Today I...am a minority...

...and a displaced passenger.

Well - here we go. I didn't make this up, contrary to those who were beginning to doubt I had a new gig because I kept showing up in Calgary.

Today I took my first long haul journey for my new job. It started out feeling just like I was jettin' to Toronto - but that didn't last long.

Attempting to check in at my favorite new toy, the remote check in kiosk at YYC, I was told my flight was unavailble for check in. Fabulous, I figured I could just go whisk through Service Assistance check in. Not so much.

My flight was cancelled. And the agent couldn't find me listed on any flights going anywhere. Good times.

He eventually found me but could not confirm me on the next flight to YVR. So he vanished. Ummm...help? The agent next to me confirmed a gentleman onto the YVR flight so I leaned over and said - so sweetly - "excuse me, but my agent seems to be having a challenge confirming me on that flight. Would you be able to help him?" Immediately defensive he gruffly told me that the gentleman was elderly and needed to connect to Hong Kong. So, I said, again very very sweetly "Well, I actually also am connecting to that Hong Kong flight and it is fairly important that I make that connection"....at which point Agent 1 returned...Agent 2 looked at my passport (advised me it did not look like me - as if that meant he should not help me)...together they looked at my itinerary and probably at that point realized just how much Fairmont shelled out for this little puddle jump...and he promptly confirmed me in business class on the YVR flight.

Assured that I would make my connection without any problem I went to Starbucks.

But the flight was delayed. And then when we all boarded it was delayed more. And that is when I decided that, lesson number one on trip number one is:

You really cannot get agitated about that which you cannot control.

So I decided to be chill. Which was a solid decision. Because things went downhill from there.

Arrived in YVR - too late to connect - a very efficient but equally gruff agent informed me that I was rerouted on Cathay Pacific and that he was taking care of my hotel in Hong Kong as I would arrive too late to connect to Singapore and that I would need to pick up my bag in HK and contact air canada to change my HK to Spore flight as he was "unable to do anything about that". Alrighty then.

Thank goodness for American Express super agent Sally who managed to rebook my flights in the 10 minutes I had at the gate in YVR. I had all of 35 seconds to look around me and observe that, sitting at gate 73 in the International Terminal at YVR I had officially become a minority.

And then, within 5 minutes of being on board I had decided that the business class experience is about a million times better than the best experience in coach. I had no idea. I've seen comedy bits about it. But it is really really true! Wow. A 13 hour flight zipped by (yes, I was going to say "flew by" but I just thought that seemed so painful, and obvious, and lame I couldn't do it).

The wait for luggage and straightening out my hotel situation on the ground in HK was a touch painful but only because I had to wait and wait and wait and I was tired. But the airline colleagues were fabulous and kind and accommodating...they could teach us North Americans a thing or two I say!

And now I am realizing that the longer I stay up the more alert I feel...so I am going to get out my eye mask and crawl into bed and hopefully sleep deeply for a few hours...and then I am going to get up and do it all again.

Today I...am in Hong Kong...am tired...am excited for what tomorrow holds.