<--Southern Hospitality I flew down to Charlotte on the 20th for practice. When I got to the airport I called Justin from the Charlotte team to see if he could give me a ride to a location closer to the I-85 where Marc's dad from the D2 team would pick me up in his RV. Since I had a little bit of time in between my first lift, I took the shuttle bus from the airport to downtown Charlotte. Charlotte is quite beautiful! I spent a good portion of the day in the Bank of America building reading "The five people you meet in heaven"(definitely worth reading btw). Justin picked me up a little later and brought me back to his place which was closer to highway. When I told him that the airline had lost my bags, he lent me some pants, a t-shirt and some socks. I thought that was really awesome of him since I had just met him! Justin had to go to a wedding and the RV gang hadn't arrived yet so he dropped me at the Concord Mills Mall where I spent the afternoon. This mall is incomparable in size to anything I have seen in Canada, just to give you an idea, they don't call their sections….well sections they call them neighborhoods! I went to Nike town to buy a new pair of cleats and I was lucky to find a sick pair of football cleats for only 10$ After of few hours, most of them spent in Bass Pro Shop (love that store) The RV gang picked me up. I must of looked a little crazy when I got in the RV because I was definitely shocked at how much space and how cool one of those trailers are! Marc’s dad had the RV fully equipped with an expanding living room, bedroom, satellite internet and tv. This thing was rock star material. I got to meet some of my teammates from the D2 squad Marc, Jaimie, Steven and Brian. Most of them are from team Triad except for Jaimie who played with Authority. As I’ve reported previously Triad was a great team with great players and I’m happy they all jumped aboard onto Gridlock as it just makes us stronger. We spent the night at friends of Marc’s dad. Because the practice had been changed to not mandatory due to the threat of really cold weather and believing no one would show up, we went out looking for a closed Gold mine that we were told was nearby the cottage. We never did find it but we did see lots of dead deer. In the morning we were treated to a full course breakfast by Mr.Marc's friends. They even prepared a side plate of potatoes thinking I wouldn't eat Grits. Thinking we would make the best out of the weather we headed out to practice and to our surprise most of Gridlock had shown up. I borrowed equipment from various people and did the practice. After practice Rob Staudinger of Baltimore Trauma, gave a speech about the formation of the Gridlock program and what it means to be in it. It was definitely quite compelling and it encouraged me to focus on my goals and keep pushing harder and further. Slasher from D2 gave me a ride back to the airport and we talked about the coming season and each of our own plans for the future. After having met all these great players and people I am really glad I took the decision to join Gridlock. I can’t wait for the L.A Open as I know Gridlock will tear it up!

<--Oh Canada!

I had practice this weekend in Greensboro and Air Canada lost my bags and it's a pretty long story and since I had to write to a customer representative to get my compensation I thought I should post my experience and what I learned. Here's the letter,

To whom it may concern,

Case number CLTAC 12640, Mathieu Chow, 2 bags

I am very upset with the state of your baggage claims department. You lost my baggage and keep giving me the run around. Here’s the break down of my adventure with Air Canada.

Check in at Montreal to go to Charlotte through Toronto Saturday at 5:15 (flight leaves at 6:30)

Get to Toronto by approx. 7:45 my bags do not arrive and I am told to continue my flight to Charlotte where arrangements will be made to have my bags delivered to me

10:45 I speak with representative of Air Canada in Charlotte who files a report with me and advises me that it would be best if I had the bags shipped to Greensboro airport as this location is much closer to my final destination. (please note that there are no other flights leaving for Charlotte on Saturday but many are leaving for Greensboro ) Mr. C.Ellis the air Canada representative in Charlotte makes a note of this on my file, which I have a copy of.

Later on that day I call to verify that my bags have been sent to the Greensboro, the agent tells me the bags are still in Toronto and are being sent out to Charlotte. I inform the agent that it would be best to ship it out to Greesnboro. Since I did not trust that your agent fully understood the urgency in having my bags brought to me in Greensboro I call back an hour later. To my surprise the bags are still going to Charlotte. No modifications have been made to the file. Once again I tell the new agent that I want my bags to go to Greensboro. This little phone call dance happens 5 times with 5 different people!!!! Once it got late in the night I gave up since all the Toronto Greensboro flights had been exhausted.

Sunday I call again and I get the same answer my bags are being shipped to Charlotte today, now what good is that for me when I leave at 6:50 p.m. I tell them to return my bags to my house in Montreal. Which the agent said she would do. Once I get back to Toronto I ask the customer representative at the desk where are my bags. He tells me they were sent out today to Charlotte!!!!!!!

Now to make things worse, the reason for my trip was for a sports practice in Greensboro so not only did I not have my equipment this weekend I still do not have it today.
On the advise of your Air Canada representative in Toronto, I wish to get compensation for the things I had to buy to replace what I had in my missing bags.
Here’s what I want I have the receipt for all of these things.

Cleats 10.66
Vitamins 44.80
Book 12.00

Total 67.46$ U.S

What I learned:

A. Never check all your bags keep a well stocked carry on.
B. Never check all your paintball equipment, keep clothe and mask and buttpack in your carry on. (Note, that markers, tanks and barrels are not allowed in carry on luggage)
C. If your bags get lost according to Air Canada "Procedures" they will send it to your airports final destination substitutions are extremely hard to make.
D. Speak with people in person, Air Canada's 1-888-689-2247 (Which is India) cannot fully comprehend the urgency and time differences between one place and another in North America.