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We're off again, and after a long day of flying arrived in Charlottetown around 6:30 last night. Bringing a bike by airplane was a new experience for me, and it presented some challenges. The actual packing of the bike wasn't too bad, but getting it on the airplane was slow.
First the baggage check agent was extremely slow with it. There was a lot more paperwork than you'd expect for just adding an oversized bag to the ticket and paying $50 for the privilege. Then there was the lineup for oversized bag screening. On our flight, there were also about 30 mounties with large luggage, as they were packing body armour and who knows what else to bring to the G20 meeting in Toronto. But even after getting to the front of the line, we were stymied, since the scanner in the Westjet terminal was not large enough to handle a bike box. I had to be escorted to the Air Canada terminal where my bag was scanned, and then escorted back to actually get my bag into the handling system.
After that, things went pretty smoothly. The lines through security were long but efficient, and we made it to our gate just as the boarding announcement was made. No waiting, despite arriving the full 2 hours before flight time.
Most of our bags, including the bike, made it all the way to Charlottetown with no trouble. Unfortunately, the set of panniers containing my clothes and the toolkit I need to reassemble the bike ended up in the "arrivals" pile in Toronto, and missed the connection. Not lost, just late. Since Westjet is currently only flying once a day into Charlottetown, that means waiting until tonight to get them. We've managed to book another night in town, but it means delaying the rest of the trip a bit. I'm hoping the hostel here has all the tools I need to reassemble the bike, or I'll be unable to get around much until tomorrow...if I'm going to be delayed, I'd at least like to get things set up so that we're ready to go.
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