Itinerary and Confusion With Transportation

[jimfalcon]

Hi there,

I'll quickly sum my "problem" up at the start then explain in detail what's going on.

- I am heading to St Jean Quebec in a few weeks to begin training for infantry
- I have received an itinerary about my plane ride via email.
problem = I have been told I print off the itinerary and use it as a plane ticket, while weeks earlier in person I was told I would be getting an actual ticket. (confused)

====

Basically this is what happened.
I started the process and did all the tests in Ottawa where I was living. Originally I was told I would leave in 2 weeks (mid april) so I moved back to my hometown near Toronto.

They decided to switch me to the Toronto branch to continue with my process. I was sworn in at the end of April on board the HMCS Halifax. There I filled out paperwork like travel logs, my will, and so forth. At that time my flight (along with the other 10 or 11 recruits with me) was changed to mid July. Before leaving I asked about plane tickets where I was told "call the week before leaving and we will arrange everything"

Instead of waiting to the last min I started calling in mid June. They said there was an itinerary and were going to mail it. (we thought postal but they meant email) when it failed to arrive by mail we called back (today) and they successfully mailed to my email.

Now the thing is the itinerary is two pages long, but contains info like my name, rank, departure time and place with arrival time and place. It then goes on about legal issues (non refundable ect) and says for me to show up with photo id.

What I'm asking about is, do i print this off and take it to the airport with me or am I still missing something here? Just posting this because of there has been a lot of confusion from the get go and the time remaining for me to find and fix problems is quickly running out.

Please and thank you for any and all help.

 

[Jager]

Good morning,

I would print it off and bring it with you, since it is most likly a Electronic Ticket. It should say so in the top portion of the first page about 1/4 of the way down.

And good luck.

Jager

 

[PO2FinClk]

- I have received an itinerary about my plane ride via email.
problem = I have been told I print off the itinerary and use it as a plane ticket, while weeks earlier in person I was told I would be getting an actual ticket. (confused)

do i print this off and take it to the airport with me or am I still missing something here?

So you would rather use advice given by an anonymous source on the Internet rather then calling the CFRC to confirm what you have already been told? Not to mention the last thing you were told was to print it off, I am really failing to understand where the confusion is.

Don’t mean to sound harsh but asking such questions will attract undesirable attention to yourself.

 

[Disenchantedsailor]

All flights are now booked through AMEX Corporate the CF's travel agent for lack of a better term. They provide E-tickets only as part of the itinerary. However I suggest if you have any confusion at all, give the travel clerk at the CFRC a call, or barring that the carrier themselves will be more than willing to help.

 

[jimfalcon]

Sorry for the confusion. Yes I was told to print it off but i have two others who previously said otherwise. On top of this the guy who I was in communications with today was really upset I didn't get it the first time around and was rushing to get off the phone. He kept claiming i provided a email address last time we talked (last time was with another person and I was under the idea it was going through postal) and then went on about how i shouldn't provided faulty email address. To be blunt up untill today everyone has said one thing, stuck to it, and been helpful. Today the story changed, and "help" was more like telling me i screwed up  :-\

As for the itinerary the top 1/4 of the page is about the departure location, my name, plane company ect. there is one line that says "paperless ticket will be issued on 16May" Since there has been a delay in this getting to me I'm not sure if this is it.

 

[jimfalcon]

Also I called the travel clerk, who couldn't give me an answer then forward me to the guy who got mad at me... turns out he is off work already and his answering machine picked up... I've taken the advice here (thank you very much, wasn't expecting such rapid replies) and I'm going to take the itinerary with me to the airport. I guess I was just looking for some confirmation.

Oh one last thing. If anyone could answer this it would be greatly appreciated but it's not largely important.

Everyone (almost literally) at the recruitment centers in Ottawa and Toronto said I don't need to pass the swimming part of basic training. Anyone here who has done basic and seen this for themselves? Just curious because i am in top shape, been working out everyday and i "can" swim. (I spent most of 2006 teaching myself just for this) It's things like treading water for 2 mins or swimming the length of a swimming pool i am having troubles with. Pretty sure I can do the whole thing if I force myself at it. I asked the recruiters if I would get dropped for struggling or failing to tread water that long ect. They said they have "never seen anyone fail because they couldn't swim. They want to keep you so they will try to get you to do as much as possible and then move on" I figured I ask here and see if anyone who has done training could say anything on this.

Thanks again guys.

 

[Disenchantedsailor]

The last I checked you had to pass by the end of your TQ3 Course (BIQ) if you fail it on the first attempt they used to split the class in half for swimming, those who passed went on to "advanced (tongue in check)" swim class while the ones who failed did a type of stroke improvement with a view to passing the swim test, back then it was tested in weeks 2 and 6 (8 week course) now with the 13 week course I'm not sure.

 

[jimfalcon]

OK thank you, that actually makes a lot of sense. I've been very confident in all areas of training except swimming so when i started asking questions they said it wouldn't matter, that "they try really hard to pass you, they wont fail you for not being able to swim." However every pamphlet, preparation sheet, and document they gave to me said "you must complete the basic swim test"

If what your saying is true then it makes sense when they were telling me they try to pass you on this. So basically if I can show strong swim skills, techniques and determination, I have a good chance in this part?

Thanks 

ps. you can all probably tell I've had way too much time to worry about what i bet are trivial things.  being told I'll be off in April then bumped to July is torture on one hand but has allowed me to work out much more.

 

[Timmy!]

Does the itinerary have a reference/booking code on it? It is with Air Canada??

                If so, you go to the airport....go to the advance ticket station and pick up your ticket with the self serve ticket machine. You"ll need that number to get it... then Bob is your uncle!



Regards,
TN2IC

 

[kincanucks]

Sweet Mother of all Gods!

Take a piece of photo id to the freaking airport and go to the check-in counter for the airline that you are travelling on and say hello to the agent and show them your id.  They will then check in your luggage and give you a boarding pass then you go and sit down and wait for your flight to board and when directed to do so you proceed onto the aircraft and sit in the seat you have been assigned.  When the plane reaches your destination you get off when told to do so.  Remember not to undo your seatbelt until the aircraft has reached the gate and the seatbelt sign is extinguished.

DA and HH

 

[Yrys]

Mmm, and after that, kincanucks ?

 

[SupersonicMax]

Sweet Mother of all Gods!

Take a piece of photo id to the freaking airport and go to the check-in counter for the airline that you are travelling on and say hello to the agent and show them your id.  They will then check in your luggage and give you a boarding pass then you go and sit down and wait for your flight to board and when directed to do so you proceed onto the aircraft and sit in the seat you have been assigned.  When the plane reaches your destination you get off when told to do so.  Remember not to undo your seatbelt until the aircraft has reached the gate and the seatbelt sign is extinguished.

DA and HH

I guess it's harder to catch a flight those days  :

Max

 

[jimfalcon]

ha, that was nicely done. Just for the record I've never flown before so this is all new to me 

 

[kincanucks]

Mmm, and after that, kincanucks ?

Get lost in the Dorval Airport and then make your way to St Jean.

 

[Meridian]

Get lost in the Dorval Airport and then make your way to St Jean.

Yes, massive airport that YUL is, I can definitely see that happening.


jimfalcon -  most domestic and transborder flights these days (and a lot of intercontinental) are booked via "e-ticket".  Its a lot cheaper than printing tickets, and you can make routing changes, etc on the fly, and its all stored in the computer.

Of course, this does not avoid the airline losing your reservation, or pretending you aren't booked on a flight, etc.  In any event, take your itinerary. Look on it for two things:

Booking Ref #  (Most likely 5 alphanumeric characters)
ETicket# (long series of numbers).

If you have these two things, you'l be fine.  I actually suspect what you have is both an Itinerary AND an E-Ticket...  Amex creates both.. one is for you to know where you are going (along with nifty flight length, equipment, etc details), and the other is the formal ticket, with the price, flight number, date, time, airport to and from.