First trip since we returned from the lovely lockdown in the TRNC in August 2020. So maybe we’re out of practice and maybe things have changed. Anyway, when I went last night to check in online all was well until, following the passport info am asked for UK visa info. What? Canadian visitors don’t need a visa for the UK. But N/A not amongst the options. And impossible to proceed without providing serious information. Check with gov.uk, which always answers relevant questions thoroughly and without ambiguity and is never out of date. No - Canadian passport, just visiting, no criminal record, no intention of working or claiming benefits. No visa required. Air Canada kindly, and somewhat unusually, provides a help number to call. Help recording proves unhelpful. If question concerns check in requirements it can only be answered by airport check in staff. And in any case AC recommends arriving at airport more than two hours before flight time as airports are unusually busy.
All of which means we accept Jennifer’s kind offer to take us to the airport at 7:15 on her way to work (which it actually isn’t) in order to sort out our lack of status. Turns out Air Canada assumes that a return flight booked from London in May means that we intend to stay in the UK for over six months and could be refused entry at Heathrow - forcing AC to fly us back to Canada in disgrace. Happily, the man who deals with us understands the problem immediately and it is easily solved by our providing a copy of a British Air booking showing us leaving the UK two weeks after arriving. Well, more or less easily, as the Winnipeg airport wifi isn’t functioning and the agent in the end lends us his own hot spot in order to access my email.
Fortunately AC’s warning of extremely busy facilities inapplicable in Winnipeg’s case, and we could easily have arrived hours later to sort the problem. Airport next best thing to empty.
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