September 12, 2019

  The morning started well with no traffic delays getting to the airport for the flight to Denver via Vancouver.  The flight was on time when I checked last evening, however, there was a delay of almost two hours when we checked-in.  We had a leisurely breakfast  at the airport and a glance at the departure board showed that the plane was further delayed another 30 minutes, due to a maintenance issue. We were each given a $10 meal voucher in Winnipeg, which could be used at an airport or for the Air Canada Bistro mealson the plane + it expires in 12 months! We originally had a two-hour 45 minute lay-over in Vancouver.  The gap now seemed too narrow to connect.

  When we checked with Air Canada customer service about our connection in Vancouver,  we were told that the other plane might have a short delay; to check with the Vancouver gate agent when we arrived.   We also phoned our travel agent to ask about our Denver hotel reservation and she said to call her from Vancouver if we were not able to get to Denver tonight.

  When we arrived in Vancouver and deplaning with 18 minutes to spare, we checked with a gate agent briefly, who said we had time to bolt to our flight. So, we jogged to US Customs and hurried through until we had a short wait for our luggage to be cleared. Then rushed to the gate just as the doors closed.  That gate agent said that we had been rebooked onto the next flight to Denver - which is tomorrow morning. We were directed to Air Canada Customer Service for more information.  There was only one person in line there. 

  We were given our new boarding passes for tomorrow 8:45 a.m., plus our luggage was redirected so that we could collect it, to take to the hotel that Air Canada arranged for us. We had to go through Canadian Customs and declare that we had been “in the US” for less than 24 hours since we had been cleared by US Customs 30 minutes earlier.

  Air Canada also gave us taxi vouchers for getting to the hotel and returning to the airport as well as meal vouchers for breakfast at the airport tomorrow and meal vouchers for dinner at the hotel.

  Our check-in went smoothly.  We were in our room within 90 minutes of landing in Vancouver! We have a very nice spacious recently renovated room at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport for tonight. We were also able to contact our travel agent to cancel tonight's prepaid hotel in Denver.  We will see if we need to file a travel insurance claim for that when we return home.

 It has been raining in Vancouver all day, but there was a restaurant in the hotel where we enjoyed a quiet dinner.

Steps 16,043

our room at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport

a wet dreary day in Vancouver