Sunday I was due to take a short one hour flight back from Montreal to Toronto's Island Airport. In Montreal station waiting areas are heated unlike in Toronto.

The airport bus was $10 from Berri-UQAM Metro Station and ticket is bought from a vending machine. It seems expensive but the ride is 40 mins and this is the only public transit option as there is no airport train.

Originally I was scheduled on the 1130 flight but I got a text message saying my flight was cancelled and I was bumped to the 1230. When I got to the terminal the 1130 was still showing on the boards.

I asked at a check in counter why I was told it was cancelled and can I not go on this earlier flight instead. She said it was still cancelled but that I can go on the 1030 which was just at the gate.

It was already 1010 so I had to run thru security and get to the gate. Luckily it was empty on Sunday morning so I made it just as the desk clerk was preparing to leave.

The plane was half empty as this is low season so I went to the back instead of my designated seat. We were delayed by about half an hour as we had to go for de-icing first due to the cold weather.

Once the de-icing was done they made an announcement that all flights into Toronto were cancelled due to freezing rain and that we would be returning to the terminal.

Once back we stood in line at the Air Canada counter to be rebooked. They were putting people on flights for early afternoon but we had the choice of the Island Airport or the larger Pearson Airport.

For me it made no difference as I would have to take buses and subways either way to get home. Also with the big international airport Pearson I figured they would have larger planes that the smaller ones allowed at the island airport so more chance of getting on a flight as passengers backed up.

When it was my turn at the counter she gave me two boarding passes. The 130 was a standby boarding pass and the 230 was a confirmed seat. I got something to eat and waited for the 130 flight. I didn't know if I would get home today or not. Bad weather was not anyones fault and passengers were backing up.

Luckily February is low season, the flights were half full, so should be easy to clear up. Worst case I would have to stay another night in Montreal but have to pay the $10 airport bus each way. I was telling people how this happened one time in Japan, they put us up in hotels for the night which would never happen in North America.

At the gate for the 130 standby flight surprisingly they called my name in a long list. We had to stand in line and for each passenger first they had to find the original booking, then find the flight we were rebooked onto, then rebook us onto the 130 flight.

It was a manual process searching for each passenger in all the different itineraries but the counter staff were working as a team helping each other find different passengers.

I knew the plane would be completely full with random seat selection so no way of choosing my preferred window seat. Since it was only an hour flight wouldn't be that bad. To my astonishment I actually did get a window seat at the back, just like I always want!!

To clear the backlog they had switched planes and used a wide bodied long haul plane with 51 rows instead of the plane we came on with only 19 rows. For all the complaints they get Air Canada did do a good job of handling the situation and clearing the backlog. By the time they rebooked and boarded everyone, and we went for de-icing again, the 130 flight didn't actually leave till 3pm.

Arriving in Toronto it looks like the entire region from Toronto to Montreal had heavy snow. At least I was home, a few hours late and exhausted. I never travel anywhere in winter so at least I got to have a mini winter travel experience.