Nexus, Air Canada and flying to the US

This whole post is a 'but I digress' situation but I know everyone loves a good 'wow, Joanne is not good at vacation planning' story.  

So, I'm not sure if I mentioned that I bought a kind of crappy ticket to Budapest through Air Canada:  Victoria to Vancouver to Seattle to Frankfurt to Budapest.  I was not keen on adding in a stop in the US, what with the border etc.  But it was way cheaper.  

Well before I had planned this vacation, I had also applied for a Nexus pass.  Nexus allows Canadians to cross the US border more easily.  Even though I don't cross the border into the US that often, I have been noticing a lot of 'Trusted Traveler' lines at airports in other countries. Nexus holders are considered trusted travelers. And those line ups are WAY shorter.  I guess they figure if the US immigration says you're ok, they can trust you too.  So, I applied for Nexus.  It is an online application to start.  That took almost a year to get to the next step, an interview with a Canadian Border agent.  

I got my email in July that said 'book an appointment'.  Yay!  In time for Europe I thought!  I jumped onto the booking page and looked at the first day.  Full.  Next day.  Full. Every day after that until December 13.  Full.  I booked for December 13.  Oh well.  But, not one to give up easily, I checked every day for a cancellation.  Finally, there was a spot in August.  I jumped on it.  

I had to go to Vancouver airport for that interview.  I realize now, there may have been other options but this isn't even where I am particularly stupid (oh, don't worry, that's coming).   By going to the airport for my interview, I had to do my second interview with the American Border agent at a major Canadian airport as I was flying into the US.  No problem, I thought, I am flying through Vancouver into Seattle as part of my trip to Europe.  I will do it then. So far so good.  

Then Air Canada managed, in the least and yet most Air Canada way, to screw up this entire plan.  Air Canada, who had never done anything good for me ever, sent me an email.  They've changed out flight.  We are now flying Victoria to Toronto to Frankfurt to Budapest.  A much better route, by far!  I would normally rejoice at such an awesome change.  But I need to fly into the US!  

Ok, lemons to lemonade!  I'll just do a short hop into the US for a weekend.  I'm not sure if you all know this but last minute flights in August are not cheap.  it was going to cost almost $1000 for flight and hotel just to go to Seattle for one night (there is no same day return factoring in the island and the interview time).  I checked Portland, Los Angeles and other hubs on the west coast.  All super expensive.  It has to be done...  I checked Las Vegas.  I had a flex day on Aug 9 which would give me three days.  No one was keen to join me.  So, last minute, I booked a flight and hotel through Booking.com packages for something like $780.  

Then I went out for a beer with some friends.  I told them about my plan.  Rob asked where I was staying.  Bposhtel I said.  He and Amy both googled it.  The laughing will haunt my dreams forever (not really, it is very laughable).  So, Bposhtel is a hostel that only has six-bed rooms.  When you check in, you get a lock so you can secure your belongings in a plastic bucket at the end of your bed.  There may or may not be a bathroom which may or may not have a curtain separating it from the bedroom.  

That is all bad.  But this picture was the one that convinced me I had made a terrible mistake.  

Um, Ya, No.  

Plus some pretty awesome reviews (if you are laughing at your idiot friend, not if you are staying there)

Righty-oh.  The one thing I did right, by accident, was that there was a 24 hour cancellation policy.  I signed back on later that night.  I was able to cancel the flight no problem but the link to cancel the hotel just said I can't cancel online.  So, I called Bposhtel.  They have a long message about how it sucks to be you and you should have done your research (I am paraphrasing a bit, but that was the gist of it).  Fortunately, I was able to get hold of Booking.com the next morning and cancel the room (well, the bed).  

I am still going to Vegas.  Now I am going with Valerie M. on August 16 and we are staying in a real hotel with actual beds and probably a bathroom door.  

There you go.  Feel free to continue to follow my blog for my excellent travel advice (learn from my mistakes!). 

It wasn't all bad.  I saw whales while I was on my way to Vancouver!  Lemons to lemon meringue pie!