TACA (Take a Chance Airline)

With a heavy heart I packed my bag one last time, hoping everything would be able to fit, since I had bought a few souvenirs/gifts along the way and hadn't actually packed my scuba stuff in my pack since the flight down... then I wandered over to the dive shop to return my dorm key and say one last goodbye.

Upon arriving at the airport, I got into the short line at TACA airlines. Nothing seemed to be happening... and I soon realized that nothing was. The flight had been cancelled. More than a month earlier!! They took our passports, made copies and then we were told to wait, they would make some alternate arrangements. It took 4 hours for them to rebook something for me! By that time it was supposed to be boarding time for the flight they had booked me on to San Pedro Sula. (Both Delta and TACA had cancelled their direct flights to Houston and were sending everyone to the mainland to stay overnight and catch a flight to Houston the next day.) However, there were still several people who had not yet received boarding passes so I asked what could be done about my connecting flights which I was going to miss. They gave me a phone so I called Air Miles to rebook my Air Canada flights. When I reached them, I found out those flights had been changed on me as well! They had been moved up by 5 1/2 hours so even if I had been able to fly on the direct Roatan to Houston flight I wouldn't have been in Houston in time to catch my flight to Calgary. The airline industry is a disaster. After my trip to the Bahamas in March and this recent experience, it is a wonder that anyone ever gets where they are going, with their bags, and on time. Our flight to San Pedro Sula left almost an hour late which left me time to reschedule my Air Canada flights and even get a snack to eat.

There ended up being 17 of us that got rerouted to San Pedro Sula and had to spend the night. When we got to the airport in SPS it was another waiting game. We had been assured that we would have a hotel room, meals, and transporation provided for us by TACA. Just speak to Brenda when you get there they had told us in Roatan. Easier said than done! Brenda was highly experienced in making herself scarce, especially when the going got tough. At first nothing could be done because some people didn't have all their luggage. Some was coming on a later plane so we had to wait for that. Of course when the bags arrived, it was time to find Brenda. When she eventually showed up she wanted our boarding passes for the next day's flight so she could arrange for hotel rooms for us. Turns out some of us (me included) didn't have our boarding pass for the next flight. So she took us to get them.. but then the counter was too busy (4 flights arriving/departing) so she dumped us back in the baggage area. Now we had no idea what was going on.... for almost 2 hours we sat there and weren't told a thing!! Various people went to the TACA counter and were told that Brenda was upstairs and couldn't be called. Finally we decided that there was power in numbers and all 17 of us were going to bombard the TACA counter at once. We said we had been waiting for hours and needed to see Brenda to get a hotel room. We went armed with a list of people and the number and type of hotel rooms needed (clearly if we had left this to Brenda we would have been spending the night in the airport). Amazingly, when we got there the guy called Brenda (previously we had been told that she couldn't be called...). It was about this time that I realized that I was not on the same flight as everybody else was the next day. They were all flying to Houston at 7:00 AM and my flight wasn't leaving until 11:56 AM. Their arrival time was 2:00 PM and mine was 3:43 PM. I had heard that the flight was going to be doing a stop in San Salvador so that would explain the difference in flight times if my flight was going directly to Houston. I was however a bit concerned about my arrival time of 3:43 PM when my flight to Calgary left at 6:25 PM. What if tomorrow was as much of a gong show as today??? I inquired about getting on the 7:00 flight.. nope, it was full. Then I found out that my flight was not a TACA flight at all... it was Continental!! I probably had a better chance of making my flight to Calgary if I stuck with Continental. As it turned out, I made it with time to grab dinner in Houston airport.

Finally, 3 hours after landing in San Pedro Sula, we got vouchers for the hotel, transport, and dinner and breakfast. The woman, Lisa, who had made up the list of people and rooms needed, was also travelling alone so her and I headed to the hotel bar and eagerly ordered some food (we hadn't eaten a proper meal all day) and drinks. Unbelievably, she had not tried the Flor de Caña rum (you miss out on so much when you stay at an all inclusive!) so I introduced her to that. Incidentally, there was a Honduras vs. Canada football (soccer) game on the big screen TV. The bartender, Javier, thought it was pretty amusing to have a Canadian watching the game surrounded by all the Honduran fans. Honduras beat Canada 2-1.

The next day went fairly smoothly.. no flight delays anyway. I was wearing clothes which I had already been sweating in for 2 days and would have to wear for one more day... I probably didn't smell great, but at least I looked okay.. until I had my glass of Sprite knocked over by the two year old kid sitting on daddy's lap next to me! The Sprite soaked my pants, my seat, the floor, and even got on my bag which was under the seat in front of me. It made the rest of that flight just a bit uncomfortable! After that though the rest of the journey was uneventful.. my car hadn't been towed from the Nisku Inn parking lot where it had been parked for two days without a parking pass.. and I managed to get to my friend Jill's new house without getting lost. Welcome back to Canada!