than we thought. The radar on the plane isn’t working. The new departure time is 11:40am.” There were angry exclaims of frustration from the hundreds gathered at the gate, but the dad in me looked around at my little family and figured that, after wings and fuel, radar was pretty essential for high speed jumbo jet air travel through the clouds. And hey, at least now I could get my shoes shined.
By the time we got back to the gate at 11am, another announcement: “We haven’t been able to fix the radar. Our new departure time is now 3:30pm. We will be offering $10 meal vouchers at the customer service desk.” Some of our fellow passengers tossed their boarding passes in the air in disgust. Still I held it together in front of the kids. My wife and I looked at each other, facing down four and a half more hours to kill in North America’s number 1 airport.
We checked out the “chidren’s play area”: two plastic castle-like walls and an imbedded TV with a children’s show perennially on silent pause, eerily mirroring our adult frustrations. With our meal vouchers we lunched at the perfect place for those not in a rush: Rice Tales over at gate C43. Recommended! Healthy noodle boxes filled with vegetables that take awhile to prepare.
Hours later, returning to gate C50, we were greeted with: “The airplane is in perfect working order, it’s just not here yet.” Uh huh.
By 4:30pm, we finally boarded the plane and strapped into our seats. Then we taxied. And taxied some more. After some 40 minutes of driving around the airport in a gigantic plane, I looked over at my wife. “Something’s wrong.”
The pilot came over the plane’s PA with clear frustration in his voice. “Well folks, the radar still isn’t working.” More cries of ever deepening passenger frustration. I finally cracked, letting out a loud expletive that my son quickly repeated.
The plane finally left the ground with repaired radar at 6:45pm, a full nine hours and 15 minutes after our scheduled departure time. We arrived in Toronto at 2am, and staggered into my wife’s parents’ home at 3am, the kids now both snoring rag dolls.
Louis C.K. himself might even complain about a trip like this, but as an exhausted dad, I found myself looking down at my kids and, maybe for the first time, seeing the bigger picture: yeah it took some extra time, and yeah it sucked, but we all made it safe and sound, and for that I am very thankful.
Happy Father’s Day.
