We packed up and checked out at 10AM, but we left our bags at the front desk and wandered down to the waterfront. The shuttle company was good with coming at 1:30 to take us to our (now) 5PM flight, so we had over 3 hours. We paid $20 each to visit the Maritime Museum, but less than half way through, we were interrupted by a call from United Airlines. Our flight was going to be delayed by 7 hours now, so come at the originally scheduled time to get on another flight.
So I called the shuttle service and they were good enough to get us back at the original time of 12:30, but we had to rush back to the hotel to meet the driver. We half-ran-half-walked back to the hotel and saw the driver out front. He waited while we grabbed our bags, and then he whipped us to the airport. We then proceeded to wait 3 hours to check in at the United Airlines desk. 3 hours. 3 hours of the most unorganized, inefficient service I have ever seen.
In hindsight, I guess we should have butted to the head of the line to change our flight to the one that *was* getting let through, but all we really knew at that point was that our flight (UA916) was just supposed to wait at the back. While in line, someone told us that she was able to switch her flight, so I tried calling United Airlines to do that. First, the automated attendant couldn't find my reservation my my confirmation number, then by my last name, then by spelling out my last name. So I was passed to a real person ... but he was with domestic flights, not international. So I was passed to the international department. She couldn't find my reservation by confirmation number, but was eventually able to find it by last name, flight number, and flight date.
But that didn't help. She said my flight was on time and wondered where I got the info that it was delayed. I pointed out that there were hundreds of others in the lineup I was standing in that would concur that our flight was delayed. I gave up with her at that point.
When we did get to the front of the line, all the booths got moved to different booths. So it took another half hour for the attendants to settle back in. When we got seen, we were sent to another line. When we got seen at that line, we were sent to another line. When we got to the front of that line, we got issued our boarding cards. She scribbled out the 15;10 and penciled-in 21:00 (although we knew it was 22:00). What we didn't notice was that she issued our connecting flight boarding card (which we were sure to miss, leaving 7 hours late) without change. Our compensation was 2x $14 each in food/drink vouchers.
So we went for cider and food. Then we went through security. That wasn't fair either, but this time it was in our favour: we both tried to use the automated passport readers, but were refused. So we went to the special line and got through ahead of dozens of others.
Once through all that, we got a tea (Kate) and a raisin bun (me). We still had Kate's second voucher, so we then went for drinks. Two places wouldn't accept the voucher, even though it says any food/drink in the airport. The third place accepted it and so we had a couple more ciders. Anything to pass the time.
We got on the 11+ hour flight well after 10:30PM. The flight was a bit turbulent, but otherwise uneventful. Once in San Francisco, we disembarked, went through immigration, grabbed our bags, went through customs, checked our bags into the next flight, and were lining up for another security check when I noticed my wallet was missing. I knew I had it back in the secure area of Auckland Airport (AUK), but didn't know where I lost it after that. So I went back through security and checked back to the Air Canada check-in. Nope. Called United Airlines lost and found and AUK lost and found, but had to leave messages. Went back through security and couldn't find Kate ... she wasn't where I left her. Great. The third thing I lost on this trip.
She wandered back and told me she had gone looking for gate G92 (which was down the escalator from where we were sitting) because there was an announcement for us to go there. I checked at G92, G94, and one other UA terminal, but they didn't know anything about an announcement for us. So I started emailing lost and found with United Airlines, AUK, and SFO.
The announcement came again, and it was for G93. I went there and asked, and they didn't know anything about it. Come on, UA ... this is silly. The announcement came one more time ... again for G93. This time, the crowd at that gate was all on the plane headed to Dublin, so finding the one person with my wallet was straightforward. Apparently, the wallet had slipped out of my pants onto the seat of the AUK>SFO flight.
Anyway, all there was to do now was buy duty free, have another meal, and get onto our next flight. Unfortunately, our nice SFO>YYJ (San Francisco to Victoria) flight was now SFO>YVR>YYJ (San Francisco to Vancouver to Victoria) and we weren't getting to Victoria until 11:20PM ... 10 hours later than planned. Luckily, my super-helpful and flexible parents were able to drop Kate's car off at the airport with a hidden key, and we were able to just grab it and go and get home by 12:30AM.
Yes, Tiggin was very happy to see us, and everything looked fine at home.
All in all, a very successful trip. I will collect and organize pictures and video from our various devices (once I receive my GoPro from New Zealand) and post some up for you to see.
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