Clearly in the realm of #FirstWorldProblems, while traveling to Halifax to spend a couple of days with my parents, I added another “travel woes” story to my life’s list. I was traveling alone, and there was no one around to hear my sarcastic comments, so as I went along I jotted down my thoughts and feelings on a timeline. My plan was an evening Saskatoon-Calgary flight connecting to a red-eye onto Halifax. That didn’t work out. If you’re a fan of WestJet, I recommend you skip this…

November 23, 9:02pm I just heard the dreaded words “maintenance issue”. There’s a plane at the gate that landed about a half hour ago and it looked like we’d be off to Calgary no problems to make my connection to Halifax. Not sweating yet, but the agent’s faces are not as cheery as they were ten minutes ago.

9:25pm Just got the “we have no update to update you with” update. There’s a clock ticking in my head. Lots of maintenance guys getting on and off the plane and there’s two dudes looking up at the right engine. Didn’t this plane just land from Toronto? What kind of life and death experience did all those folks barely avoid?

9:45pm Original take-off time and I’m still sitting at the gate. The WestJet gate agent apologizes approximately 37 times before letting us know that she’ll have more information in 3-5 minutes.

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