JFK sucks. I spent 4 hours there waiting to fly back home last year... and then they had The Terminal as the sodding in-flight movie, the fuckers. Like we're gonna want to spend another sodding 2 hours looking at the bloody place.

I have to propose a cage match of Toronto vs. JFK for Worst Airport Ever. I'm pretty sure the incompetent and slightly bitchy Air Canada people alone would make the anthropomorphized JFK throw up their hands in surrender.

Okay, the worst airport ever would be JFK with Air Canada’s staff.

Have they admitted yet that you did ever have luggage?

Wow, I wouldn't go anywhere NEAR that airport.

Alex, my computerized US Airways Baggage Specialist, finally told me this morning that they've located the bags and they're with the courier service (which still hasn't contacted us). I plan to call and harangue them tonight, or just go by and try to reclaim the bags. I'm still a little doubtful they've actually found them, or that they'll be our bags, and I'm DEAD curious as to where the hell they were that it took three days to get them here. I doubt that Alex will tell me though. He's a by-the-numbers kind of faux human.

I have a particular loathing for O'Hare, which I've never successfully flown through without some sort of unpleasant delay.

The United Express baggage handlers somehow missed the luggage for *1/3* of the flight the last time I changed planes there.

Well, I'll toss in for Air Canada being the surliest airline ever - I've done one trip with them to Montreal and I'd never fly with them again if I could help it. (Clearly they give them pills to counteract the legendary Canadian politeness)

The flying experience could have been worse; British airways could have cancelled all of its flights out of Heathrow while you were there. Even if you weren't flying BA, that would be really-f***ing annoying.

It's not just the Air Canada staff at Toronto; it's also the fact that to get from an arriving international flight to a departing international flight, you have to take a 20-minute bus ride across the tarmac, dodging airplanes as you go. And that the signage is among the worst ever.

But yeah, it didn't help when one of the staff people insisted that we had missed our flight, despite what the various electronic displays were telling us, because she was sure that the current time was an hour later than it really was.

(Oddly, all of the AC staff I encountered were very friendly/nice; just not very helpful.)

Anyway, I don't think I've been to JFK, so I can't compare. But Toronto is probably the worst airport I've personally been to. At least for going through it; I seem to recall it was fine when Toronto was my destination.

I tried to go through the Toronto airport last month with a person in a wheelchair and one hour in between flights.

Needless to say it's not an experience I would care to repeat.

Oh, Robert, that must have been awful.

The Air Canada people weren't actively rude at the airport, just useless. They actually sent us to ALL THREE terminals, at each one we were told we were supposed to be at the next. (This is after the extremely long bus ride from the international terminal that Jed described so well.) We thought our flight was leaving in twenty minutes. Our bags weren't at any of the three terminals. Some gentleman at the baggage carousel at door number three finally took our information, but apparently it never made it past him and we ended up having to go back to the airport on Tuesday morning after we made it home to fill out a whole other report. This after the Air Canada lady at the baggage help number was actively rude.

Never. Again.

(Also, just to make everyone feel sick about how much we paid for those tickets -- from Philly to Glasgow is now $333 a pop through October.)

Hmm. The one time I've flown anywhere near Toronto, I flew through Buffalo. I'll take it from this discussion that that's what I should do thee next time, as well. :)

I like JFK. That whole really-nice-immigration-officers thing may not mean much to you lot, but it's damned important to me. We always get through JFK a zillion times faster than we do through LAX or San Francisco. And Houston was a total nightmare. And don't get me started on Toronto.

Thanks for the sympathy, Gwenda! I'm glad you finally got your bags. They lost our commode chair (the wheelchair that fits over the toilet), which freaked us out. Luckily it showed up the next day.

For you more seasoned travellers: Does Toronto always include those ridiculous bus rides, or is that just because of the construction I saw going on?

JFK is bad, but LAX is worse. In the past ten years, I've missed all, but one connecting flight in LA.

After the Toronto vs. JFK cage match. The winner gets to play LA.

As you can see, I'm just getting back on my proper time zone. (Con report, what con report?)