Once again, Northwest has oversold their flight. Despite having checked in hours ago and having pre-confirmed seats, I am being bumped from Northwest to Swiss Air. I know little about Swiss Air and am not comforted by what I do know. Like many Maritimers, Swiss Air is permanently associated with Flight 111 and faulty capcon wiring in the fancy electronics systems. I am not relieved to see small TV screens built into the backs of every chair on the plane.

On the bright side, the Northwest agent did confirm that they Amsterdam – Minneapolis segment of my ticket was not oversold and I will be able to continue to my flight back to North America on the originally scheduled flight.

Now, instead of a direct flight to Amsterdam, I am being routed through Zurich and then transferring to another flight which will land me in Amsterdam. Despite the extra flight and time in transit, I will still arrive in time to connect to my Amsterdam – Minneapolis flight and will arrive in Edmonton on time. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an opportunity to view Zurich or Amsterdam or tour their respective airports. My layover in Zurich was approximately 20 minutes – barely providing enough time to move from one gate to another – and I had less than 30 minutes to find my gate in Amsterdam.

My Amex will love me. I had no opportunity to visit a Duty Free shop.

Mumbai to Amsterdam was an experience. I was seated next to Mr. Stinky – granted, I’m sure I’m not so fresh smelling myself anymore, but at least I’ve made an effort to brush my teeth repeatedly since leaving the hotel – who snored like a foghorn. I have been awake since 10:30 am (IST) on Friday and have no idea when I’ll finally have an opportunity to sleep.

I wasn’t able to get my passport stamped upon arrival to Zurich. The immigration official explained that Canadians are allowed a 3 month entry into Switzerland before a Visa is required and as such, no passport stamps will be issued for anyone passing through the airport and traveling on a Canadian passport.

Zurich to Amsterdam was a better flight. Granted, I don’t remember any of it because I fell asleep shortly after take off and awoke minutes before landing. It’s a shame the flight was only 1.25 hours long, as I’m sure I could have slept for hours on this plane.

While I’m upset about being bumped off of the Northwest flight – mainly due to the inconvenience and stress of trying to run through the Mumbai airport with only 20 minutes to boarding time – I can’t fault Swiss Air for their service. They were absolutely wonderful to myself and the other displaced passengers from NW flight 41.

In Amsterdam the security officer was more interested in Winnipeg (the city where my passport was issued) than in anything I was carrying or my reason for travel. Apparently, a number of his friends have immigrated to Canada and settled in Winnipeg.

Airport security seemed non-existent compared to my flights back in September. No one pawed through my pockets or luggage in Mumbai, I wasn’t groped in Amsterdam, and the Zurich immigration official barely looked at my passport.

As with the flight to Amsterdam, I managed to sleep fitfully on the flight to Minneapolis. For the first 4 hours I was wide awake but somewhere in the 5th hour I nodded off and grabbed 40 winks.

While it is only 2:30 pm (CST), it is now 2:00 am IST and my body is still working on India time. With that in mind, I’ve decided to continue the remaining section of my journal entry for today under Sunday on the voyage home…

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