Flight due to fly at 20.45, so I have plenty of time to hang, chill & relax before I rush to the airport. At least these were my thoughts during the earlier part of Wednesday. Little did i know how wrong I would be, and the ramifications that followed such a blase attitude.

I arrive at the airport just before 6pm, thinking that I would have plenty of time to join the check in queue and still spend a couple of hours wandering around the departure lounge, browsing the numerous delights that was bound to greet me.

I got to the Air Transat desk to find it was baron, completely empty, other than a small amount of litter sitting on the floor and a hard faced woman wandering behind the counters, looking for something.

“Excuse me”, in that English accent they know and love, “Could you tell me where check in is for the Gatwick flight?”

“Gatwick flights check in at the Thomas Cook desk” replied the, now even harder faced woman.

I was on an Air Transat flight, but they do loads with Thomas Cook, and share some flights etc, especially to and from Toronto, so this seemed reasonable to me. I grab my case, and off I wander. The Thomas Cook desk, not only was it also baron, but there was so litter, or hard faced searching woman. Dang.

There’s more to this part of the story, but I’m going to skip past the bit about, upsetting the bald guy who was chatting up the airport official, and conclude this section by saying that, me and my blase attitude that didn’t contact the airline ’24 hours before departure’ I missed the flight, as it had been re-scheduled and left at 5pm.

Every flight, I have ever taken is checked, checked and quadruple checked over and over. But for some reason, I just didn’t check this time.

So, I get back home, phone Canadian Affair (Canadian branch), to speak to a condescending young lady, who informed me that ‘they don’t offer refunds, or alternative flights’ and that it is my responsibility to ‘contact the airline 24 hours before the scheduled flight time’.

In a North American vs English style debate, isn’t it supposed to be me, being condescending?

I need to book another flight. The next flight they had available to Gatwick is Friday 22nd, which means missing the Stag weekend, and being late for the wedding the following weekend, so no, thats no good. Air Canada could get me home, the same day for a reasonable £1800, British Airways wanted £1100 for next day travel, again, no, thats no good.

Air India, flight at 23.30 (at this point it’s 19.30) via Flight Network, £400ish….. Website crashes, reload, wait…………. crash, reload, wait………… I called Flight Network, got through to someone within about 5-10 minutes and after a little communication breakdown, lots of spellings of names and addresses etc, I got an Air India confirmation number, with the promise of a ticket number to be emailed within 15 mins. I also received strict instructions to call back if I hadn’t received my ticket number within 15 minutes.

I was weighing up his strict instructions, and lack of confidence I received against the 5-10 minute phone queue and the fact it was now 8pm, and I dialed Flight Network again 10 minutes after hanging up from the first phone call. 5-10 minutes later, the call is answered, I spell some details and get transfered through to the guy I originally spoke too (it was a little more long winded than that actually), and while I’m on the phone, he sends over the email which is happily downloading to my iPhone (3G). Hang up, shoes on and I’m back in the car on the way to the airport again.

Arriving at the Air India check in desk (Toronto Pearson, Terminal 1), was like something from the Virgin Atlantic TV adverts (just less red clothing, less blonde hair and thankfully less strutting about), but an array of happy, friendly, attractive men and women. I was greeted before I even got to the check in queue, the next guy sorted my passport sticker thing out, and directed me to the check in queue, although they had every check in desk open, so the queue was invisible. Straight to the desk, a few minutes actual human conversation in between the formalities and I’m in – it’s like something I’ve never known before, ever.

There’s very little to report between checking in and boarding the plane, other than security going into the Air India gate was huge. Bags get searched, laptops turned on, and another metal detector wand guy makes you stand like a tree and twirl for him. These extra security measure weren’t being done at any other gate (that I could see), concerning or reassuring?

Initial reactions to the plane were good, very very good. After travelling Air Transat and Thomas Cook budget flights for the past 4 flights, this wasn’t difficult to achieve, but it wasn’t a comparison thing, it was a good good plane. The interior decoration was a little unknown to me as far as plane interiors go, but just great. Carpets & seats where purple and gold (yellowish) and there was an incredible mood lighting type thing going on inside. The main lights in the ceiling would go between yellow/white (standard) to purple, red, blue, green depending on the time of day/night, whether we were eating or not etc. It was cool.

The seating was specious and comfortable, with pillows and soft large blankets. The TV’s were large, touch screens with one in each head rest complete with a massive collection of films, tv episodes, music albums, games, flight maps and exterior camera views to choose from. There was hours upon hours of watching/listening entertainment from both the Eastern and Western worlds.

Food & drink was both good and regular, and the service that went with it was spot on. I will say I was on a half empty plane/flight, which I’m sure aids the quality of the service, but with a full plane, I think it will still be pretty darn good.

OK, I’m good to wrap this up now – I landed 15 minutes before Heathrow closed on 15th April due to the volcanic ash floating over the UK following the volcano eruption beneath the Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH’-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier. I picked up the rental car, sat on the M25 for a couple of hours then continued home, arriving at 5pm GMT

FIN