It was over 40 hours from the time that I left for the airport in Ottawa that I arrived at the hostel in Sydney. It was a pretty eventful journey and its safe to say that after my return flight next December, I will never travel with Cathay Pacific again. They were pretty horrible. When I checked in to Air Canada in Ottawa they had a bit of trouble checking my VISA status but figured it out. But in Toronto, the Cathay Pacific people were telling me that I didn’t have a VISA. I kept pointing out that the very first sentence in my correspondence from the Austalian immigration people said “Your application for a student visa has been approved” and that further down the letter was my visa number, class, and a statement that this correspondence is all I needed to take with me on my travels. They didn’t want to let me on the plane I could tell. And I’m sure the stupid lady marked my boarding pass so that Id be searched thoroughly by security.
In the end she said she’s applied for a visa for me, and I just said oh thanks cause I wasn’t in a position to argue. I don’t even know what it was all about because when I landed in Australia they swiped my passport through a machine and said everything was in order and let me through, just like that. I was worried they’d deny me entry and it would be like that Tom Hanks movie where he lives in the Terminal. At some point I should make sure that I am here on my 4 year student visa though, and not some stupid tourist visa that lady set up.
Oh and my bags didn’t make it. Apparently the 2 hours layover in Hong Kong wasn’t long enough to transfer my bags. I wore the same clothes for a few days until they stunk too much and I bought a couple of things. Of course Cathay offered no compensation.
When my brand new $$$ back pack did arrive 3 days later one of the straps had been ripped off and it had been bashed around so much that the plastic case that protects my razor had been shattered. Again, Cathay Pacific is not liable for such things though.
I had already decided not to fly with Cathay ever again before any of this had happened even, because of the manner in which the flight attendant was addressing and treating a Jewish couple sitting in front of me.
Anyways, wow that was a very negative few paragraphs eh. I didn’t let any of that stuff bother me at all while in Sydney, I still had a blast. And I’m not the type of guy who dwells on the negatives, just wanted to fully describe my experience with them for anyone else looking into airlines to come visit me. I suppose these things happen to all airlines really.
But yeah, back to the flights. There was in flight entertainment, thought the movie options weren't as good as when I flew with SAA last year I still watched some pretty awesome movies. They were playing on a loop, and new movies didn’t start until the longest of the movies playing was finished. So I watched the last 30 minutes of the Departed five times. I watched the whole thing through once and the second half once too, after Id given up on some Woody Allen romantic comedy. I also watched Little Miss Sunshine, and the Last King of Scotland, both good movies. I watched some of that Costner/Kutcher movie but it was just horrible.
The end of The Departed was great every time. I kept tuning in just before the got to the warehouse, what an awesome movie. Apparently the Hong Kong version is really good too, I might try and download it.
I also changed the dates on my return flights. I'm on the waiting list for one of them, but assuming that I do get it, I'll get back around the 20th of December, just in time for a special occasion...
