For the benefit of ICANN staff and NARALO travelers to San Juan (especially those going from Canada): My initial impression of the American Express travel service, contracted to handle the arrangements for participants in the San Juan meeting is -- shall we say -- less than stellar. I say this as a note of caution, especially for other Canadians, to check their itineraries carefully. Particularly for an international operation, the Amex agents handling ICANN seem strangely clueless regarding Canada/US travel, notably the fact that most Canadians clear US customs _before_ boarding the plane at the Canadian airport. This is great for Canadians traveling to airports without customs facilities (ie Laguardia, Midway) but it means that connection times must be significantly adjusted. If transferring from a Canadian domestic flight to one headed for the US, you need to reclaim your bags, check in again, clear US customs and immigration (and there's usually a queue), re-check your bags and head to the US-bound flight's gate (which in Vancouver and Toronto can be quite a trek). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_border_preclearance#Canada) Imagine my surprise to hear from one other San Juan-bound traveler who was given ** 35 minutes ** by Amex to accomplish such a transfer. That person would have most certainly missed the US-bound flight, and I believe that appropriate changes have been made. Of course, if your flight originates in a city with pre-clearance, you need to get the airport sooner than you would for a domestic or other international flight. Even here, on my own itinerary, Amex proved themselves less able to book a decent flight than I could have done going online myself. For my own flights to and from San Juan, the Amex agent booked me in seats adjacent to the lavatory on planes that were far from full. Thankfully I was able to go online to the airline's site and change my seat assignments. (FYI, if you also care about where you sit -- and where the good and bad seats are in each aircraft -- I highly recommend http://www.seatguru.com/ ) Anyway, just be forewarned -- and check your booking. One would think that a company like Amex would actually care about their traveler's comfort. - Evan
To back up Evan's comments below - I was the one that they allowed 35 minutes as a switch over in Ottawa. The reason *why* was that I was coming in on an airline that was unaffiliated to the two that Amex uses (sorry, the Canadian biggies just don't come to where I live). The Amex sales rep told me that "the airlines wouldn't have allowed that timing if it weren't possible", so it had to be right. I had to stand pretty much toe to toe with her and insist that she double check. She *finally* came back and said, "Oh, will you have luggage with you?" Grrrrrr... I definitely second the thought that you should double check what Amex has you doing. D Darlene A. Thompson Community Access Program Administrator Nunavut Department of Education/N-CAP c/o P.O. Box 1000, Station 910 Iqaluit, NU X0A 0H0 Phone: (867) 975-6531 Fax: (867) 979-8870 dthompson@gov.nu.ca -----Original Message----- From: na-discuss-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:na-discuss-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf Of Evan Leibovitch Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 1:05 PM To: 'NA Discuss' Subject: [NA-Discuss] Travel arrangements to SJ For the benefit of ICANN staff and NARALO travelers to San Juan (especially those going from Canada): My initial impression of the American Express travel service, contracted to handle the arrangements for participants in the San Juan meeting is -- shall we say -- less than stellar. I say this as a note of caution, especially for other Canadians, to check their itineraries carefully. Particularly for an international operation, the Amex agents handling ICANN seem strangely clueless regarding Canada/US travel, notably the fact that most Canadians clear US customs _before_ boarding the plane at the Canadian airport. This is great for Canadians traveling to airports without customs facilities (ie Laguardia, Midway) but it means that connection times must be significantly adjusted. If transferring from a Canadian domestic flight to one headed for the US, you need to reclaim your bags, check in again, clear US customs and immigration (and there's usually a queue), re-check your bags and head to the US-bound flight's gate (which in Vancouver and Toronto can be quite a trek). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_border_preclearance#Canada) Imagine my surprise to hear from one other San Juan-bound traveler who was given ** 35 minutes ** by Amex to accomplish such a transfer. That person would have most certainly missed the US-bound flight, and I believe that appropriate changes have been made. Of course, if your flight originates in a city with pre-clearance, you need to get the airport sooner than you would for a domestic or other international flight. Even here, on my own itinerary, Amex proved themselves less able to book a decent flight than I could have done going online myself. For my own flights to and from San Juan, the Amex agent booked me in seats adjacent to the lavatory on planes that were far from full. Thankfully I was able to go online to the airline's site and change my seat assignments. (FYI, if you also care about where you sit -- and where the good and bad seats are in each aircraft -- I highly recommend http://www.seatguru.com/ ) Anyway, just be forewarned -- and check your booking. One would think that a company like Amex would actually care about their traveler's comfort. - Evan _______________________________________________ NA-Discuss mailing list NA-Discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/na-discuss_atlarge-lists .icann.org --- Draft MoU with ICANN: http://www.icannwiki.org/NA_RALO_MOU Draft Operating Principles: http://www.icannwiki.org/NA_RALO_OP Draft Code of Conduct: http://www.icannwiki.org/NARALO_Code_of_Conduct
Thompson, Darlene wrote:
The reason *why* was that I was coming in on an airline that was unaffiliated to the two that Amex uses (sorry, the Canadian biggies just don't come to where I live). FWIW,: except for Air Canada, _no_ Canadian airline is part of a major industry alliance (ie, OneWorld, StarAlliance, SkyTeam). Most other Canadian airlines (WestJet, Transat, Porter) aren't any better aligned with US carriers than the one Darlene's taking out of Nunavut (First Air).
Even when taking Air Canada ... transfers to/from its partners (ie, US Air, United) are fairly seamless, but connections with rivals (Continental, American, Delta) aren't always so smooth. And even then, Air Canada and its "partner" US Airways don't even use the same terminal building in Toronto. But I digress... The real point: Don't take anything for granted in the travel bookings. One would like to believe that a travel agent would look out for these gotchas but that's not happening here. - Evan
Even when taking Air Canada ... transfers to/from its partners (ie, US Air, United) are fairly seamless, but connections with rivals (Continental, American, Delta) aren't always so smooth.
I fly out of Toronto all the time, most recently two days ago.* For a transfer to the US where both planes are in Terminal 1, I would allow a minimum of 90 minutes unless you have a NEXUS card. (If you don't know what it is, you don't have one.) For transfers between T1 and T3, I'd add an extra half hour for the train. I haven't been to the Ottawa airport in a while, but I'd allow 90 minutes there to preclear as well.
From experience, I can assure you that travel agents in the US are uniformly clueless about anything outside the US, and have trouble imaginining that the situation outside the US is any different from the situation inside the US. Now and then you run into an individual agent who knows about international travel, but they are rare gems, and even if you find one at a big agency like Amex, good like finding him or her the next time you call them.
By the way, did they mention the USDA baggage inspection at the San Juan airport? It can take a while, too. R's, John * - I'm in Dublin now.
Evan: Thanks very much for these comments. As you know we are trying out American Express so any experiences with them that travellers wish to provide, good or bad, will be very helpful to us. On 5 Jun 2007, at 18:04, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
For the benefit of ICANN staff and NARALO travelers to San Juan (especially those going from Canada):
My initial impression of the American Express travel service, contracted to handle the arrangements for participants in the San Juan meeting is -- shall we say -- less than stellar.
I say this as a note of caution, especially for other Canadians, to check their itineraries carefully.
Particularly for an international operation, the Amex agents handling ICANN seem strangely clueless regarding Canada/US travel, notably the fact that most Canadians clear US customs _before_ boarding the plane at the Canadian airport. This is great for Canadians traveling to airports without customs facilities (ie Laguardia, Midway) but it means that connection times must be significantly adjusted. If transferring from a Canadian domestic flight to one headed for the US, you need to reclaim your bags, check in again, clear US customs and immigration (and there's usually a queue), re-check your bags and head to the US-bound flight's gate (which in Vancouver and Toronto can be quite a trek).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ United_States_border_preclearance#Canada)
Imagine my surprise to hear from one other San Juan-bound traveler who was given ** 35 minutes ** by Amex to accomplish such a transfer. That person would have most certainly missed the US-bound flight, and I believe that appropriate changes have been made.
Of course, if your flight originates in a city with pre-clearance, you need to get the airport sooner than you would for a domestic or other international flight. Even here, on my own itinerary, Amex proved themselves less able to book a decent flight than I could have done going online myself.
For my own flights to and from San Juan, the Amex agent booked me in seats adjacent to the lavatory on planes that were far from full. Thankfully I was able to go online to the airline's site and change my seat assignments.
(FYI, if you also care about where you sit -- and where the good and bad seats are in each aircraft -- I highly recommend http:// www.seatguru.com/ )
Anyway, just be forewarned -- and check your booking. One would think that a company like Amex would actually care about their traveler's comfort.
- Evan
_______________________________________________ NA-Discuss mailing list NA-Discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/na-discuss_atlarge- lists.icann.org --- Draft MoU with ICANN: http://www.icannwiki.org/NA_RALO_MOU
Draft Operating Principles: http://www.icannwiki.org/NA_RALO_OP
Draft Code of Conduct: http://www.icannwiki.org/NARALO_Code_of_Conduct
participants (4)
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Evan Leibovitch -
John L -
Nick Ashton-Hart -
Thompson, Darlene