Does our flight with Air France take off despite the big strike in France?

Travel Blog, on the way to South-East Asia

Our trip didn’t start well. We booked the flight tickets for the 6th of December with Air France from Montreal to Bangkok via Paris a couple of months before the departure. We planned to go to Vietnam after Bangkok, and then, cross the border to Cambodia. After going back to Bangkok, fly to Japan to see my family during the New Year time, then after a short visit to Taiwan, go back to Japan, and then fly back to Canada.

We bought the flight tickets from Bangkok to Saigon and booked a hotel in Bangkok for the night we arrive. However, my boyfriend found bad news a few weeks before our departure. Air France and other French companies are going to go on a strike starting on the 5th of December. Oh uh, this was not what we had expected. At that time, there were some weeks before their strike date, so we thought it might have changed, but it didn’t, unfortunately.

My boyfriend found out through searching the internet a couple of days before our flight that most of the flights from Paris would be cancelled, but long flights would not be affected by the strike. Humm…, really? Anyway, we could not do anything but wait.

Our flight bound for Paris was scheduled at 10:15 pm on Friday. My boyfriend went to the office in the morning on that day as usual and I was writing at the library in the morning, and then came back home afternoon. We had started packing our things for travelling a day before, but I hadn’t finished. When I was packing in the afternoon, he came back from the office with a disappointing face and said; “The flight, which is supposed to be the plane we will get on, hasn’t left Paris yet.” “?” I didn’t understand what he was meaning at the beginning. “So, our flight from Montreal to Paris should be the same airplane which is scheduled to fly today from Paris to Montreal. It hasn’t yet taken off, and it has been delayed at least two hours now. It means that our flight to Paris will be delayed or I don’t know if it will fly tonight in the worst case scenario.”

My happy expectation for our holidays swooped down.

“The good news is that their flight from Paris to Bangkok left on time yesterday, but the same flight today is delayed four hours.” “So, the flight to Bangkok will fly, won’t it?” “So far, they fly, but I don’t know. We might be stuck in Paris.”

Oh no, it is not what we were expecting either. We are planning to go to South-East Asia, not freezing cold Paris.

“Anyway, I will check if the flight from Paris has departed or nor before we leave for the airport, otherwise there is no reason to go to the airport.” “Sure” An hour later, he checked the flight status and found that that flight had left Paris two hours behind schedule. “OK. That’s good. Let’s go to the airport!”

When we arrived at the Montreal airport, it was quieter than usual. We dropped our bags and smoothly went through the security check, but the flight was not on time, of course. The scheduled time was 22:15, but our boarding passes said that our boarding time was 23:00. Well, the important thing is that we still have hope to be able to get Paris where our transit time initially was about four hours, so two hours delay shouldn’t affect our connection flight, if our flight from Paris to Bangkok is not delayed as well.

I am writing this while we are waiting at Montreal airport which is the same time as when we were supposed to be enjoying wine and dinner on the plane, looking forward to feeling a warm and damp draft on my face in Thailand shortly.

Originally published at https://backpack-traveler.com on December 7, 2019.