Almost missed a flight because...

[Rob Williams]

I'm in San Francisco for an event that NVIDIA's holding, and I almost didn't make the flight because... I had no idea what hotel I was staying in. That's right... something that simple. Whenever Canucks travel to the US (and perhaps it works both ways), we need to tell customs where we are staying. I didn't book the hotel, so I hadn't the faintest idea.

No fear... I loaded up my phone to grab the information, and Gmail didn't cache the e-mail I needed (I don't have a data plan at the moment). So I asked if there was a public WiFi spot, and sure enough, there was. Couldn't connect to it through the phone however... just nothing would come up. So, I hauled out the laptop, booted it up and what do I see? "Windows is applying Windows Updates". This, when my flight was literally being boarded five minutes from then.

It finally got into Windows, and then the net still wouldn't work. Then after about five minutes, it FINALLY decided to kick in, and I was able to get the hotel name. Had this not happened, I wouldn't have made the flight, plain an simple.

In truth, I probably could have just lied about this, but that's not ideal (nor could I think of a hotel in SF that quick, despite staying at a couple before).

*sigh*

 

[Psi*]

I went thru a similar experience recently but didn't have to worry about customs. The hotel reservation had fallen out of the Windows phone cache as well as the rental car ... I couldn't remember what car I rented or what hotel I needed to get to. Ugh

 

[marfig]

Bad security policy.

I'd let through anyone who couldn't remember what hotel they were staying. A terrorist would never make that mistake.

 

[RainMotorsports]

HAHAHA marfig. Sadly your probably right. He would have planned it in so much detail to know the real hotel and the fake hotel nothing would be out of place.

 

[Rob Williams]

Someone else recommended that I should have just said "Hilton", since every big city has one, haha.

 

[Kougar]

Someone else recommended that I should have just said "Hilton", since every big city has one, haha.

Haha, that probably would've worked. There's always an airport Hilton... glad you managed to get ahold of the information!

Had the same issue with UK customs a few years ago, they don't let you in unless you give them an exact address to find you. Just plain silly indeed to turn someone about regardless of the passport / 16 odd hour flight there for such a reason, honestly!