We started our day with the hotel breakfast. Not bad but the granola/muesli could have been better. Oh well, back to my homemade granola tomorrow!

One of the main reasons I chose the Ibis Styles Nice Cap3000 Aéroport was the free airport shuttle. (The other, of course, was their willingness to receive and store our bike cases.)  At 9, Cécile helped us get everything in the van and drove us to Terminal 1, dropping us off at the door closest to Air Canada’s check-in desks. We chatted during our short drive about the havoc Ironman created with road closures (the drive to the airport, normally 10-15 minutes, took almost an hour each way yesterday), the weather (it topped out at 38°C yesterday—perhaps IM should be scheduled in the spring?), and her time working in Alberta (which explained her excellent English).  Merci, Cécile!

We were very early for check-in (they couldn’t fit us in the 10 am shuttle) but better early than late. We didn’t need the extra time but everything was stress-free. 

The gate was listed as B17 but it was down a level from the main departures area, meaning we’d probably be bussed to the plane. We had thought the buses were more for short-haul flights, but no, our big transatlantic jet would be out on the tarmac. We waited until just before the posted boarding time to go down. 

B17 was at the end of a gallery starting with B14, jammed with people. Al noticed that *all* the gate screens were for our flight so we chose not to try to worm our way down to B17. Besides, our boarding passes said Zone 5, so we’d be last to board anyway. And we were, last to board that is. There were unexplained hold-ups in the boarding process so Al made a last-minute trip to the men’s room and Zone 5 was called just after he left. 

Good planning on his part because we were held on the tarmac for quite a while. I think departure was delayed by about 90 minutes altogether. That was really going to eat into our 130-minute connection and I hoped we might make up some time enroute. 

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Patrick O'HaraNever heard of the Knog Scout, but I'm going to be doing some research about it.
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1 month ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Patrick O'HaraIt uses AirTag technology so works very well if you are an iPhone user. Available at many bike shops in Vancouver.
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1 month ago

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We didn’t. Normally, we’d be rebooked on the next flight to Vancouver (yes, this has happened to us before), but this time, the flight we missed had also been cancelled so Air Canada needed to rebook everyone on it, not just those who had arrived on the delayed flight from Nice. 

The system had already rebooked us by the time we landed, with an extra connection in Toronto and an arrival in Vancouver after midnight. This would mean an expensive taxi all the way to North Vancouver so we spoke to an agent. He said it wouldn’t work anyway because, although we could perhaps sprint through the terminal and get on the first flight, our checked bags could not and Canadian rules require that passengers travel on the same flight as their checked bags.  He sent us to a manager on the departures floor. 

They ended up sending us to a hotel for the night and booking us on a morning direct flight to Vancouver. This was fine by us since we had no need to get home on the same day and we were exhausted. The idea of spending another 6 or more hours sitting in an airplane was not appealing!

We were also concerned about our bikes. We didn’t want them sitting in some open-to-all baggage area and the Air Canada agent thought we’d have to collect and recheck them (for which she waived the fee).  However, on our way down, we learned that passengers can’t return to the secure baggage area once they’ve left it at YUL (unlike YVR where the incoming baggage area is not secure).  You communicate with the baggage people of your airline by one of three phones on the wall.

This way, we learned that our bike cases *could* be stored overnight and continue with us to Vancouver in the morning if they were attached to our new itinerary. There was a small glitch in that only one was attached at this time, so we went back to the AC manager and got it sorted before looking for the hotel shuttle area. 

We were given 3 choices of hotel so we chose the Sheraton. It’s huge!  Especially compared to the little hotels with fewer than a dozen rooms that we stayed in for most of our trip. Our room was also much larger than we’re used to, though all we were really interested in was a shower and sleep. 

In the morning, we took an early shuttle to the airport and had a full breakfast at the airport after clearing security.  Al chose traditional bacon and eggs while I opted for eggs Benny with Montreal smoked meat. We hadn’t had dinner last night and there are no meals included on domestic flights so we were happy we had time for this. 

The flight was long and uneventful but our bikes arrived with us.  One wheel on Al’s bike case was damaged so he will need to report it. It doesn’t roll anymore. 

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When we got off Canada Line at Waterfront station to get a taxi the rest of the way, we were surprised by the Canada Day crowds. We’ve never gone downtown for the celebration so no idea whether this was a normal sunny-day turnout or larger than usual due to the threats to our sovereignty from south of the border.

I’m still jet-lagged but will do a summary in a few days.