so after years of flying, even around the world once. i met with another one of those infamous, odd travel stories to tell. really, if you fly enough --most any thing that can go wrong, will. i have my share of stories. and this one is up there. say, top five...
it's the holidays. i need to book a flight, travel to visit family on the east cost. since my favorite travel agent retired last year, on a recommendation from my dad, i decided to try his agent.
my dad lives in state college, pennsylvania. she booked tickets his tickets before, usually got great rates, seemed safe enough.
and really, there are advantages and disadvantages to working with a travel agent. for some routes they can beat the internet deals, and i don't have to scour the web looking for a good deal. i still poke around my favorite travel sites some, checking current rates and deals. really depends on the destination too. anyway, i like working with an agent, they usually find a good flight.
she got a good price too, nothing out of the ordinary with my arrangements --though the itinerary printed the city truncated, as "college sta", with a flight time also a bit truncated, with "4" (i read 4 hours)... made sense. i bought the ticket.
the day came and off i went. on checking they asked if i was headed to 'college station'. uh huh, must be the name of the airport i thought. heh, er, cute name for an airport.
i connected in houston... looked for the connecting flight on the departure board. looked for state college... again it's listed as college station? that's odd sure --it's the only one listed by airport name, not city. whatever. it's a confusing name. thinking back now (not my first trip there, been a few years since my grandpa passed though) --i didn't remember any of these circumstances last time around.
anyway, just not *odd* enough to trigger the alarm. just a series of quite innocent mistakes --each one adding up to one big one...
i got on the plane. small, but not tiny. there were only two other people. also odd for such a long flight, but whatever. next, i did a routine, and random confirmation --my gut said i need to check on something here. i wasn't feeling right. i asked the other passengers how long the flight was.
oh, 'bout 40 minutes.
i went a little pale at this point, it was sinking in. some of the other oddities hit home. really, there was no way a 40 minute flight was going to get me across the nation. turns out, college station is a city... in texas. how did i miss this? i grabbed my itinerary right away (on my laptop)... sure enough it seemed clear now, or rather unclear what was up with my itinerary, it was so poorly written -- really, how did i miss that??
so --i was on a plane, and i didn't want to go where the plane was headed. there's a bit of a shock when you realize you're about to fly in the wrong direction. all my life -i figured it was just a matter of time, at least once, it'll happen to me. they'll announce the destination over the intercom, and i'll be like --no no no... i don't wanna go. i'm not headed there. right. well that day was today, that time was *now*.
ok --i'm on the wrong plane.... as frustrating as these decisions are, when you learn the fine art of traveling, a certain auto-pilot comes kicks in. the decision was simple. i better get off this plane, and right now. i was calm, and explained to the stewardess what was up.
i figured getting off the plane, in a major airport hub was better than flying to college station, then flying right back to houston. who knows what they have in college station, do they even have a service counter? who knows. better to stay in houston.
we haven't moved, the doors were closed but we were just sitting there, we haven't taxied. in order to get off the plane, i needed a reasonable explanation. but my reason was enough. they were supposed to pull my bag off the plane too. i'm pretty sure it went on to college station without me. they may have left it out in the rain on the tarmac, i'm really not sure. but they let me off the plane.
next, they sent me to the folks at the gate, i talked with them. i had to explain what happened at least twice if not three times to every one i spoke with. they gave me some alternate routes to state college, and sent me to the interconnect counter still inside the terminal to book a new ticket. i wasn't entirely sure what i was doing, but i was on auto-pilot, and there weren't a lot of decisions to make -just keep moving, advance to the next step, get to the next counter.
i'm a little in shock at this point too. i'm back in the terminal. really, an odd situation, but nothing a lot of money couldn't fix. but how much? evey penny in my account? this was going to suck!
the agents at the gate gave me two routes --one leaving in about 20 minutes, and one in 8 hours, so i was anxious to get to the counter, book the ticket and hopefully catch the earlier flight instead of wait around *all* day. yikes. i was hoping somehow the circumstance was give me some latitude, my existing ticket would cover costs. i'd still probably have to purchase a ticket from here to state college, i guess arriving back in time to catch my return flight from houston. getting complicated.
the line at the counter was short but took some time --too long. when i got to the front i had to explain myself again. they looked up some routes and then quoted a price -- a whopping $1900. i slumped. nearly cornered, and quite defeated. just pay the money? what options do i have? return home -spend xmas wasting any money i've already spent, getting nowhere??
they had to issue a new ticket, full price, maybe apply the change fee, i don't know. i asked for some other, less direct routes, maybe fly into newark instead. the prices were either $800, $1400 or $1900 -- but i wasn't clear if the total was $800 or $1400 by applying the $500 i had spent originally. which destination was which price again?
in the meantime i had called my travel agent. it was 4 AM in hawaii, i didn't think i would get through. i felt the pressure of making a split decision here, i was about to hand my credit card over to the tune of $1400...and just then -my travel agent rang back. (fringe benefit here, despite it being her fault, i had someone to call for help, to sort things out whenever i get stuck in an airport). ahh, and here's another testimonial to the power of a cell phone when traveling. my phone did me right. and my agent did too.
she apologized several times, and said she would take care of it -pay for the new ticket. this was good news, and made sense. even though i had approved the final itinerary, it was poorly presented, missing the destination state entirely. it was like the document was scanned in with an OCR text reader then back emailed out. i really never noticed the state, was missing. i sent the itinerary to my dad, he hadn't noticed. it went like that. he realized something was up though. on the was to the airport -the arrival time and airline schedule didn't add up (just not in time to do anything about it).
my agent said she would have paid for any ticket i bought -but she wanted to have a crack at finding something a bit cheaper than $1400. that was just fine by me. continental airlines was not really price shopping, checking other airlines, no real incentive for them. she found something in under 20 minutes at around $600. there was a lot of back and forth here working with the counter. after some fuss with the computer, i had to purchase the tickets -but my agent paid me back.
even though i was a bit freaked out, i had enough 'travel' sense not to yell at anyone. i nearly left a scathing, vitriolic message on my agents phone, but kept my cool when the moment came. always a better move when traveling --you don't get much help yelling at anyone. one of those 'rules of thumb.
to top things off this day... my bags were re-routed -no biggie... but someone broke my luggage lock along the way (not the tsa, since it was one of their approved locks, it was someone else). my bag passed enough hands i really don't know where to point the finger. probably why they had a go at it. anyway, my bag arrived two days later. everything seemed in order, aside from that... it did arrive wet (it was several shades darker with all the playa dust washed off!), probably in the houston rain? dunno.
aside from feeling violated (my stuff riffled through), i came along without much delay on my trip, or dent in my wallet. just some sticker shock and diversion along the way. i faired better than the pour sods stuck in denver, where the blizzard shut down the airport for 3-4 days. the pour souls.
so there's my once-in-a-lifetime experience. i trust (hope?) i'm done with that.
oh -one idea from all this, i wish itineraries would have a little map of the world with a star stamped right on the final destination. if for nothing more than to save the random situations like this one. would be a nice touch too.
last note. there was *no* meal service on my return 6 hour flight. yikes. we've seen this day coming. no drinks on international flights?? no meals on domestic?? that's just crazy. sure i know every one is scouring for the absolute best deal, but if this keeps up flying isn't going to be any fun. at all !!