Mitzi's Big Adventure

60-a milestone birthday...what to do to celebrate? A tough decision. I needed somewhere cool, somewhere special and beautiful and far from home so the travel shopping began. I have this great cruise consultant now, someone who knows me well and knows cruises...me! So I decided on a short cruise to Norway. Similar to the one I took 4 years ago but shorter and not as far north. It is on the same ship as my last Norway cruise so I'll see how the refurbishing looks. I leave from Southampton so my flight arrives and departs from heathrow. Purchased my plane ticket and the upgrade. This time I fly through Chicago so the transatlantic flight has lay down beds and all has worked out fine, or so I mistakenly thought!

Diana and Alec decided to join me so it will be nice to see them and share the adventure. A couple of weeks before leaving I talked to Cesar and decided to make a side trip to Portugal. Because of his work schedule I needed to change my flight home to be able to spend his day off with him. Things fell into place easily and I always see that as a sign something was meant to happen. Changed my return and even though the change cost $250 that was offset by the fact that the upgrade copay went from $500 to $300, so it just cost $50 to make the change. The new itinerary came to me by email and I checked it as I always do and it looked perfect so that was done and I moved on to making other travel plans. Finally all of my hotels and plans were finalized and I was ready to head out on my big adventure. Travel is not easy. It is exciting, educational and fun, but not easy.

The email came to check in 24 hours before the flight left. I got home from all my final errands and from dropping the dogs off and went online to check in. It wouldn't let me and said to call the agent so I did, thinking it was no big deal, maybe because it was an international flight? Called united airlines and the nightmare began! She searched my records and said I no longer had that flight I'd changed my ticket a couple weeks ago from a round trip to the one way ticket home. My heart must be very strong because if I was going to have a heart attack it would have been then! I explained, calmly at first that I had my itinerary and had gotten the email to check in so obviously I was on the flight! She explained that I had no ticket for the flight over, just home. But she said not to worry because the seat was still available and I could purchase the one way ticket now but it was quite expensive. I explained, in not so calm a voice that I WOULD NOT purchase a ticket that I'd already bought! Was put on hold again and she came back with an explanation, the agent changed the ticket and United had issued a refund credit to me for the difference in all, so a $200 credit voucher was on the way to me. I told her I had no idea what she was talking about. I never heard about that and just wanted my ticket for the flight. Put on hold again and then she came back with more 'good news', they would sell me a ticket to London for only $460! I told her that wasn't going to happen I would not buy a ticket that I've already bought because one of their agents made a mistake that I'd never been told about! Put on hold again, for close to an hour with her checking back in to tell me they were working on something, but she wouldn't say what. crazy! I was so angry at the incompetence! Finally she told me, after two hours, that they had worked it out that I had my flight and didn't need to pay a thing. She told me that my persistence had saved me. She had the guts to tell me that I should always check the information they send about reservations. How dare she say that when I told her I had the changed itinerary I could show her that the flights were all still there. Then she said I should always check the price and I'd done that too and assumed the change was due to different return dates. I'd done everything correctly, they were at fault no atter how you look at it. Not sure what to say the lessons were, but NEVER trust the reservations agents and always call back to be sure your plans are what you think. This is the most bizarre thing I've experienced with flying. Although I did face a similar situation when I changed a ticket at Christmas to fly to Budapest through Munich rather than throu Madrid. I had the correct itinerary but the ticket was to Madrid. Oh my, the incompetency in the world is growing exponentially!

When I checked in at the airport I was surprised to find that I was not charged my $500 copay and assured i still have my business class bed/ seat. And they sent me a coupon for something for my trouble. Hmmm.....

And so here I am, sitting at the Chicago airport waiting for a delayed flight to London. I got very sick when I arrived in Chicago yesterday, not a surprise considering the stress of the day before. Luckily I got to the hotel and after a few hours and a nap I was better and hungry. I walked across the street for a delicious steak at Gibsons steakhouse. I'd been there before with some ladies I met when I was here for the pet expo, back when I started my dog gift basket business. Nice dinner and nice relaxing morning, so hopefully the worst is over now and I can just enjoy my big birthday adventure!