Vancouver International Airport Still Gridlocked

Videos

Gridlock at YVR-Video-01

see larger video

sourced by Jordan Yerman

Photos

IMG_9730

see larger image

uploaded by Mananetwork

• 

  uploaded by Mananetwork | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Mananetwork | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Mananetwork | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Mananetwork | add comment

• 

  uploaded by hurgleburgle | add comment

• 

  uploaded by anakifoto | add comment

• 

  uploaded by anakifoto | add comment

• 

  uploaded by anakifoto | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Retrocactus | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Retrocactus | add comment

I landed last night in Vancouver to be greeted by a sea of unclaimed luggage...

My flight from Toronto was only an hour and a half late, which isn't bad for Air Canada, but the true drama was only just beginning. As other flights' packed luggage dutifully dropped onto their assigned carousels, the weary passengers of AC137 waited... and waited... and waited for luggage that would be "arriving shortly".

The spokesman for the ground crew kept blaming the snow, but other airlines didn't seem to have the same difficulties. After two and a half hours of waiting, Air Canada offered to ship luggage to those who wished to leave early (literally, as it was 1am, and we had landed at 10pm the previous night).

A queue immediately formed to overwhelm the two staffmembers left to cope with the pressing tide of increasingly-pissed-off travelers, but a quick look at the abandoned luggage dissuaded me from joining: some of the bags had been there for five days, and, if it took AC this long to get baggage from the plane to the carousel, I didn't have much faith in their finding out where I was staying and delivering my humble backpack without something going wrong.

As flights continued getting cancelled, their luggage had to be offloaded as well, adding to the backlog, and the baggage claim was clogged with, at some points, over a thousand people. In Heathrow, this wouldn't be quite so bad, but YVR is relatively small, with only seven carousels, four of which were running, and the other three serving as ad-hoc dorm bedding.

By 3am I had my bag and was on my way to the taxi rank, and got to where I'm staying just in time to get up for work. This will explain why I'm a bit cranky today- it's nothing personal.

While waiting, I overheard some brilliant mobile phone conversations, including a bossy twentysomething demanding that her mother drive through the slushy darkness to collect her; from what I gathered, it was not a short drive. Also, a guy around my age was engaged in an expletive-filled rant with someone on the other end of the line, with enough f-bombs to put even me to shame. 

One also gets to talking to strangers, and I hung out with a woman who manages the supply chain for Estee Lauder, basically dicatating which products get made when. I always wondered about that. She had a brilliant grasp of new media, and was really fun to talk to.

Also, I ran into Kaitlin. she says hello.

I also spoke to a woman who had been trying for three days to get to Calgary (a relatively short flight), and had missed Christmas with her family.

What surprised me, though, was how relatively cool everyone was, though many said they'd never use Air Canada again if they could help it.

Through it all, I couldn't help but think: lots of snow in winter is VANOC's best-case scenario- they want it to be like this for ideal conditions in Whistler... and look how poorly the city has managed the winter. Winter here in Canada, no less! If this is any indication of their preparedness, then I'll be nowhere near Vancouver during the Olympics.

If you're flying today (or even tomorrow), make sure to triple-check your airline before heading to the airport, and keep in mind that even listed info is not necessarily connected with reality, as nobody at YVR seemed to have much of an overall idea of what was going on.  The plus: wi-fi is now free at the airport, so bust out some social networking and take the power back. Peace, and travel safe.