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05/15/2007: "FRU$TRATED"
All in all, I am a pretty patient man. I can handle a delay that costs me a day or so. I can handle last minute cancellations of doctor appointments that I waited 2 months for. I can even quietly clean up a full bottle of shampoo that my daughter has spread all over the floor. But when it comes to mistakes that cost me money, I have little tolerance. In booking the flights, cars, trains and hotel rooms for my many travels these past six months, I do my best to keep expenses down. Yes, I feel guilty that my chosen alternative treatments cost my family so much money. So I do what I can, looking for discounts here and there.
Usually I use Travelocity. On my last trip, I needed a hotel room near the Frankfurt airport because I had a 7:30am flight. I spent time looking at various options and settled on an “Airport Hotel” in the city. Upon arrival I realized this hotel was not near the airport and they didn’t have a shuttle. I handed my Travelocity printout to the taxi driver and he took me to #4 Nordendstrasse, Frankfurt, about 15 miles away. The address had a Tai Restaurant on the ground floor, which is not uncommon. But going to the person on duty, I learned that there was no hotel here at all. Calling another taxi and explaining the problem, I learned that Travelocity had the city wrong and I should be at #4 Nordendstrasse in Waldorf! So a $60 cab ride got me to my hotel that was still far from the airport and had no shuttle for my early flight. All this to save about $30 on the hotel.
Today, I had to make a change in my upcoming flight itinerary. Unfortunately, the Hospital in Cologne, Germany recently informed me that June 8th was a national holiday and they would be closed. My schedule had me receiving injections on that day and flying home the 9th. The cost of flights have doubled since this winter’s travel so I booked the cheapest flight I could find which was with British Airways. I recently informed Travelocity of my need to change my ticket. They said that since they issued a paper ticket (there only option) I needed to send it back to them. But we are too close to the departure date for them to make the change and send the new ones back. So I must go out to the ticket counter at SFO. Checking with British Airways, I learned that not only would there be substantial change-fees but I would have to make up the difference in ticket costs as well.
So you are thinking, “Trip insurance would have been smart.” Smart I am, as I had purchased the $35 flight insurance! Heck, in my condition, who knows what might happen between now and then. So I called the insurance company and the impressive lady on the other end was able to rattle off the few things that qualify me to be reimbursed for the charges. Seems I would either have to come down with Stage IV Cancer after I bought the ticket, had my house burn down, got in a car accident on the way to the airport, or lost a spouse or child. It took me a moment but in the end I figured paying the fees would be easiest. So I made the drive to San Francisco International Airport today and stood at the counter while she spent an hour figuring out how to manage my changes.
Is it a little ironic that the new $600 charge on my credit card counts towards airline miles?