Air Canada. Please deliver me. Or at least my luggage.

Barry Rueger

10 Jan 2026 — 6 min read

The image above is from the Air Canada website, explaining, without words or captions, how to navigate Heathrow Terminal Two. With major airports like Heathrow or Charles de Gaulle I know that it's worthwhile to do some planning before arrival.

Especially since there are actually TWO Terminal Twos at Heathrow, as explained in this second image from Air Canada.

This research was because I was travelling from Cambridge, by National Express bus, to arrive the evening before a 9 am flight (which means, for me anyhow, arriving at the airport at 7 am) to Halifax. I had booked a night at the Ibis hotel, as there was no reasonable way to travel two hours from Cambridge and arrive at 7 am.

The bus was of course twenty minutes late, but that is expected with National Express. Who knew that selling off public utilities and services to the private sector would damage service levels?

Eventually, in the freezing wind that is a feature of all airports, I was dropped off in the central bus area between Terminals Two and Three. The plan was to take the Hotel Hoppa shuttle to the Ibis. (I don't make up these names...) Except, that shuttle only runs once an hour at night, and I had missed it by about five minutes.

The thing that I hadn't anticipated was the logistics of getting from the bus drop-off to the shuttle pick-up location. Heathrow's signage is utterly useless, but I eventually learned that I needed to join the crowd at the two small elevators at the bus arrival area, go down one level, travel fifteen minutes on foot to the end of some underground tunnel, then take another elevator back up to ground level to the place where the shuttle - the name of which on the actual bus is different of course - pick-up happens.

OK, I was not about to spend an hour standing around in the cold, so I went to Google Maps to find other choices to get to the hotel.

We've stayed at Ibis hotels before. They tend to be comfortable, nicely - if sparsely - furnished, and cheap. No room-service, but for an overnight stop, they're fine.

What I now know is that if you search for "Ibis budget Heathrow" you might get any of three different hotels:

1) Ibis budget London Heathrow Central - the hotel I was booked at. In Hounslow.
2) Ibis budget London Heathrow Central T5 - the other one.
3) Ibis budget London Hounslow. Where, I think, I wound up. Also in Hounslow.

You see, the Expedia e-mail confirming my reservation didn't bother to include the actual address for the hotel. I took the Piccadilly line as directed by Google maps, came up on the street, and booked an Uber for the last leg of the journey.

Long story short, whether the fault was mine, or Google's or Uber's, I wound up at the wrong Ibis, and had to take a second Uber to get to "my" hotel. Judging by the reaction of the staff at the first hotel, this happens a lot.

No matter. Checked in, ate a mediocre pizza and had a half of mediocre beer, and was in bed by about midnight. After spending £4 on a little tube of toothpaste from a vending machine because Ibis is too cheap to give guests a complimentary little tube of Crest or Colgate.

Oh, and the room positively reeked of cigarette smoke, and every time a plane landed at Heathrow the windows rattled.

Up at 5:30 am, mediocre coffee in the room, downstairs to catch the 6:15 am Hotel Hoppa shuttle.

I'm one of those people who shows up a little early to the airport, both to avoid line-ups, and to get through security without hassles and still have time for some kind of meal before flying.

Needless to say, the automated check-in machines weren't working for me, so I had to go to a real, live agent. Except there seemed to be no actual way to enter the maze of posts and ribbons they use to corral the customers, so I just lifted one up and ducked under.

Bag labelled and checked, boarding pass in hand, I headed to security, and was lectured because I left my passport and boarding pass in the pocket of my sweater. Apparently, this is now considered a Security Issue. Honestly, I've given up trying to anticipate what various airport security groups will insist on. Sooner or later I'm sure I'll be asked to remove my pants.

Through security, repacked and put my belt back on, went and had breakfast. The flight on Air Canada was crowded, had no leg room, mediocre food, and inexplicably has the toilets right beside the kitchen area where your food is prepared. If you've flown Air Canada you know what I'm talking about. You just suffer through it and look forward to the escape.

We arrived in Halifax twenty minutes late. My seatmate had a connection to Toronto leaving in fifteen minutes, so was panicking. Of course three rows up were the people who don't consider closing their laptops, putting on jackets, and collecting their stuff - much less opening the overhead compartment - until the entire plane in front of them has exited.

I entered all of my "No" responses into the Canada Customs kiosk and was printed the proper form to get me out. Made it to the baggage area to collect my suitcase, watched the carousel come around three or four times, then looked at my phone. An e-mail from Air Canada led me to shout:

"Hey everyone, I just got an email saying that Air Canada has lost my suitcase."

At that moment, forty or fifty heads turned and saw that, at the far end of the baggage area, there was already a long line of tired travellers waiting to file a claim with the two Air Canada employees behind the counters.

I joined the line. One of the Air Canada people made a frantic pass down the line, handing out Canada Customs forms where we were to write in our details so that, if our bags were ever found, they could be released and delivered to us.

Except, in an age when everyone does everything on a smart phone, who carries a pen with them? Air Canada had disappeared back to their kiosk, but a very nice Canada Border Services employee actually went into their office, and came back with handful of ballpoint pens, distributing them to everyone in line.

An hour later I was finally at the Hertz counter to pick up a rental car. No, I will not pay an extra $25 a day for snow tires. (Seriously???) Fingers crossed we won't have a blizzard. In January. In Nova Scotia.

That was on Wednesday. It's now 8:32 on Saturday. Really, truly, I am promised that my suitcase will arrive today. I am not optimistic. Initially, I was told that the lost luggage went to Ottawa. (This was a direct flight from London to Halifax) Then that it was in Toronto. Then, via the Air Canada app, which is literally the only way to check this stuff, that it was on a flight from London to Toronto. The latest is that the bag has arrived in Halifax, and in theory is in a van heading towards Liverpool.

(They've sent me four emails this morning)

Meanwhile, a warning: if you need men's briefs, socks, or t-shirts you should avoid Loblaw's "Joe Fresh" items. It has been decades since I wore underwear this uncomfortable.

(Liverpool is really a shopping wasteland. For clothes, the options are used clothing legend "Guy's Frenchies" or Loblaws.)

Anyhow, this morning, Air Canada sent me a request that I rate their services. OK guys, you asked for it. It finished with an offer to be part of further customer surveys via Ipsos polling. This time, I said, "You bet."

At which point, after three-quarters of an hour, I was told that a requirement for this was to have a CANADIAN phone number.

At which point I'm asking, in all seriousness, does no-one in North America ever leave the country for anything more than vacations?