(To view other recent Blog Posts, page down)
Three Days on a Moving Sidewalk
Upon landing in Charlotte and heading for the moving sidewalks, my phone lit up. In my bookbag, it looked like a firefly in a jar. A note from American Airlines says our gate has been changed. We arrived at our new gate and walked right on to the plane. Nearly missed another one. We landed in Detroit, fetched our bags, rented a car. The entire rental car procedure was the best regimen of any kind we would see for three days. We drove 2 hours to Three Rivers. That’s in Michigan, y’all, where gas is almost $4.
Up early Saturday, we drove to the wedding, the reason for this trip. The wedding was a beautiful Catholic Church wedding, and the reception, a lovely occasion and a chance to visit family. We got back to the house around 8 o’clock.
We’d planned to visit my aunt and cousin in a nearby town on Sunday, so we’d planned to fly home on Monday. However, I hadn’t been able to connect with them, so we decided to go home Sunday instead. When Dave booked our tickets, he’d paid extra to insure we could make a change in the reservations if we needed to. He called American to change our flight on Monday to the same one on Sunday. Let the games begin.
Hello this is Ramen, I can help you.
Dave explained.
R: You want to go tomorrow?
D: Yes.
R: Tomorrow is Sunday.
D: Yes.
R: You want to go on May 12?
D: Yes.
R: Okay. On Sunday, May, 12, you can go to Dallas.
D: Dallas! Why do I want to go to Dallas?
R: Your destination is Raleigh, yes?
D: Yes.
R: Okay. You can go to Raleigh from Dallas.
D: I don’t want to go to Dallas. I want to go to Charlotte.
R: On Sunday, May 12, you cannot go to Charlotte; is unavailable.
D: It was available when I checked this afternoon. It’s the same flight, just a different day.
R: Sir, it is not available. Only Dallas on Sunday, May 12.
D: (Angry sigh) All right, we’ll go to Dallas.
R: Okay. One moment. (4 minutes) That cost is $1,857 dollar.
D: What? I paid to be able to make a change. I shouldn’t have to pay again.
R: Okay. Yes, sir. You paid to make a change. This is how much for that change.
D: Is there someone there I can talk to?
R: Yes, sir, this is Ramen. You can talk to me.
D: I’m going to hang up and call someone else to help me.
R: Okay, sir. Have a nice day. (It’s 10 PM)
Dave hung up and called back. Just as he thought it couldn’t get any worse, Ramen #2 turns out to be a robot.
Robot: Tell me what you want to do. For example, you can say: check flight schedule, or book a flight, or change__
D: Change an existing reservation.
R: The current wait time is 2 hours. If you want to be called back at this number in two hours, press 1; if you want to leave a message for an agent, press 2; if you wish to stay on the line, press 3. Dave pressed 3.
R: You have pressed an invalid number, please try again: if you want to be called back in two hours, press 1; if you want to leave a message, press 2, if you want to stay on the line, press 3. Dave pressed 3.
R: You have pressed an invalid number, please try again: if you want… Dave pressed 3.
R: You have exceeded the number of tries allowed. Please hang up and try your call later.
I was laughing so loud I had to leave the room.
Dave tried a third time, and got Ramen Number 3. About 30 minutes later, Dave appeared.
“Well,” I said, “what’s the plan?”
“We’re going tomorrow.”
“Great! How much did that cost?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“That much, huh?”
“It turns out there are different degrees of change allowances. 1)You buy a ticket, nonrefundable. 2) You buy a ticket, and pay to be allowed to make a change. Which we did. 3) You buy a ticket, and pay even more to be allowed to make a change and get a seat.”
“Wait, you’ve lost me. You can buy a ticket without a seat? Who would do that?”
“I did, apparently.” Huh. “But, we’ll have one less day of car rental, one less day of parking, one less day of kennel fee, one less day to buy food. So, it’s probably going to work out.” Uh huh.
So, Sunday May 12, as Ramen predicted, we had to buy seats and fly to Dallas from Detroit to Raleigh. I wondered if that’s something like Core Curriculum Geography where West is the new East. Or something like that. But the good news is how many extra air miles we accrued today on our flight to Dallas! Never mind that I feel like we’ve been on a moving sidewalk for three days; a few more flights like this and I’ll have a free flight to New Zealand.