As is always the case when traveling – things didn’t quite go as planned as I headed to my next stop of Germany.

As many may know, I was supposed to leave Canada on Monday, August 18th and arrive in Frankfurt, Germany on Tuesday, August 19th. Clearly from the date this entry was written, you can tell that that didn’t happen. But I’m now on my way!

Confusion

So this bit is going to start with the confusion and semi panic that I felt Sunday night. I was still at Tiffany’s and I was getting everything ready to leave the next day. The one thing that I hadn’t yet gotten around to doing was checking into my flight (long story that boils down to an app draining my battery while in Banff and I had forgotten my battery pack and/or a charging cord). So we get back and I finally get a chance to check in. I open the email from Condor, click “check in” and come across some issues. It’s asking me for a Condor reservation number, except I didn’t book through Condor. I booked through my credit cards rewards program and that reservation was technically made through WestJet. I tried the WestJet confirmation number, but received an error message. The only other option for me was if I booked via a “Tour Operator” which I hadn’t. After trying multiple times through Condor and through WestJet to check-in, I finally accepted the fact that I was going to have to check in at the airport. Fast forward to the next day – and I successfully checked in and got through security! It was easy, but unlike on previous trips where I was informed that I would have to check-in at the airport, both Condor and WestJet kept telling me that I should be able to check-in online. So needless to say, I had a bit of panic as I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Delays

The dreaded delays. We all semi fear them, and we sure hope that we won’t experience them. But they happen to every airline and I don’t think I’ve met anyone that hasn’t experienced a delay at least once when traveling. And if you haven’t? Please send some of that magic to me.

Everything seemed fine at first. I was waiting in the lounge at the airport (yay lounge access!), keeping an eye on both the time and the departure board to make sure that I knew when boarding would happen. Eventually it was getting a bit too close to the depature time for my liking, though the board still didn’t say my flight had a status of “Boarding”, so I made my way down to the gate to see what was happening. I found a large crowd of people all waiting around and the gate agents standing behind the desk and talking to each other. There wasn’t any announcement that I heard, and so I situated myself nearby and waited. (There may have been some (a lot) of judging those that were already lined up to board and blocking the main aisle.) A couple minutes later, a gate agent gets on the intercom and let’s everyone know that as previously stated we haven’t started boarding and everyone needed to clear the area. (Spoiler alert – almost no one cleared the boarding line area, shocking I know). At this point, we were supposed to be leaving in 20 minutes. I could hear the agents telling individual people that they have no updates and don’t know why there is a delay – just that there is one with no time frame currently.

After about 40 minutes we finally get an update. There was some type of maintenance issue and we were going to be delayed, there is no news about how long the delay will be, and at this point we are 20 minutes past our departure time. I think the most interesting part is that even the online trackers weren’t reflecting the delay. They all just said that we were on time – and I heard someone near me say that they saw a tracker that said we were on our way! Obviously using just the departure time to assume that, but still hilarious since we hadn’t even been told to line up yet. About 10 minutes after that, the Captain had come up to the gate to give us all an update. There was some type of issue with one of the tires that was discovered as they did their safety checks. The parts needed weren’t in stock here and they would need to fly them in…from Germany where the company is based out of. The flight would be delayed until the next night. The airline would offer hotel and meal vouchers to everyone who needs it.

The immediate frustration from around the area was honestly almost comical. Thankfully, I don’t have any real plans, so a 27 hour delay was not a big deal to me – annoying but nothing major in the grand scheme of my adventures (and as I can now say having a couple weeks between when I wrote this and posted it, I honestly forgot it even happened).

Fast forward to the next day after a great hotel stay, amazing appetizer and decent meals at the hotel – I’m back at the airport to see what will happen now. Checked in, disappointed at the full lounge, but situated at a random desk to get some work on the blog done (since it’s still not live at this point in my journey…) I pass the time until it’s time to board. Only to get to the gate to find that we have been delayed 45 minutes at least as they still haven’t gotten the plane to the gate. 20 minutes later, it’s another 45 minutes as they need to do the safety checks and finally get it taxied over.

At this point it really is just a joke – people are complaining, there aren’t even any gate agents at the gate (I don’t blame them), and everyone just wants an answer to when we will be leaving. Then we see movement! The gate agents have arrived and are answering some slight questions that people might have and checking some status for those passengers that need it like unaccompanied minors. Then, finally, the flight crew is boarding, the plane is officially here.

There is legitimately cheering when a gate agent announced that it would just be a bit longer as the flight crew readied everything (okay, so the cheering started because a guy near me decided to see if he could get everyone cheering – and succeeded much to his amusement, “herd animals” as he put it). Then begins the most pointless part of this all. The gate agents decide to get a head start and line people up for boarding – so we do as directed. But then we have to wait another 30 minutes before finally I see one of the gate agents literally jump for joy and exclaim. The doors could be opened. We could board. I’m pretty sure they had us line up just to stop the complaining and questions – but it was still pointless.

Thoughts

In all honesty – I really didn’t care about the issues that we had. They come with the territory of traveling. It’s not going to ruin my day, and with my (complete lack of) plans, it’s not going to really change anything once I get to Germany. I feel for the people that had their vacations cut short or will be missing something important. It sucks to have your plans derailed and have to shift, especially if you have people (on either side) that now also need to change their plans. Throw in the fact that Air Canada was having a strike, and everyone involved was frustrated (many of the passengers rebooked their flights when Air Canada went on strike, and now they were running into issues with Condor.)

But overall, the ones that I really feel bad for are those gate agents. There were 5 of them, and most of them served us both days (minus the clear supervisor that was wandering around the second day, probably to make sure that no one got yelled at. I even saw her on the plane checking in with the flight crew before the doors were closed). They had to put up with impatient passengers – some of who seemed to think that they would be able to get the plane up and running if they just complained loud enough – and with minimal knowledge about what was happening. To my admittedly low knowledge, Condor operates limitedly out of Calgary and I think a lot of the confusion and delayed information came from that fact. I’m also not convinced the gate agents worked for Condor as they were unable to access any booking information at the gate – but I never verified that fact.

While we can never know what is going on in someone else’s life or how a completely unplanned delay like this will impact their life – I urge anyone who is traveling to remember that the workers at the airport and on the plane have nothing to do with plans changing. They are doing their job, and often delays are completely outside of their control just as they are outside of ours as passengers. Be kind and be patient. Yelling will not get you a different answer, nor will it get you on the plane or to your destination quicker. No one wants a delay to happen, least of all those on the front line that will be yelled at.

(and yes – for those of you who are curious. I did spend the extra money to fly business class. I blame flying Emirates back in 2020 to get home from South Africa. But while I won’t be writing a full review of the Condor Business Class vs Emirates Business Class at this time, I can say with complete confidence that Emirates is better though Condor is very good.)