Halifax to Niagara Falls

Thursday, 3 October

The day got off to a smooth start. We checked out of our hotel, drove to the airport and returned the car no problems.
Went to the US section of the airport to check in three and a half hours before the flight because we’d got there quicker than expected. No sign of life at any of the check-in counters but after about an hour the United staff arrived and started checking people in for their flight. Our flight wasn’t even showing on the departure board. “This is a bit odd,” we thought. I went down to the information desk and they said not to worry the Delta staff should show up soon.

So we sat and waited and still nothing and no one. Finally I wandered over to the United counter and asked about our Delta flight. The guy looked horrified and said they hadn’t been flying out of Halifax since July and there were no staff to talk to as it’s the end of the season. Also something about them not having enough bookings to keep operating. He gave us a phone number for Delta and we rang that but it was a half hour queue so we hung on. Anne went back over to United to ask about booking us on one of their flights. While they were trying to organise that Delta finally answered. With a bit of help from the lovely United people Delta got us booked through to Newark and then Buffalo, but much later than our original plan. Had we talked to them earlier we could have been on our way very quickly.

Of course you could predict that our flight to Newark would be delayed but that didn’t matter as we were not to fly out of there until 9.30. We arrived in Newark only to discover that our onward flight was delayed until 11.35! It’s just one of those days!

A one hour flight brought us to Buffalo/Niagara around 1.00am. We queued for the hire car and were given a huge Dodge people mover. Finally got to our motel at Niagara Falls just on 3.30.... and now to bed!