Kelowna, Day Seven: Home at Last
Sep. 17th, 2016 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aInnovation comes from seeing two unacceptable choices, and finding the third way.
Many of us were leaving on the 10.40am flight from Kelowna to Vancouver. But everyone I talked to wanted to head to the airport around 9am. Though I suspected it would be plenty of time for the size of the airport, I was uncomfortable, in part because I knew nothing about Saturday morning traffic conditions in Kelowna or the length of lines for the carriers or for security at the airport.
Choice one was to wait around until 9am and stress about it the whole time.
Choice two was to take a cab of my own, wasting about $40C. Blockstream said to go ahead and do that, but then I would have waited around at the airport feeling bad about a totally unnecessary expense.
So, choice three: take the bus up to the college, which was a straight shot and pretty fast and then either catch a transfer bus or else walk the 2km to the airport.
It was easy to get out to the main bus transfer station in Kelowna, which I'd seen on one of my early morning walks. But from there, there were a few surprises.
In other words, it was a little more adventurous than planned, and my socks got a bit wet on the way, but I also managed to get some steps (2+ miles total by the time I sat down at my gate), and I managed to accomplish my goal of arriving early enough to feel comfortable without feeling bad about wasting money, because the bus ride was a big $2.50C.
It turned out that check-in and security at Kelowna International Airport were total non-issues … but how was I to know that, never having checked in there before?
Overall, Kelowna was a pleasant, modern airport. Not very large, but I compare it to Lihue. They both have 5-8 gates or so, but the Kelowna airport had a big holding room that all the gates ran off of and a bit of craziness where a high-tech system actually dynamically linked up check-in desks with gates. Not that it necessarily worked well. There were three different "Gates 6s" while we sat there waiting for our Gate 6 flight, and they couldn't get the the signs switched from the previous flight to ours; the desk clerk simply said that the signs at Kelowna sucked.
(In contrast, Lihue is quite rustic.)
In any case, g'bye Kelowna, I suspect I won't see you again.
Vancouver was the flipside of the Seattle airport coming in. It was much more pleasant. Its only downside was that it was a real maze, shunting us here and there, at least once up a narrow walkway on a mezzanine that looked out over the other maze paths.
Apparently the reason was pre-clearance. We actually went through customs in Vancouver, doing our declarations and being quizzed by a very surly customs agent.
There was actually a big delay at what was our SECOND security screening for the day, just before the surly customs agent. The woman just in front of us tested positive for bomb residue. And unlike SFO where they clearly have their machines set wrong, so they go off for everyone, in Vancouver they took the bomb-residue detection very seriously. And this messed up the whole line.
But we got through that, and then we talked to the surly customs agent, and then were out.
"In America", I said, though we were still in Canada.
And they still took Canadian funny money.
By the by: seven Blockstreamers on the flight from Kelowna to Vancouver, then six from Vancouver to SFO. As several of us pointed out: not smart. One crashed plane could seriously mess up the company.
(Apparently they've talked about this more than once, but that doesn't stop it from happening; my theorem was that they need a staff member to do the reservations if they want to avoid it, else everyone will just consider their own best interests. It's some sort of prisoner's dilemma-like problem.)
Like Hawaiian Airlines, Air Canada puts the scam cart out in advance of the drinks cart, trying to underhandedly trick you into buying food while they hold the free refreshments hostage.
(I heard someone behind me turn down one of those snacks when he saw how little he got for his $3. Scam!)
I had a final lunch with Blockstreamers in Vancouver, then when we got to SFO was encouraged to Lyft home with one of them because she's just 1.5 miles away from me. (Without her I would have just stubbornly taken BART, despite the fact that it's yet another bus-bridge day on the first world's most dysfunctional subway system.)
The last trek of the day was sadly trying. Traffic was horrible all the way into Oakland, on 101, 80, and the Bridge. And a massive truck tried to kill us on the San Franciscan streets by failing to make a right turn and then just sitting, blocking us.
It took just more than an hour to get home from SFO, which I could almost have matched on BART (though not today).
But, home at last. Whew.
Many of us were leaving on the 10.40am flight from Kelowna to Vancouver. But everyone I talked to wanted to head to the airport around 9am. Though I suspected it would be plenty of time for the size of the airport, I was uncomfortable, in part because I knew nothing about Saturday morning traffic conditions in Kelowna or the length of lines for the carriers or for security at the airport.
Choice one was to wait around until 9am and stress about it the whole time.
Choice two was to take a cab of my own, wasting about $40C. Blockstream said to go ahead and do that, but then I would have waited around at the airport feeling bad about a totally unnecessary expense.
So, choice three: take the bus up to the college, which was a straight shot and pretty fast and then either catch a transfer bus or else walk the 2km to the airport.
It was easy to get out to the main bus transfer station in Kelowna, which I'd seen on one of my early morning walks. But from there, there were a few surprises.
- It started to rain
- I discovered my hiking shoes are no longer waterproof.
- I was reminded how often there are no sidewalks in Kelowna.
In other words, it was a little more adventurous than planned, and my socks got a bit wet on the way, but I also managed to get some steps (2+ miles total by the time I sat down at my gate), and I managed to accomplish my goal of arriving early enough to feel comfortable without feeling bad about wasting money, because the bus ride was a big $2.50C.
It turned out that check-in and security at Kelowna International Airport were total non-issues … but how was I to know that, never having checked in there before?
Overall, Kelowna was a pleasant, modern airport. Not very large, but I compare it to Lihue. They both have 5-8 gates or so, but the Kelowna airport had a big holding room that all the gates ran off of and a bit of craziness where a high-tech system actually dynamically linked up check-in desks with gates. Not that it necessarily worked well. There were three different "Gates 6s" while we sat there waiting for our Gate 6 flight, and they couldn't get the the signs switched from the previous flight to ours; the desk clerk simply said that the signs at Kelowna sucked.
(In contrast, Lihue is quite rustic.)
In any case, g'bye Kelowna, I suspect I won't see you again.
Vancouver was the flipside of the Seattle airport coming in. It was much more pleasant. Its only downside was that it was a real maze, shunting us here and there, at least once up a narrow walkway on a mezzanine that looked out over the other maze paths.
Apparently the reason was pre-clearance. We actually went through customs in Vancouver, doing our declarations and being quizzed by a very surly customs agent.
There was actually a big delay at what was our SECOND security screening for the day, just before the surly customs agent. The woman just in front of us tested positive for bomb residue. And unlike SFO where they clearly have their machines set wrong, so they go off for everyone, in Vancouver they took the bomb-residue detection very seriously. And this messed up the whole line.
But we got through that, and then we talked to the surly customs agent, and then were out.
"In America", I said, though we were still in Canada.
And they still took Canadian funny money.
By the by: seven Blockstreamers on the flight from Kelowna to Vancouver, then six from Vancouver to SFO. As several of us pointed out: not smart. One crashed plane could seriously mess up the company.
(Apparently they've talked about this more than once, but that doesn't stop it from happening; my theorem was that they need a staff member to do the reservations if they want to avoid it, else everyone will just consider their own best interests. It's some sort of prisoner's dilemma-like problem.)
Like Hawaiian Airlines, Air Canada puts the scam cart out in advance of the drinks cart, trying to underhandedly trick you into buying food while they hold the free refreshments hostage.
(I heard someone behind me turn down one of those snacks when he saw how little he got for his $3. Scam!)
I had a final lunch with Blockstreamers in Vancouver, then when we got to SFO was encouraged to Lyft home with one of them because she's just 1.5 miles away from me. (Without her I would have just stubbornly taken BART, despite the fact that it's yet another bus-bridge day on the first world's most dysfunctional subway system.)
The last trek of the day was sadly trying. Traffic was horrible all the way into Oakland, on 101, 80, and the Bridge. And a massive truck tried to kill us on the San Franciscan streets by failing to make a right turn and then just sitting, blocking us.
It took just more than an hour to get home from SFO, which I could almost have matched on BART (though not today).
But, home at last. Whew.