Moving? Sucks.
Air Travel? Really sucks.
Moving via air travel? Totally sucks.

I'm in Vancouver this week, doing a scout-ahead before my rollover at the end of August. I was supposed to be heading for Italy right about now, but my parents' plan changed and they're not going til the end of July, so instead I decided to come to Vancouver and bring up as much stuff as I could get away with to decrease the amount of stuff I have to move when I actually leave Cayman at the end of August.

Tickets were ridiculously expensive for this time of year... the CHEAPEST flight I could find was Air Canada from Miami to Vancouver via Toronto for $950. That still left me with getting from Cayman to Miami! American was $1400, Continental was $1250, Delta was $1350 and US Airways' booking engine had me going from Cayman-Charlotte-Las Vegas, stay overnight, then Las Vegas-Phoenix-Vancouver for $1600 (plus a hotel room in Vegas for that night.

In the end I decided to gamble on Continental via Houston on standby. Contintenal's baggage allowances are: up to 62 linear inches, under 50lbs. My footlocker measured out at 69.2" and was only 3/4 full at 70lbs. That means it was a $100 surcharge for oversize baggage (62.1-115 linear inches) and $50 surcharge for overweight baggage (50.1-70lbs). Over 70 lbs and they wont accept it as checked baggage. My suitcase topped out at 53lbs, but they let that slide.

My original itinerary was CO593 from Cayman to Houston, and then CO289 from Houston to Vancouver a couple hours later which gets me into Vancouver at 11:15pm. Not too bad... I tried taking this route one time before, last summer but the flight was delayed and I missed the Vancouver flight. I ended up flying into Seattle and arriving there around 2:30am and waiting around for the ticket counter to open at 4 to buy a ticket to Vancouver on the first flight. I ended up getting into Vancouver at 7am that morning and was a complete mess for the rest of the day.

This time, when I went to check in for the first flight in Cayman, something popped up on the screen saying that the second leg of the flight, the Houston-Vancouver leg had a "weight restriction" upon further investigation, the agent told me that the plane had been swapped out to a smaller one that held 30 less people... and I was one of those people. D'oh!

They re-booked me on the Seattle flight that left about the same time and arrived in Seattle at 11:41. Unfortunately by the time I got my baggage and cleared customs and re-checked my oversized bags at the oversized bag drop (which were tagged to Vancouver) the flight was full, and of all the people on the standby list, I had the lowest priority. I got bumped.

Fortunately there was another flight to Seattle that left at 11:15 and arrived at 1:15am in Seattle (3:15 Cayman time) and there was space available on that flight. My name was called last and I went to get a boarding pass (middle seat... ugh) and asked if my bags had been re-tagged to Seattle and the gate agent said he didn't see any bags for me on the manifest, so they probably went to Vancouver, but in any case, when you get to Seattle and they don't come off the belt, you can file a claim with the baggage agent there. Great.

What to do about getting to Vancouver then? I planned ahead this time and bought refundable tickets from Seattle/Vancouver just in case. I bought about six extra tickets this time from all kinds of places I might end up. They're all refundable, so just ignore the freakishly high credit card balance and whatever I don't use I submit for refund. If I end up carrying the balance over a statement and paying 15-20 dollars in interest, it sure beats the alternative! My friend Michelle was going to pick me up in Vancouver that night, and when I texted her that I was going to Seattle instead she said "I can make it to Seattle for that time." When I hesitated (especially with the price of gas these days) she said "It'll be an adventure!" so I relented. The other thing was that if I had to re-check my bags on Horizon/Alaska/Air Canada from Seattle to Vancouver, I would have to pay that oversize and overweight bagagge penalty again if they even accepted it as baggage on those little prop planes they service the route with.

In the end, I arrived in Seattle at 1:15am and my big oversized bags didn't. Michelle was there to pick me up with a specially-cleaned-out-of-tools SUV to carry all my stuff back and I had my carry-on only. (At least that had socks, underwear and undershirts in it). I COULD have waited around a couple hours, had dinner out of a vending machine and caught a flight to Vancouver in the morning, but it didn't work out like that. We drove across the truck border at 176th street at 3:55am and surprised the border agent with a repatriation.

I spent the last two weeks yea or nay ing everything I own and making up lists. Lists of what was coming with me, what I was selling, what I was leaving for the roommates and what I was abandoning. I didn't have to take everything with me all at once, but I would have to fill out a B4 form and get a case number so that I could show it to the customs agent and not have to pay duty on my personal effects. In the end, the border agent told me I didn't have to fill out the B4 if it was just clothes, books, computer, xbox, wii, and other personal household item. The B4 was really if I was expecting a container of furniture, cars, and all that sort of thing. She waved us through and Michelle dropped me at my (unexpecting) parents' house at 445am where I caught a few hours sleep on the couch with the dog's blankets pulled over me.

Thursday morning I called Continental and made a report of the missing baggage and got a case number. The baggage agent agreed with me that they were probably sitting in front of the baggage desk in Vancouver, but she filled out all the details anyway, just in case. I then went out to the Vancouver airport and sure enough, there they were.

There's still time, I can go back to Cayman in July and put everything in boxes and call someone like MIracle Brokers or some other international moving company and have them come get my shit and send it to me to try and save any of these hassles!