He Left. But He's Back.

As my friend, Adrienne, put it "you can't make this stuff up." Nope, I certainly could never have made this one up.
So Harry left on the 6:00 AM flight out of Durango this morning heading back to China. (Durango, Denver, Vancouver, Beijing) Jason took him to the airport and said he had to argue with the check in agent. She said Harry needed a visa to go to Canada and Jason had to explain to her that Harry was "in transit", he would never leave the airport, so technically he wouldn't be in the country.
If you've done much traveling internationally then you know this is the rule. We used to go through Tokyo on our way to and from Beijing, but I never filled out the customs cards because we were just "passing through"...we never went through customs. I've spent hours upon hours in the Tokyo airport, but I only have one Japanese stamp in my passport from the time we spent a few nights there.
The closest we ever came to having a problem with this rule was a layover in Indonesia from Australia to Singapore. Still no customs, still didn't need a visa, but they did come and take Jason out of the boarding line (leaving me standing there holding 1-year old JR) and inform him that we would be paying the airport tax. Jason figured out fast that the airport would never be seeing that "tax", but if he ever wanted to see us, or get out of that airport, he'd better pay up.
Anyway, as we were getting ready for church this morning Jason got a call from Harry in Denver. They weren't letting him board the flight to Vancouver because he didn't have a visa. Jason's arguing with the boarding agent over the phone went something like this:
Jason: He doesn't need a visa, he's in transit.
Boarding Agent: I suggest he visit the Canadian consulate in the morning in downtown Denver and get a visa.
Jason: Now how's that going to work? He's a Chinese kid with no driver's license and $200 in his pocket.
Boarding Agent: He's not getting on this flight
CLICK
Yes, he hung up on Jason.
After 2 hours on the phone with United customer service, Jason finally found out that United recently got fined over visas in Canada. If you are flying China Air out of Canada then you don't need a "transit visa" to fly United into Canada. BUT, if you're flying Air China out of Canada then you do need a transit visa. I guess Air China passengers are hiding out in The Great White North, while the China Air patrons aren't.
Well, I guess you can figure out what airline Harry was on.
And when I got home from church, Jason was at the airport picking Harry up.
Yep, he's back.
We'll be trying this all over again tomorrow, but this time we're skipping Canada. He'll be flying out of San Francisco.