Carla Levitt and Stephen Brown have been planning and saving for their trip of a lifetime for the past four years.
The couple had been hoping to set out with their kids and family dog on a year-long adventure sailing the Caribbean.
“We really just wanted an adventure where nothing was planned and we could just live by the seat of our pants and go where the wind blows — literally,” said Levitt.
She and her husband decided to take the plunge following a health scare and the pandemic, thinking life is too short to keep waiting for “someday”.
“We thought, what are we waiting for — like maybe we should look at this now,” said Levitt.
“We looked at our growing teenagers and thought, you know, in this day and age, looking for chances and opportunities to slow down and reconnect and that with our kids. We made the decision that we would do this now instead of later.”
Even the family dog is supposed to join Levitt, Brown and their three teenagers on their “adventure of a lifetime.”
Global News
So the couple sold their home in Strathmore, Alta., their cars, everything they owned, and pulled their three children out of school.
“We bought the catamaran in Grenada and the plan is to head there and then basically see where the world takes us,” said Brown.
“We don’t have a set itinerary, other than right now it’s hurricane season, so we have to stay below a certain latitude in terms of our insurance . But after the end of November, the whole Caribbean is open to us and then who knows from there.”
The couple — who have experience sailing, have been practicing how to repair a diesel engine if needed and are preparing to live off the grid — packed all their belongings into five huge duffel bags and five extra-large U-Haul boxes and booked a flight south for Sunday.
Everything was lined up.
“We have a broker meeting us at the airport to import all our stuff, a vet meets you at the airport and gets your dog in there, all the logistics that we have so timely put in place,” said Levitt.
But then the Air Canada flight attendants served strike notice.
Carla Levitt and Stephen Brown thought “everything was lined up.” Then the flight attendants at Air Canada served strike notice.
Global News
“We are supposed to fly out on Sunday night. They can go on strike as of Saturday, and it looks as though they probably will, which is great in terms of supporting unions and workers’ rights and everything else — but it’s just hard,” said Brown.
“All of our faith was put into this airline, we never even thought it was a possibility that this could happen,” said Levitt.
“We’ve tried to go online and they’re so busy, they can’t keep up, we can’t get ahold of anyone so we don’t even know if they do strike, how are we going to rebook tickets.”
If their flight is cancelled, the couple faces a long list of expenses they won’t be able to recover.
“Out of all of our planning, all of out thinking, everything that we’ve prepared for, we were not prepared for this,” said Brown.
Air Canada flight attendants, who staged an information picket outside Calgary airport on Monday, voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike and could walk off the job at 12:01 a.m. eastern time on Saturday.
Global News
Travel specialist Anita Gibeau of Kaleidoscope Travel and Cruise tells Global News that she is being inundated with calls from travellers who are concerned about how the strike will affect them.
Some of her customers have already had their flights cancelled and had to pay to book with another airline out of their own pocket.
Others are in danger of forfeiting the cost of cruises or other expensive parts of their vacation.
Gibeau says she’s getting very limited information from Air Canada.
Anita Gibeau, a travel specialist with Kaleidoscope Travel and Cruise in Strathmore, says she has been inundated with calls from worried travellers who are wondering what to do.
Global News
Asked by Global News what advice she has for travellers, Gibeau said rebooking flights over the next few days will be difficult because of the high volume of calls all the airlines are dealing with at peak travel season.
For people not travelling until until next week, she advises “just waiting it to see what happens”– if they do go on strike.
For some people, added Gibeau, having all their vacation or travel plans disrupted “are very emotional.”
Problems like this, said Gibeau, are an example of why travel insurance is important, although “some people are finding though that they are having to purchase a new ticket, then wait to be refunded for it, and that can be a challenge for people also.”
As of late Friday afternoon, Levitt and Brown’s flight was still scheduled to take off Sunday — so anxiety aside, all they can do is wait.
“None of this is easy, but I think, you know, it’s like anything really in life where, it’s like a storm or anything — we didn’t plan on it, but we’ve just got to sit and wait ’till it blows over and figure it out,” said Brown.
Hopefully “the first storm of many,” laughs Levitt.