Trapped in Montreal: My Travel Nightmare!

I had one of those travel experiences yesterday that was so terrible I thought it only fair to share with all of you – hey misery loves company – right?

First – I’ll start with the present. I am sitting in Air Canada club at the Montreal Airport – it is 6:00AM on Saturday. So what am I doing at the airport, in Canada, on a Saturday morning? I’ll tell you!

I was in Montreal this week and had a flight back to Los Angeles that was scheduled to leave at 5:30PM last night traveling through Chicago. When I see Chicago on my itin I usually know I’m in for an adventure – little did I know what I was about to go through.

I arrived at the airport early and noticed right-away that every flight to Chicago was either delayed or cancelled, except for mine. I cross my fingers and start watching the US Open in the airport lounge. Then at 5:00 the screen changes – my flight is delayed until 7:00. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal however I don’t live in Chicago – I live in LA – and this will cause me to miss my connection.

Okay, so we’ve all been in this situation – no big deal. Connections are missed all the time. I go down to the gate to talk to the agent who informs us all that we have to leave the terminal, go back out through customs and then go wait in the Air Canada ticket line. This takes about 20 minutes of walking down long corridors, going through customs (again!) and then standing in a line.

In line we all realize that it’s going to be a long wait – so long that I miss all other flights to Los Angeles. The Air Canada agent waves the guy in front of me up to her and then immediately gets on the phone. He is standing there, waiting, while other people get helped just staring at the agent on the phone. After about five minutes she tells him, “I can’t help you – just call this number” and hands him a slip of paper.

Meanwhile, everyone in line behind him was getting help from other agents. Now I’m next in line and she tell me the same thing. “So I have to use my U.S. cellphone and pay $2/minute to call a number after waiting in line for an hour?” She starts to get frustrated with us and begins yelling at passengers – mind you we are all wearing suits, professional, and don’t forget – actual passengers on their airline!

I spoke with her supervisor who said there is not much we can do about her since the union makes it impossible for them to make complaints about the agents. Thus, these Air Canada agents can insult customers, treat VIP customers like crap, all the while sitting back and waiting for their shift to end. Thanks Air Canada!

Luckily her manager was nice enough to help me out and after another 45 minutes of waiting I had a ticket, almost. I had to get the ticket at 5:30AM – so off to a hotel I go. Air Canada decided not to pay for a hotel or food for me so the fact that my flight was cancelled now meant I had to stay in Montreal and pay to stay as well!

I go downstairs, wait in the cab line which is full of other grumpy passengers. I called my travel agent who booked me a room at the Hyatt at the Montreal Airport. I get in the cab and tell him to take me to the airport Hyatt. “There is no airport Hyatt” he says. I call my travel agent from the cab who apologizes and says they were wrong and indeed there is no airport Hyatt.

The driver takes me to a hotel by the airport called “ALoft” which is a new hotel concept by W Hotels. The driver hates me at this point since I’ve just caused him to lose his place in line for a 2 minute cab ride. Swearing at me he grabs my bag from the trunk and tosses it in the lobby and storms out.

I check-in, get up to my room and turn-on the TV – I can’t change channels or adjust the volume. I call downstairs – looks like I’ve got the room with the broken TV. I have to recollect my things go back downstairs and get another room. I went to the gym, grabbed a quick dinner and went to bed.

So back to the present. I’m setting here at the airport lounge, again, in the same seat I was in yesterday. My flight is scheduled to leave in about two hours – and that is my travel nightmare.

Okay – so this post had nothing to do with Domaining, but hey, sometimes you have to vent and a blog is meant to be more than just educational – at times I hope to make this entertaining as well! So next time your flight is delayed just remember this experience and you can think to yourself “well it least it wasn’t THAT bad!”

Of course – what post would be complete without a Domaining tip.

Finding Trend Domains – Some of my top-performing domains are based on trends that developed soon-after I registered the name. So how to do you find new trends? Use Google Trends of course! This is a great service Google provides showing you the hottest search trends. I try to identify trends that look like they are probably here to stay. Avoid trends that have to do with a particular news event, these will die fast – instead look for trends that will stick-around for a while. Then register a .us name with the keywords. I have found that .us names rank well and index quickly in both Yahoo and Google. While there is a lot of speculation involved here I’ve had some domains make over $100 their first month in AdSense revenue just by picking a hot trend. For a $10 investment that’s not too bad – especially considering that if the domain makes $100 it’s first month just think of how much it could make in its first year!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the story and the tip hidden-away at the end here – this is my gift to those that have now shared in my misery! Have a great Saturday everyone!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton