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Old 21 Oct 19, 03:46 PM  
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pinkrose
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What, no bears? - Canadian Rockies Road Trip Aug/Sept 2019 - Pre-travel day

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Pre-travel day - Friday 23 August 2019

So, if you read my introduction you will know that today we were intending to travel down to Travelodge Heathrow T5 for our overnight stay before our flight to Vancouver tomorrow. I had planned an overnight stay to avoid any traffic problems tomorrow due to the fact it was the bank holiday weekend. I didn’t want the stress of being stuck in traffic before our flight!

In the morning I took DH shopping to buy their supply of food for the first week we were away. The freezer was also well stocked. Then we took DD and DS to Frankie & Benny’s for lunch.

We spent the afternoon finishing our packing and then at 5.20pm I did OLCI but for some reason it would not let me check in. I was beginning to think it might be due to the fact that I had just told them I was hearing impaired. At this point I had seen something on the main page of BA’s website about September flights but hadn’t really taken it in. DH asked if I wanted him to ring BA to see why I couldn’t check in but I said we possibly ought to ring them about our return flight on 9 September. Anyway we were both so preoccupied with getting ready to leave that we just carried on as we were and had a light tea before DH started loading the car.

By now it was 6.30pm and, just as he put the last piece of luggage in the boot, both his phone and mine went off. He came rushing in the living room as I looked at my phone and we saw that we had both received a text message saying our return flight home had been cancelled. The message told us to call BA on the number on the text to discuss.

We put the computer on and logged into our booking. The return flight was crossed through in red. DH rang the number on the text and was then on hold for an hour waiting for someone to take the call. A call handler answered only to tell us that, as we had also booked hotels and a car, we needed to speak to the BA holiday team and he would transfer us to the correct department but we would go back into a queue and it would be another hour before someone would take the call. So we were on hold again. As time passed it became clear we would not be travelling tonight so I tried calling the Travelodge a number of times to tell them we would not be arriving but no-one was answering.

DH was worried we would be cut off at 8pm which is when they usually stop taking calls but this didn’t happen and around 1 ½ hours after we had gone on hold for the second time another call handler answered. She confirmed our return flight was cancelled. She then said there would be no direct flights back to Heathrow until Friday 13 September. We asked about Air Canada flights but she said she could only book us on one of their partner airlines and this would be with American Airlines but would be an indirect flight via Dallas. By now we just wanted to be able to go on the holiday so we agreed to the indirect flight and she initially offered us one on the 9th but we couldn’t have two seats together on the Dallas to Heathrow leg. I wasn’t happy being separated so she checked the same flights for the 10th and found two seats together. Then she told us the flight from Calgary to Dallas would be in Economy. DH pointed out that we had booked World Traveller plus seats and now had three packed suitcases sitting in the boot of the car ready to go as we were flying tomorrow. She initially said we would have to pay for an additional bag and then claim the cost back from BA but, after she had gone away to book the two flights, she came back and confirmed she had got two pieces of luggage each for us on both flights.

So now we had an extra day in Canada. The call handler went off again to see if she could get us an extra night at the Solara Resort and Spa in Canmore but when she came back to us she told us the hotel was full and asked if Banff was nearby. We said yes and she offered us a room at the Fairmont Banff Springs or the Banff Ptarmigan or the Banff Royal Canadian Lodge. I had heard of the Fairmont so gestured to DH to ask for the Fairmont. She said it would be a king room and there would be a resort fee to pay but again we should get a receipt and claim this back from BA. She then just needed to extend our car hire for the additional day and change the drop off time from 8pm to 12pm instead. Our email inbox was filling up with new itineraries as she made the various changes to our booking but none of the changes were showing in our online booking. In fact none of the hotels were now showing nor the car hire so she agreed to email a copy of the screenshot showing the confirmation of the Fairmont booking and the amended car hire directly to us from her email account.

She then told us BA had automatically refunded the full cost of the holiday to our credit card and we would need to pay for the holiday again within 14 days of our return!

In all the call had taken 3 hours and 52 minutes and it was now 10.30pm. I checked our booking and found I needed to add advance passenger information for the American Airlines flights which I did but then was able to access our seat allocation via the booking on American Airlines website. I could see that on the Calgary to Dallas leg we had been allocated 13C and 14C so switched us to 12A and 12C so that we were sitting together. We had already been allocated 17G and 17H on the Dallas to Heathrow leg so didn’t need to change those which was a good job as there were only single seats left in Premium Economy. I then chose Vegetarian Lasagne for the in-flight meal from Dallas to Heathrow.

By now it was after 11pm so we headed off to bed. It was a very hot night and my mind was racing. I had not been in bed long before I realised we needed to change our booking for the Heathrow long stay parking so got up again, switched the computer on and logged into the booking. I checked which terminal the Dallas flight would land at and found it was also T3 so changed not only the length of the booking but also changed to the T2/3 long stay car park. Surprisingly this was cheaper than T5 long stay parking so we received a £4.50 refund on our credit card. Now that was done we finally got into bed and tried to sleep.

Edited at 04:38 PM.
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Old 21 Oct 19, 07:43 PM  
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jocat
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Oh my word, what a nightmare for you! But an extra night and a bonus stay at the Fairmont Banff Springs sounds good.

Hope that’s all of the stress out of the way and that the rest of the holiday went smoothly.🤞🏻
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Old 22 Oct 19, 04:15 PM  
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pinkrose
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Getting Excited
 
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Hi Jocat

Spoiler alert!

Yes apart from that Friday night the actual holiday went according to plan.
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Old 24 Oct 19, 09:04 PM  
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Mel49
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Not the type of calls you want to be making the day before travel but at least it all got sorted out although I'm sure you could have done without the stress.

Looking forward to reading your report as is on the wish list to travel that side of Canada at some point in the future. When I visited friends in Ottawa last year they raved about the area as they visit their Grandson in Vancouver every year and love the road trips they have.
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Old 1 Nov 19, 07:59 PM  
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smedley
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Eek! Not the most relaxing pre travel day
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Previous trips (mostly villas,) '98,'00,03,04x2,06,07,11 (first onsite stay SSR),12 villa and RCI cruise,14 OKW,15 RCI cruise, Clearwater and Int Drive. 16 West Coast DL, 17
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