It is quite the start to our trip. After spending much of Sunday packing and Monday morning building a pool table, we set off towards the Ottawa airport with plenty of time to spare to catch our flight.
After a lengthy check in process where Emily’s seat got removed somehow and resulted in her both having a seat and being on standby for the flight to Montreal,it got sorted and we were on our way through the most dead security line I have ever seen at Ottawa.
Alas, Montreal airport and mother nature teamed up to thwart our perfectly timed itinerary. Because of Montreal airt traffic control being behind in their processing, we were delayed by 30 then 60 minutes; not a problem for our layover, luckily. After boarding, Kieran fell asleep for his afternoon nap.
Then came the lightning strike which forced Ottawa ground crew inside. 60 minute delay became a 90 minute delay, putting our layover from “comfortable” to “right, but doable.”
But just as the lightning in Ottawa started to lighten up, Montreal got the same storm. They responded to that by SHUTTING THEIR WHOLE AIRPIRT FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR. So now our 90 minute delayed is two and a half hours. There goes our connection. We had hoped that it would just cause everything to be backed up and our flight to Madrid would be similarly delayed, but we got the dreaded “Your flight has been changed” notification.
Great. So now we are rebooked with a connection in both Montreal and Munich. And instead of arriving at 6:30am and having a full day in Madrid, we would have 10 hours (!) in Munich. Now Munich is a lovely place for a long layover, which Emily and I discovered in 2018 coming home from Egypt and Dubai, so it wouldn’t have been too terrible. Except that we would land in Madrid at 10:30pm *and* lose the bassinet seat we had procured for Kieran to sleep best on the overnight flight.
At this point, we were encouraged by the Captain to get off the plane. This is something I don’t think has ever happened to me in my entire history of travelling. Once off board, I called Air Canada customer service to see what could be done, either rebooking to a better itinerary (would have loved to be on AC888 to London instead of a multi-stop adventure) or obtaining a bassinet seat for the overnight flight.
Ultimately, we were able to be rebooked to a shorter connection in Dublin with the bassinet, arriving to Madrid at 1:45pm. Much better than a late night traipse from the airport to downtown Madrid. Two hours in Dublin won’t be enough to get out of the airport and take in the sights like would have been possible in Munich. That is also a lovely long layover, as we experienced in 2019 with an 8-month old Jordan on our way to Liverpool. But still worth the trade off.
Unfortunately, Kieran had exhausted much of his patience and cried a bit on the takeoff, but settled shortly after. He ended up falling asleep on the short hop flight to Montreal, which may work well for the 8:50pm flight out. The original flight was perfect timing, leaving at 6:00pm, which would have lined up nicely with his bed time once we were in the air and got the bassinet set up. Oh well. Hopefully it still works out with the flight!
Montreal airport went about as smoothly as possible. We didn’t have to sprint, fortunately, but we did hoof it about as far as is possible in the airport. Luckily, the Dublin flight didn’t have any outrageous delays, and Jordan has a free seat next to her which should bode well for sleeping.
We have now pulled back from the gate! Wish us luck on the long haul!
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