Wednesday September 3 2008 – 11:50pm Eastern

I was mentioning this the other day – while writing under my alter-ego on Raptors.com – and I figured I would share this story with you on Fan590.com as well.

But I’ve got a different spin on things for you … the loyal FAN readers …

On Friday afternoon I’ll be heading to Europe with my wife for a belated anniversary trip.  We celebrated 2 years in July … but we’ve been planning this trip for almost a year.  Reason-being … I owed her.  I mean, not really … but … you know how it works!

Last fall I was supposed to go to Spain and Italy with the Toronto Raptors for their European Training Camp.  But about 4-6 weeks before camp was set to open, the FAN decided it would probably be best if I didn’t head overseas.  Understandably, budgets and spending are always a concern and it would have been a huge cash commitment to send me to Europe for nearly 2 weeks. 

However, my absence meant my wife’s “dream trip” was on hold as well.  I had planned on bringing her to Italy and Spain.  She was more disappointed than I was.  WAY more. 

Thus, right then and there, I decided that we’d do the trip this year … on our own.  It would be the perfect get-away just before my 2008-09 season gets underway.  So the fall tour has been in the works since October of last year.

But a week ago … the dream nearly died. 

I was at the gym when a friend of mine called with the news:  “Did you book on ‘Zoom Airlines …”, she asked.

Unfortunately, the answer was yes.  My wife and I were scheduled to leave on Zoom on Friday September 5 – direct to Paris, France … coming home on the 21st … direct from Rome to Toronto.

“Well, Zoom went bankrupt,” she said.  “They’ve grounded all flights.  They’ve gone out of business.”

I bolted from the gym as quick as I could and immediately fired-up the laptop to start checking on alternate flights. 

Unfortunately, hundreds – maybe even thousands – of people were in the same predicament and finding a flight to Paris was proving to be almost impossible. 

I remembered that Jonathan Carroll – the president of iTravel2000 (www.itravel2000.com) – is a huge Raptors’ fan and he has helped me with some vacation stuff in the past, so I put in a desperate call and email to him.  Within 30 minutes he had returned my messages and had no less than 3 travel agents helping me get things sorted out.

Long story, short … we got a new flight booked on Air France … for almost double what we were originally set to pay on Zoom.  But at least we’re going!

The final tally on this near-nightmare (and MAJOR headache) was: 
(a) about $2000 more out of my pocket 
(b) a lost night in Rome … because we now have to fly back up to Paris – from Rome – on September 20th to get our flight back to Toronto on the 21st.  Originally we were flying home from Rome.  Oh well. 
(c) the Zoom money in limbo with my credit card company.  I had already paid off my Zoom charges so now I’ve got to make sure the CC folks will reimburse me my money. 

As freaked as I was last Thursday, I can’t imagine how I would have reacted if this mess exploded tomorrow – the day before my trip!  And I truly feel for those folks that were already in Europe and stranded by Zoom without a flight home (or those Europeans that were visiting Canada and left with a similar scramble trying to re-book on another airline to get back overseas).

I guess it’s a blessing in some ways that we had a week to deal with this and get it all worked out. 

I’ll never understand how/why Zoom went under though.  If RyanAir and EasyJet – in Europe – can operate on DIRT-CHEAP airfares, why couldn’t Zoom?  I mean, jet fuel is jet fuel … it’s not like it’s any cheaper over there, right?  Yet you can fly from Rome to Paris … or any number of European cities … for about $150 Canadian or less.  Try flying ANYWHERE in Canada for less than $400-$500 after all of our taxes, surcharges, and airport fees (and it’d be $1000+ for many Canadian destinations too). 

Plus, certain airlines in Canada (*wink, wink) and others throughout the world should be ashamed at the way they treated their customers following Zoom’s demise.  Within hours of the announcement, most airlines had jacked their prices up CONSIDERABLY … with some flights to Paris and Rome going for as much as $4000 for ONE person!  It was and is insane.  It’s highway robbery.

But I digress.

In about 36 hours I’ll be flying to Paris and dining under the Eiffel Tower (literally) in three days.  I’ll be climbing the mountains in Switzerland at this time next week, and taking pictures of the Colosseum and eating authentic pizza in Rome in a week and a half.  By then, the stress of the last 7 days will be long forgotten!

I’ll check back with a blog on Thursday – and maybe Friday morning before I leave – but that’ll be it for a couple of weeks.  I’ll be on hiatus until the 21st or 22nd … and then it’s back to all-Raptors … all of the time … with Training Camp in Ottawa a week after my return to Toronto.

Take care folks

E. Smith 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 at 11:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.