| rev:text
| - My apologies to Charles Dickens: a tale of two terminals.
11 mile drive from downtown Calgary taking about 20 minutes on a Friday afternoon, crossing freeways. No light rail connection from downtown to airport, unlike San Francisco, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. $33 CAD-$40 CAD taxi before tip. No Uber yet.
There are two different terminals to this airport, an older one for domestic flights, and a new one for international flights.
Skies were clear of clouds but the entire airport was socked in by heavy smoke from forest fires a hundred miles away. So much for the view of the majestic Canadian Rockies from the airport!
Dropped off at the Air Canada in the new terminal, with free luggage carts. Many American airports charge money to use luggage carts: $4 at San Francisco, and $5 at JFK New York.
And you will need the carts, as a very long walk to departures.
Arrive 2.5 hours before our 4:30pm flight.
I go through the security line. Friendly smiling personnel. Place is empty, but somehow I'm randomly selected to be a chosen one for the comprehensive security check up. Luggage opened, and laptop, tablet and hands swabbed, with materials run on electronic machine. No explosive residuals, no illegal drug residuals!
No global entry cards used here in Canada, so have to remove belt, shoes, wallet, watch and keys from pockets, before going through the body scanner. All liquids in containers of less than 100 ml (3.4 ounces) in clear zip lock bag. Use oversized shoes, so don't have to untie the laces. And they are relatively new, so won't stink up the place. Make sure no holes in my socks!
Go through US customs and passport control. More friendly smiling personnel. Place empty, so no waiting. Individual kiosks where I answer questions of trip purchases, fingerprinted, face photographed, and passport scanned, all electronically, before being given a receipt with my picture on it. No, I'm not a new inmate at San Quentin!
The International Terminal is huge, recently built, with high cathedral ceilings, spotless floors, good lighting, large windows, very modern looking.
Go past a Burger King, Starbucks, and Tim Hortons restaurant, along with countless duty free boutique shops. Prices sky high -you are paying for convenience.
We come to our gate, and sit down in a large section of seats with electronic outlets and USB rechargers for the free airport wifi for 4 of every 5 seats!
Get in line when boarding, and they check the passport electronically again, with your boarding pass, and more questions from a grim faced uniformed lady for me -my tennis tan must have been mistaken for a middle eastern dude!
Went through the international terminal when empty. I've seen huge lines at antiquated domestic terminal, and thank my lucky stars I don't have to go through those lines.
As I am leaving, there is a huge clear plastic cube container full of coins, labeled for charity. I toss in all my Canadian coins, including a loonie, a Canadian dollar coin, and a double loonie, as can't exchange them back home!
30 consecutive days with a Yelp review.
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