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  • Writer's pictureTroyee Lahiri

Airport Diaries - Part 3

This story is from August 2019 (from a time when traveling was something our species could do for fun) and mind you, my travel anxiety has grown into a nice, big monster by this point. I was more prepared than I have ever been for this trip but who was I kidding?



I was traveling with my friends to Cancun– the first overnight trip and an international one which we booked a year ago. The flight to get there was somewhat smooth except for the times at security and immigration where my heart would race like I was carrying a bomb or drugs. It was while returning from the 5-day trip when the real drama happened.


So, our flights were from Cancun to Mexico City and then from Mexico City to Toronto. When we were checking in for our flight from Cancun, my boarding passes somehow took longer to print than the others. I kept my fingers crossed hoping nothing else goes wrong. As the boarding process started and the queue kept moving, the airline staff checked my passport and tried to scan my boarding pass when their system refused to accept it. ( I still don’t know what that means so please don’t ask ☹ )


They told me I couldn’t board the plane which all my friends (except one) were already in and I had to go back down for further assistance. I stood there watching the flight take off, crying, and not knowing what was going to happen next. There was a connecting flight which I would also miss so I realized I wasn’t going to see my friends until we were in Toronto provided that the Mexicans would allow me to leave their land at all. That one friend (whom I am so grateful to for staying back) and I went down to figure out what to do next. The same problem continued, their system could not read a boarding pass that they issued less than an hour ago. I had two passports with me - one which had my Canadian permit and visa, and another renewed one with my US visa which allowed my entrance to Mexico in the first place. The airlines’ system and people were confused as my visa for re-entry in Canada was not in my most updated passport even though it was still valid. After an hour of clarifying this repeatedly to multiple staff members, one of them was able to figure something out in their system. I was issued new boarding passes along with new tickets to the next connecting flight to Toronto.


Funny story: the rest of my group was late for their connecting flight so all of us reunited at the Mexico City airport and flew back to Toronto together.


This brings me to the end of the series for now. To conclude, I would like to pray that technology comes up with an alternative method of traveling overseas because airports and planes are not very nice to me. I will also keep you folks updated when the next airport drama happens in my life because I’m sure there are plenty awaiting.

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