We Made It Home

We made it home!  It was a somewhat abrupt end to our Aussie Trip but necessary with the world experiencing a pandemic.  Our return was long and not without moments of exhilarating highs and some very debilitating lows.  This blog post will likely have many more words than pictures because once we set out for home, things happened fast.

In terms of the pandemic, we were traveling in a bubble.  Western Australia was not experiencing the things that were happening at home. In hindsight, we should have listened more to the worries of our kids at home than placing our trust in Air Canada.  We were partially aware of how rapidly things were changing at home but when Air Canada changed our flight to the following day, our experience told us that if they changed a flight, they would provide an option of a different flight.  In this case that did not happen.

Perth Streets Began to Empty

Pan Pacific Buffets Became Limited

On our return to Perth from the Coral Coast, we received an email from Air Canada stating that they canceled our flight home.  They did not give us any return option and did not return our messages or answer our calls.  The only flights offered at the Air Canada website were for gouged prices ranging between 4 and 12 thousand dollars each and those disappeared quicker than we could decide.  Air Canada abandoned us.  Our original plan was to travel from Perth to the Margaret River wine region.  Out of the blue, Jetstar canceled our flight from Margaret River to Melbourne.  Again, without options.

We went into high anxiety, high action mode.  We immediately booked a flight to Melbourne knowing that there was less Covid-19 in Melbourne than Sydney and more flights home than Perth.  We booked a Cathay Pacific flight to Vancouver through Hong Kong for the next day at $1100 each.  We flew to Melbourne and relaxed a little as we overnighted near Melbourne airport. 

When we arrived at the airport the next day we were told that if we boarded the flight to Hong Kong, we would not make it to Canada.  The Hong Kong government was closing the airport at midnight that night.  We could get to Hong Kong but our flight to Canada was canceled. We were devastated!

Long Line-Ups and Prevalent Fear!

While Deborah and I were processing the news with Yunna, our Cathay Pacific rep, Randall was searching for solutions.  He found four tickets on American Airlines for $44,000.00.  Deborah and I said “no”.  Randall and Doreen were going to say yes at $32,000 for two but the tickets sold before they could push the button. 

Deborah and I were still standing at the counter while Yunna continued to work on our dilemma.  While she worked we started to look at houses to rent for the following months.  It is hard to describe how low we were feeling.

It was at that point, after many minutes, after many phone calls, in various languages, and countless punches on her keyboard, that Yunna glanced up and flashed a smile and gave the “fingers crossed” sign.  She managed to get us on our original plane to Hong Kong with a quick transfer to another plane to Los Angeles and a return to Vancouver the next day.  The trick was to get to the second plane before the clock struck midnight.  We would not land in Hong Kong until 11:15 pm and the transfer sounded impossible.  She then managed to get an exemption from the Hong Kong government (through her boss I’m sure) to allow our plane to LA to take off at 12:15 am, just after the deadline.  Our boarding passes were printed and our plane to HK was delayed to allow us (and a few more miracle seekers) to make it on board.  Nine hours later we were in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong was a rush.  Off the plane, we hurried (bags transferred by Cathay staff) and raced to the second flight.  Hong Kong has very strict Covid-19 protocols.  Every passenger was temperature checked and interviewed to determine if they were symptomatic.  We made it onto the plane at 11:56 pm and were airborne at 12:15 am, the last flight out of Hong Kong for the foreseeable future.  We looked at each other and high-fived.

There were only 67 people on the Airbus for the 12.5-hour ride.  I had three seats to myself and managed to stretch out for 6 hours of sleep, ate two meals and watched four movies.  One of our party had enough space to hook up his nose-hose machine and tuck under a blanket for a well-deserved sleep.

Entry to the US at LA had nothing in terms of health checks.  We were given a form on the plane asking us about where we had traveled and whether we had any virus symptoms but no one at border services asked about our health and no one collected the forms.  We were free to leave the airport but chose not too.  We had a ten-hour layover and while some of our party sat up playing games I found an abandoned PF Chang’s restaurant and had a few more hours sleep on their cushioned benches.

On The Ground - Happy To Be Home

We returned to Canada on a morning flight to Vancouver and again sailed through Customs after only being asked if we felt "Okay" by Border Services.  They handed us a form stating that we had to self-quarantine and that was it.

Randall and Doreen’s daughter-in-law Melanie dropped a car for us and we motored home in brilliant sunshine to start our 14 days of isolation.  To say we were relieved to have survived our 36 hours, four-country, three plane rides journey, would be an understatement.

That’s it for this entry.  Since I have fourteen days to fill, I will complete this Australian diary with a last “summing up” blog entry at a later date.