Originally posted by timid_trnchcoat:
MR TPA-DFW-YYC-ORD-MIA-TPA in F on AA..

....Upon arriving in Calgary, I was beat. I proceeded to immigration and pulled an immigration form from the counter. While the directions were in English, the fields of the form were in French. I pulled out a few forms and they were all the same.

Stupidly, I started to fill it out not knowing exactly what was what. When I inevitably got stuck, I search for the English form and filled it out quickly and proceeded to the immigration screening counters. They asked why I was coming to Canada and I said I was meeting a friend I had met online. When I got to the actual immigration counter, they asked pretty much asked the same questions and I showed them my US passport and return ticket. Then the immigration agent asked how long I would be staying, I said about 12 hours. Things went downhill from there. They asked me all about my friend in Calgary - how we met, how long I'd known her, her name, address, phone number, profession, living situation, if she was meeting me at the airport, etc. Since I had met her online and she was really a friend of a friend, we just exchanged phone numbers so that I could contact her when I arrived. When I was questioned, I realized how little I had known my friend, despite having talked for about a year! Of course, it didn't stop there. I had to fess up and say that I was flying for miles also. He
was convinced I was travelling on a business trip, which I denied. I don't remember the exact words but I believe he concluded that my reason for "visiting" Canada was a biggest pile of cockamamie b/s he'd ever heard and took me to customs.

The lady asked me some questions, some of the same, some different. They wanted to search my luggage, and of course, being on an MR, I had none, just my carefully packed backpack. The words 'thorough search' do not do justice to the way they searched my bag. They found things (old receipts, ticket stubs) in my bag that I didn't even know were there. After she was done searching that and my wallet, I was told to go back to immigration and sit in the waiting room. Three other pax were here, all with dejected looks on their faces. I didn't want to be here. One of the pax left her passport wallet on the plane, and of course was stuck when going through immigration. I think she was a UK citizen. A nice agent handed her the passport wallet and said he had them re-search the aircraft and they found it between the seats, all in a reassuring and sympathetic voice. When couldn't I get this guy? Another gent had arrived from MXP via ORD and I later found out he would be flown back to ORD because he came for a work-related reason. Then my guy came in and said that until he could contact my friend (who wasn't answering her phone), that I was staying there. I buried my head in my hands and rubbed my forehead.

This is was turning into a nightmare. After about twenty minutes, he told me to come around to his counter. He told me he had spoke with my friend and she had said that she thought that I was on sort of business trip. My heart sunk. I had never told her my reasons for coming to Calgary, but what woman would want to play second fiddle to an MR! He asked me a lot of questions - an obscene amount really. I have been to job interviews where less questions were asked. The bottom line was he wasn't buying any of MR reasons, claiming no one comes to Calgary 12 hours after having travelled 12 already. I asked if there was an internet kiosk available, and suprisingly, he seemed willing to entertain my plea. I told him about FT. The PC he was using at the immigration counter had Internet access so I fed him the URL. I then cited the Mileage Run, saying many people take circuitous routes to a farwaway destination only to turn around and do it all over again. I didn't have an angle on the monitor, but knowing the site design by heart, I talked him exactly to the thread which I found the fare. I told him I would be completing an AA challenge on this trip. He said it was a waste of money and he surmised that if I wanted to do this again that I should do it in my own country. It was about 12:30am when he was done questioning me and reluctantly let me go, concluding that what I was doing was throwing up a lot of red flags. All pax had long gone. I started to head out, when a customs officer came running from the customs area. She only wanted the form I forgot to give her because no one was there when I passed by. Whew. I did manage to get to my hotel via one of the lone taxis circling the airport at this hour. Was in my room shortly before 1 am.