4:15 am Brussels time (9:15 pm Saturday, Houston time): We woke up to be sure we could have our luggage packed and outside our room by 4:30 in the morning. Should be leaving by 5:15 to get to the airport.
4:25 am Brussels time (9:25 pm Saturday, Houston time): We put our luggage outside our room. Ready to pack our things and go.
4:50 am Brussels time (9:50 pm Saturday, Houston time): We walked out of our room, and our luggage was still there, so we grabbed it and took it to the lobby. We got downstairs, and a porter who was handling someone else's luggage looked at us, frustrated, and asked, “What room are these from?” We told him our room number and told them that we had just brought them down this point. One other couple was down there with us. Since the breakfast buffet was not open yet, Sylvie asked the hotel to prepare grab-and-go bags for us. The bags had a small glass of water, a small glass of orange juice, a sandwich on white bread with ham and cheese, and a banana. Once we had our breakfast bags, Sylvie told the other couple and us that we could head to the airport. We told her that we weren't scheduled to go until the second car, but she said that since we were there and ready, we could go.
5:00 am Brussels time (10 pm Saturday Houston time): The driver was very nice, took our luggage out to a very nice Mercedes-Benz, and we headed to the airport. Not surprisingly, there was very little traffic at 5:00 in the morning. The breakfast bag did not look appealing, and we were not hungry, so we just carried it.
5:30 am Brussels time (10:30 pm Saturday Houston time): We arrived at the Brussels airport.
5:40 am Brussels time (10:40 pm Saturday Houston time): We located the Air Canada check-in area. The counter was closed. The electronic message board said we could begin checking in at 5:45. We had our reservation number, so we went to the kiosk, entered the information, printed our baggage tags and boarding passes, and wandered over to the Air Canada check-in area.
5:45 am Brussels time (10:45 pm Saturday Houston time): We walked over toward the counter, and an Air Canada employee met us in the line area and told us it would open at 6:00 AM, so we retreated to wait. The other couple with us was struggling a little bit with the kiosk system, so they went off to deal with that.
6:00 am Brussels time (11 pm Saturday Houston time): We resumed our approach. The same woman greeted us in line, told us they still needed to meet and discuss, and asked if we could please continue waiting. We waited and watched them have conversations.
6:15 am Brussels time (11:15 pm Saturday Houston time): a man approached the Air Canada desk with printed papers. He gathered all the Air Canada employees for a meeting, presumably to discuss the day’s boarding check-in procedures, and handed out the papers. We waited.
6:30 am Brussels time (11:30 pm Saturday Houston time): We were allowed to approach. We dropped off our luggage, got new boarding passes, and headed off to the gate.
6:45 am Brussels time (11:45 pm Saturday Houston time): We arrived at the gate, and there were at least 25 people waiting, some sleeping there. Not sure how they arrived at the gate before us. Perhaps they were still there from the night before?
9:15 am Brussels time (2:15 am Houston time): Our boarding group was called. We were in the center section of four, but at least we were on the aisle instead of in the middle. Secured our bags to await takeoff.
9:45 am Brussels time (2:45 am Houston time): We departed Brussels. The flight was fine. Difficult to sleep; dinner was ok, breakfast was lousy.
11:00 am Montreal time (10 am Houston time): We arrived in Montreal. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 4:30 pm Montreal time, so we found comfortable seats near chargers and waited for our 4:00 pm boarding call. We watched a security guard sit on a chair near us, talking on the phone, watching intently out the window to the tarmac where it was raining heavily. We’re not sure what she was watching for. I suppose if there was trouble on the tarmac, she could have pounded loudly on the window, but it was quite a distance away.
2:13 pm Montreal time (1:13 pm Houston time): We received a notification that our flight was delayed by 45 minutes. In addition, a group of about 25 high school students swarmed our waiting area, talking very loudly to one another, apparently returning home from some school trip. Bill said, “Lucky us, they are probably on our flight home.”
3:30 pm Montreal time (2:30 pm Houston time): we were notified our flight had been delayed another hour. Scheduled to board at 4:40 pm Montreal time)
4:45 pm Montreal time (3:45 pm Houston time): we had given up our good seats with charging ports to wait for boarding.
4:50 pm Montreal time (3:50 Houston time): We were notified that our flight was delayed by another hour. The teens had taken over our comfortable window seats with charging ports, so we had to find new seats in less-ideal locations. There was only one seat available, so Bill stood, and I sat. I said to Bill, “We never should have given up our seats.” A very nice young man sitting next to me apologized and asked if he was in Bill’s seat. We said he was not, but he said he would walk around a bit and gave Bill his seat.
5:00 pm Montreal time (4 pm Houston time): We were notified we would receive $15 in credits for airport snacks as an apology for the delays. Bill headed off to get some snacks.
5:05 pm Montreal time (4:05 pm Houston time): We were notified that our gate had changed to gate 75 around the corner. I grabbed our stuff, flagged down Bill, and headed to gate 75.
5:35 pm Montreal time (4:35 pm Houston time): We found out we were actually boarding at gate 74, and hastily walked over. Thankfully, the airport gods were in good humor and didn’t have us wait 6.5 hours in an airport just to miss our flight.
5:41 pm Montreal time (4:41 pm Houston time): We finally were in our seats on the plane!
5:50 pm Montreal time (4:50 pm Houston time): The pilot announces that since we are on a different plane, we are waiting for galley services to be delivered to our plane.
6:20 pm Montreal time (5:20 pm Houston time): Galley services finally arrive to stock our plane, a process that takes about 5 minutes.
6:30 pm Montreal time (7:30 Houston time): Our flight departs Montreal for Houston!
12:08 am Houston time: Our flight lands at Terminal C. We are told our luggage will be arriving in Terminal E. We follow the crowd onto a train to Terminal E.
12:20 am Houston time: We arrive at Terminal E. There is no one else around except the passengers from our flight and some men nearby using a scaffold for repairs. Every time the scaffold moves, an alarm sounds, which tricks us into thinking our luggage has arrived.
1:20 am Houston time: Our luggage arrives, completely soaked, apparently having spent quite a bit of time in the rain in Montreal. We would later learn that everything inside our luggage was soaked as well.
2:20 am: We finally make it home 29 hours after leaving the hotel in Brussels.
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