We flew standby to Puerto Rico, four of us, from different cities. As fun and easy as it sounds it was not that enjoyable. We had to reroute through Edmonton to get to Toronto because of full flights and every flight was delayed and crammed.
Full flights suck! The flight down to San Juan was looking good: 17 seats, 4 standbys. I checked before heading to the airport: 3 seats, 6 standbys. One of us wasn’t going to make it so we had to make a plan. Vic was going to have to fly with American down to Miami and then hop over to San Juan. I had to go down and get the “car rental” because it was under my name.
As we were making this plan and Vic reached level 8 on stress scale, a miracle! A couple was detained in American customs and wouldn’t be flying. Thanks bad decision makers for trying to fly to the states with a suitcase full of oranges. Or babies. Or breast milk. I’m not certain.
Delayed flights are one thing when I am sitting in the ops room looking at them on a screen but quite another when I’m sitting at the airport looking at the problem first hand. The bridges in YYZ were stuck because it was wicked cold. Maintenance was behind as they ran around with heat guns and lassoes like cats after the red dot. The two hour delay meant we would miss our car rental because the Enterprise we rented from closed at 5pm.
But I had a backup plan; I reserved a car with Fox. Tip: Never rent from Fox! They may or may not exist. Let me complain for a minute; I reserved a car from Fox through carrentals.com because it was the cheapest. Our plans had changed so we could only fly out a day later. I emailed carrentals.com and they said I would have to rebook. I called Fox and they said the same but to try San Juan. The guy just agreed to everything I said so I’m still not sure what I signed up. None of the guys at the airport had heard of the agency but tried to help anyway. I called a few times for a ride but no answer at all. My guess is that they might be a mind washing dark room that turns travellers into windmills. Or the worst scam in history because I didn’t pay them a cent.
We thought we would have to spend the night in San Juan and make our way to the VRBO in Aguadilla in the morning. Each of us took turns talking with the car rentals trying to arrange a car but to no avail. Until Enterprise took pity on us. We hung around long enough for them to find the perfect car, a Yaris. Paul ran faster than gravy trying to please the bag-laden tourist families but still managed to get us that Yaris. A Yaris, by the way, can avoid accidents better than most. Puerto Rico almost claimed us on Highway 22 west before we had even passed through the tunnel. A driver didn’t see us and swerved into our lane causing gasps, tears and sore shoulders. But Yarry was up to the task.
An hour and a half later through night storms, slow drivers and right turns we pulled into our condo. The key worked and the breeze splashed our faces. 25 hours of travel, 15 pleading conversations and 4 strokes of good luck later we were sprawled flat on a soft bed.
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