That checked carry-on made quite the difference, and an Angela Merkel sighting

I have become an addict of the “full flight” last minute “gate” checked luggage offer. This happens usually when flights are full and airline gate agents make an announcement asking passengers to voluntarily check their carry-ons as there is not enough room in the plane's overhead bins. Most passengers balk, as they are addicted to hoisting their carry-ons etc on board for dear life, for fear the airline will lose their cherished bag, even if it goes on the exact same plane as they’re on to a single destination. Last year in Toronto an Air Canada gate agent started joking because no one (including me) came forward when the first announcement was made. After thinking about it – and the convenience of not having to find space in an overhead and the low level competition of doing so with other passengers – I agreed. But I was among only a handful. But having done so I’m now sold. I look forward to “full flight” announcements. Because not only do you get your carry-on checked through to your final destination it’s absolutely free. Compared to roughly $75 you’d chuck if you’d done this at the check-in. Such was the case Monday when I strolled to Gate B-07 at Berlin-Brandenburg airport, a burgeoning crowd gathering for the first boarding announcement. Yes siree, they’re making it, I thought. I couldn’t wait to have an agent loop the sticky tag on my bag. “All the way to my final destination?” I asked the marauding agent with a handheld terminal. Yes, he said, trying to decipher the code for Windsor, which I helpfully named. So Berlin-Zurich-Toronto-Windsor. How great is that? Another bonus when volunteering to check your bag is you get priority boarding, at least on the first flight.  But since these would be flights of just over an hour, almost nine hours and then another hour I took out my current novel, Ian McEwan’s Nutshell, thinking my downloaded newspapers in my phone might not be enough. I should have known. Carrying even this slim novel was a nuisance, and I didn’t open it the whole trip, resorting to three movies on the AC Zurick – Toronto flight….I also ran into luck other ways Monday. I had an aisle seat of the first flight but an inner seat in mid-section on the second. But the gracious Swiss lady seatmate offered to move in. “Are you sure?” I asked a couple of times. She had no problem. So I scored another aisle seat. And the third time. Upon arriving in Windsor, my carry-on (which I had earlier seen thrown carelessly on to the tarmac conveyor belt in Toronto) was the first piece of luggage to come out of the carrousel chute.

My Berlin-Zurich flight offered another bonus. After having checked my carry-on and looking down the jetway, I spotted what seemed to me an iconic figure, that being Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel (2005-2021). She was dressed as she always did, in pants and a kind of tunic top, her hair cut the same with perhaps a few extra lines around the eyes (we’re the same age). She was escorted down the jetway before the other passengers. A personal fun fact: my German friend attended the Zuse scientific institute in Berlin with Merkel’s ex-husband, Ulrich Merkel. 

Finally, you know you’re in Windsor syndrome. My AC Express from Toronto took off in amazingly clear skies from the so called Big Smoke, with panoramic views of the receding airport and a great turn over midtown Toronto and west across the edge of Lake Ontario. Even over London you can see the sweeping concave of Lake Huron. But upon entering airspace west of Chatham the sky thickened into that telltale SW Ontario humid haze. I knew I was home!

- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller