In about a month, I have a trip to Canada coming up thanks to a pair of “excellent” (read error) fares from Paris to Toronto and Paris to Vancouver. With the trip being right around the corner, I was dealing with reserving hotels, and so on this week.
Yesterday, I was about to book three nights in Toronto, but before hitting “Book now!” on the non-refundable rate, I decided to check my itinerary one last time.
And, I am glad I did!
‘Itinerary Change – Important information – do not delete’
I booked the flights in late-August 2017, and I didn’t worry about the bookings too much after finding out that Air Canada would indeed be honoring them. All I did was note down the flight times including my arrival in Toronto at 5:49PM.
Then, I received another email with the “Itinerary Change – Important information – do not delete” subject line about a month ago.
After checking it, I found out that the flight number and aircraft types stayed the same. The only thing that changed was my flight from Montreal to Toronto. Basically, the arrival time in Toronto shifted from 5:49PM to 6:23PM – no big deal.
Again, I noted down the new time and didn’t worry about it too much.
That is, until yesterday when I was booking my accommodations in Toronto.
Just as I was about to hit the “Book now!” button for three non-refundable nights, I decided to check the flight times and dates once again. And, as I mentioned above, I am glad I did.
After a closer inspection of the PDF attached to the itinerary change email, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
My arrival date in Toronto was not 34 minutes later than the originally scheduled arrival time. It was at 6:23PM one day after, or 24 hours and 34 minutes later than the originally scheduled arrival time.
In other words, my layover in Montreal was changed from 2 hours and 10 minutes to 26 hours and 35 minutes.
The Bright Side: A Day in Montreal
I am glad that I found about the magnitude of the change before booking the accommodation, and it certainly could be said that I should have checked the itinerary change email better in first place.
However, I also believe that Air Canada could have communicated better that my one-and-a-half-hour-long flight on one of the (if not the) busiest domestic routes in Canada was moved up by a day.
That said, given that the hotel in Montreal ended up being cheaper than in Toronto, and that I’ve never been to Montreal, I am looking forward to spending a day in the city…
…without having wasted $100 on a non-refundable night in Toronto!
