My posts these days are all over the place. It seems that I'm having trouble keeping the order of event chronological. One minute I'm talking about what it's like to be back home and the next I'm talking about the process of moving (right now in fact). This post is about the day we traveled home to Canada by plane.
Moving and traveling with pets is stressful. Worry about their safety and well being occupied our minds for days (if not weeks) leading up to the move. We even chose the airline based on their pet policy and procedure. AirCanada has been a shit show since the pandemic started. Delays and lost luggage are all you hear in the news. They made a bunch of bad decisions when the pandemic happened and they are still suffering the consequences. Of course they are blaming everything on covid and not their own poor organization and planning though. We decided to fly with AirTransat instead and had no issues whatsoever. Our decision was even validated when we checked the AirCanada flight that same day and saw that it was delayed for 2 hours. That would have been 2 hours longer that the pets had to wait in crates for a totally of 10 hours+ for the day. That would be 2 hours more stress and anxiety for everyone. We avoided it though, which was lucky.
We ended up paying for an upgrade with the airline as well. The reason wasn't for the slightly better food or the additional leg room, though those things did make the 8 hour flight more enjoyable. It was about timing. Previous AirCanada flights had held passengers on board after landing for up to 2 hours and they were previously only letting passengers off in small groups of 20 people or so to avoid flooding customs (I think). As such, we wanted to be at the front of the plane in case that happened again, to get off in the first batch to go and collect our pets. In the end it was completely unnecessary. They let everyone off at the same time and we were all in the baggage claim long before our pets arrived. Everyone (us and the pets) made it safe and sound by the way.
AirTransat isn't fancy enough to have a "first class" section but the upgrade included slightly better seats with rows of 2 rather than 3, a little more leg room, a little better food and alcoholic beverages included.
Oh, and a bathroom dedicated to the 20 passangers up front, so it was never too busy. That was actually a plus. All and all, the upgrade isn't something I would pay for under normal circumstances but it wasn't too expensive since AirTransat is sort of a budget airline and it was quite a bit more comfortable for the 8 hour flight. Okay this post seems to be turning into a review of sorts.
The entertainment system was a little lacking compared to AirCanada I will say that. AirCanada has a huge selection of new movies and TV shows and series. AirTransat only had 2 or 3 new movies to choose from and then a bunch of older stuff frkm way back. I watched King Richard - the Venus and Serena Williams story and then Rush Hour with Chris Tucker and Jacky Chan (nice throwback movie) and Mars Attacks (another throwback).
We landed and were picked up at the airport by family members. Then we spent 2+ hours in a typical Canadian highway traffic jam. It was a little too familiar if you know what I mean.
We stayed the night at my wife's parents house and then went to our empty but clean home in a neighboring city to wait for our furniture to arrive.
We were actually pretty impressed by the condition that our tenants had left the house. It was clean and had almost no damage to it other than some expected nail and screw holes for hanging pictures on the walls. My wife's parents actually painted our living room and a bedroom for us before we arrived home, which was super generous. Big thanks to them for their help.
The house is so different than our French home as you can sort of see in the photos. It's completely furnished now so maybe one of these days I'll take you on a tour of it like I did in a previous post.
I spent the next week painting walls and trim. It's nice to be able to make changes and upgrades to your own home. It's not really something that you do when you know that your living situation is only temporary.
We still don't have our stuff that we shipped from France, just the furniture that we had in storage for 3 years while we're were away. But we did learn that everything is currently on a ship and making its way across the ocean. Hopefully it will arrive in the next 3-4 weeks or so.
I don't envy you one bit with the state of most airlines. I don't take them anymore unless I have to. But, my babies? Totally different story. I don't want them touching mine but, like you, sometimes I just have to.
I am glad you had a good experience!
Yeah the airlines these days are scary haha. I was dreading the flight hoping that we wouldn't have any problems becoming the pets. Things were fine in the end though. 😁
I like stories like this!
I ALWAYS clean anywhere that I move from like a murderer would. There is no trace of me left. No dirt and I leave it way cleaner than when I got there. It's just a pride I have.
I'm happy the pets were okay. It must have been a scary experience for them, and I bet they were super happy to see you both, just as the pair of you were relieved that they made it ok.
I didn't realize that Air Canada was that unreliable, heh?
Yeah I try to clean up well also, out of courtesy I guess.
Yeah the pets were very happy to see us but they did seem okay when we got them, not overly anxious or anything which was good.
It didn't used to be like that but it seems that way now for sure.
No worries about the order of your posts… all good @leaky20
Great to see a bit of your trip back to Canada. Yes, I can imagine traveling with let’s that you choose the best airplane and plan around them.
Nice the tenants left the place ok. And great to read an update on your changes, furniture etc.
have a great week further! 😊👋🏻
Yeah, things worked out for the move for us overall. That was lucky. Enjoy your week as well.
Lucky indeed.
Thank you so much @leaky20 😊
Tenants who leave a house super clean. Well, those are quite unique I shall say. I always hear stories about tenants and most of them are always about how nasty they are. I suppose that there are still people who have respect for somebody else's property. That is nice.
Yeah that's true. You really only do here the horror stories. But that makes me wonder if most tenants are actually bad or just that people generally don't talk about normal situations 🤔
I think that it is the latter. Usually people are attracted to bad news . This is why what is normal is looked at as being something out of the ordinary. I also believe that most people are good. The horror stories must be exceptions
Yeah that's what I'm thinking as well
I think it was a lot of airlines, as soon as they realised travel was being stopped, they sacked a lot of their employees and contractors, airports too did this. profit before people, despite the bullshit corporations and big business sprout about being caring and being a responsible employer.
Soon be feet up and relax........until you get wanderlust again??
Yeah exactly. AirCanada made all sorts of decisions like that - firing people, switching to commercial cargo instead of passanger flights and then not having the staff to make up the difference...etc. it bothers me that they blame covid for it when it's a direct result of their own actions. But anyway...
We always have wanderlust 😆
👍
Any move is very stressful and even more so when we move with pets, their care must be continuous and special. I thought that bad service and lost luggage only happened in my country, but here these things also happen, they even steal the contents of the suitcases!
It's not only the pet that suffers from stress, the anxiety of waiting so long makes us all anxious. And it is always the "Covid" who is to blame, if not the President of the Republic (laughs).
You let the criticism be seen from the beginning of the publication but I am glad to know that your trip with your pets was well done. What I liked the most was the picture of the food (laughs), it looked very appetizing.
Regards @leaky20
Toda mudanza es muy estresante y más aun cuando nos trasladamos con mascotas, su cuidado debe ser continuo y especial. Yo creí que el mal servicio y la pérdida de equipaje solo ocurría en mi país, ya que aquí también pasan esas cosas ¡hasta se roban el contenido de las maletas!
No sólo la mascota sufre de estrés, la inquietud por estar esperando tanto, nos produce ansiedad ha todos. Y siempre tiene la culpa el “Covid” sino el Presidente de la República (risas).
La crítica la dejas ver desde un principio de la publicación pero me alegra saber que tu viaje con tus mascotas estuvo bien logrado. Lo que más me agradó fue la fotografía de la comida (risas), se veía muy apetitosa.
Saludos @leaky20
Yeah airport problems seem to be the norm these days and covid is always blamed even when it has nothing to do with it at all. Now it's just a scapegoat it seems. That's too bad that things are bad in your country in similar ways. Hopefully things get better eventually.
This is what all the inhabitants of my beloved Venezuela are waiting for.
Así lo esperamos todos los habitantes de mi amada Venezuela
It will be a perfect house a few more weeks probably 😊
Hopefully you're right 😁
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