Redemption

At Toronto Pearson, bottle of ice wine in hand from the duty free. How could I resist, with all the Chinese marketing?

The is the hub of Air Canada, our national airline that has progressively declined over the years. They started a new airline calle 'Rouge' and 'being rouged' has become part of our modern lexicon.

But I remember flying with them when I departed for Copenhagen for a year. I brought some long drawing tubes and it was going to cost a fortune. I told the special baggage guy, an older man with probably a history with AC, that I wad going to study abroad for a year. And we both got excited together about the prospect, of furthering a young girl's life, and international relations. He put a tag on my tubes and said 'we'll call them skis.'

And now, some years later,I am going yet again on AC to CPH. A Lufthansa flight but operated by AC, and I complain to a friend by text, and he commiserates with the downgrade. I couldn't check in online, nor could I use their machines. Forced to encounter a real human being, I get a smile.

And I starve on this flight. I probably didn't hear when lunch could be purchased. So with about 45 minutes before landing, I ask for a hot meal tray. Nothing was for sale, so they go up to first class and get me probably the best meal I've ever had on AC. On the house, so to speak. And upon deplaning, they even asked how it was, they were concerned that a meal late in the flight might not have been acceptable.

O Air Canada, step by step, your humanity is returning.