Misc: Terminal 1 – or is it Terminal 0x0001 ?

Well, I’m now back in Halton Hills after my four day Calgary work trip. One thing that struck me on this voyage – I don’t like Toronto’s new Terminal 1. That and Air Canada’s new mandatory automated express check-in. This is like travelling with one of those blasted “Press 1 for this Press 2 for that” type telephone ADAD devices. There are some aspects of human life that call for human interaction.

From the parking to the airplane, Air Canada seems bent on removing humans from the equation. First, when you check in at Pearson you have to find your Aeroplan card, or your credit card — those of us flying on business where SOMEONE ELSE bought the ticket are bound to have problems – and there is no human being to query. Computers are great, as long as you stick to the script. But they really should have one human being around to handle all those “unique” cases. Good luck finding the “2 – Baggage Check” section in that blasted airport.

Fortuntately they’re still using humans at the gate, but I’m sure 5 years from now I’ll miss my flight home because some stupid machine couldn’t read my boarding pass properly and Air Canada will tell me it’s the ticket agency’s secondary computers that mixed up the OCR functions on the airport authority’s equipment and that they cannot be held responsible for that screw up and I’m on my own for arranging a hotel / return flight….. you know it’s coming. Right after the 175% fuel surcharge….

Even the parking lot at Pearson is all computer no human. I stood there looking at a machine with a green flashing light nowhere near the slot [ and there were about 7 or so similar looking slots ] that my ‘ticket’ was supposed to go into. Same thing occurred with the credit card part. I’d still be there trying to negotiate with that lump-o-junk, except the GTAA decided they should probably put a human there, either to help – or maybe prevent me from robbing the machine. I can’t wait until the next time Grandma decides to hop onto a plane.

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