Back in 2018 we hit a passport snafu on our way to Amsterdam, resulting in tears and dejection at the airport, followed by a quick rally and an excellent trip, the main purpose of which was to see our friend Tess, Amsterdam merely being a stop along the way.

About a month ago, as we prepared for another trip — again heading to Amsterdam for a few days before travelling onward to see Tess — we realized my passport was facing the same problem Lindsay’s had nearly six years before: it would expire in just under six months, the cutoff for our eventual destination. At least we caught it with weeks to spare, not at the airport like last time. I procured the rush job at the passport office, and had it in my hands with days to spare. Crisis averted, right?

Except. Last night we went to the airport, all set for our adventure, but definitely running late, and traffic (even at 9:00 on a Saturday night) was so brutal we were becoming more late by the second. We arrived at the airport 90 minutes before our flight, and went right to the kiosks. We tried to check in; because our original flight had been delayed, the kiosk forced us to take some meal vouchers we didn’t want, then kicked us out of the session. We started over, this time managing to get our boarding passes (which we also didn’t want) but telling us we missed the cutoff for baggage check-in at the automated kiosks. The employee wandering around — who knew we were going to Amsterdam before we even started — told us we’d have to go to the counter to drop our bags. We ran to the counter, where the Air Canada employee told us we missed the 90-minute cutoff entirely, that we couldn’t board our flight, and there was nothing she could do.

So, look: I know we should have been there earlier. Somehow both of us blanked on the appropriate arrival time, and then were late leaving, so we wear that. We played fast and loose with time, leaving ourselves little/no buffer, and once again Toronto traffic fucked us. I should know better. We own that bit, for sure. But what rankled was the following:

• The Air Canada employee was mean. Really mean. Like, made Lindsay cry mean. Instead of saying, “Sorry, you’ve missed the flight, there’s nothing we can do.” she led off with “Why are you late?! Why are you getting here so late? What’s the reason?” A charitable interpretation of this would be that she was looking for the magic explanation that would let her bend the rules, but she seemed intent on berating us publicly. Everyone around was staring. It felt very much like she was scolding us.
• I pointed out that we might have made the cut off if the kiosk had worked properly, or the first employee had simply directed us to the counter. That didn’t matter to her.
  • A slight aside: she kept saying the rule has always been that you arrive at the airport 3 hours before an international flight. Never in my life have I arrived that early, and for most of my life I was a very cautious (read: early) flier. My memory was always that you arrive 1 hour before domestic flights, 1.5 hours before US flights, and 2 hours before international flights. Perhaps that memory is pre-Pandemic thinking, but that’s what was in my head.
• At one point she said, “The flight starts boarding in 40 minutes, you’d never make it!” I looked at the empty airport, pointed out that we have Nexus and could get through security quickly, and said it would be absolutely no problem to make it for the start of boarding, let alone the end of boarding, by then. She pivoted back to, well, anyway you missed the baggage cutoff.
• Since we had our boarding passes I asked if our bags could be sent on the next flight to AMS. She said no. She didn’t call the gate. She didn’t check with anyone. She did absolutely nothing. Back in 2015 when (once again) traffic had made me late for an international flight, we arrived ten minutes after the flight had closed and the Air Canada staff called the gate, got us on, and told us to run. The employee last night just chastised us. Only when Lindsay broke down in tears in front of her did she let up and say, “Sorry.”
• I asked if she could help us re-book. She said no, and that we should walk to the other end of the airport where there were “white phones” that we could use to re-book. Great. Thanks. Very helpful.

We attempted to collect ourselves before setting off down the terminal. I looked for a special desk, but saw nothing. Then I realized there was a bank of unmanned white telephones, looking like they’d been bought in bulk from Radio Shack in 1992. Lindsay described it as “demeaning” and I didn’t disagree. The first one we tried didn’t work properly, so I tried the second. And that’s where the night changed.

I didn’t catch the name of the agent we spoke to, but my goodness: what a star. She was sympathetic. She was helpful. Her information was clear. And she got us on the next flight to Amsterdam the following night, in the same class, sitting next to one another…for no fee. What? WHAT? When she took me off hold and told me all this, I almost couldn’t process what she was saying. I was prepared to spend hours on hold with unhelpful agents and be forced to pay for a whole new flight (all of which happened in 2018), so when I replayed back to her what she’d told me, she confirmed it all and told me she hoped we had an amazing trip. The confirmation was already in my inbox. I can barely even remember what I said to her, but Lindsay (an uninformed bystander to this whole thing; it’s not like ancient handsets have a speakerphone option) tells me I was effusive in my thanks and praise. Seriously, that lady saved our evening, and maybe a good portion of our trip.

What a difference an empathetic and empowered employee can make. I know it was our own fault for being in that position in the first place, but the first Air Canada employee neither expressed any kind of empathy nor tried so much as a phone call to help us out — which, given my own past experience, might have worked. She stood in awfully stark contrast to her colleague.

So, two lessons learned: get to the airport earlier, and don’t travel to Amsterdam. (Just kidding. Love you AMS.)