Tour de Chance

Cheaptickets.com and American Airlines...what a great pair!

Stephen and I ordered our tickets to Croatia back in January. I think they arrived in the mail two days after I ordered, and I honestly tucked them away and had not glanced at them again until two days ago. Luckily I did take a look. For some reason, I had a 5:00 PM departure time in my head. I thought I had LOTS of time to teach the entire summer school day, leave school, come home, organize any last minute suitcase items, etc.

When I did look at my tickets again, I was quite surprised to realize that my flight was scheduled to leave Boston at 1:55 PM. Considerably earlier than the 5:00 I had stuck in my mind. (I also had it stuck in my head that my flight from Boston to Manchester, England was direct. Not so. I have to go first through JFK in New York).

Jesus.

I immediately made arrangements to deprive my poor summer school students of their recess period in order to dismiss them at 11:30, and give myself that extra half hour to get to the airport. Now, I had it in mind that I would have to get my stuff into Lauren's van the night before the flight so that she could come pick me up at school at noon and drive me right to the airport. Gone were the extra few after-school organization hours. But still...no big deal, right?

The story does not end there.

Tonight, when Stephen and I were talking about the trip at my place, he became curious about the tickets, too. But, of course, his paper tickets are at his place, so he logged onto Cheaptickets.com to see his electronic itinerary.

There, to our shock and disbelief, was our Boston to NY flight listed, not as 1:55 PM, but rather at NOON!

What??????

I have freakin' summer school. This is why teaching SUCKS!! You can't just bag work and call in sick. You have to find coverage and arrange for work to leave behind, etc.

I immediately called my colleague, Barbara, the woman who already covered my first two days of summer school so that I could go to the wedding in Florida, and who is already scheduled to cover my last week of summer school so that I can take the trip to Croatia. I wanted to see if she could do Thursday (departure day) from 10-12. I will do the 8-10 session, myself, but Jesus, I obviously need somebody to cover the second lesson for me.

Barbara is not available.

I called my friend, Jenn, so is also unavailable, but who referred me to another colleague, Chris. Fortunately, Chris is available to do it, and she was very happy to be able to help me out in this obvious emergency. But I have to make it worth her while to come in to teach these little creeps for two hours. She is driving for an hour to get to the school. Obviously, there's a necessary return trip. With gas prices being as they are, I felt compelled to offer the woman 50 dollars. She was psyched, and the peace of mind is well worth the money to me.

But nevermind the money.

I LOVE the way there was a significant (TWO HOUR) schedule change in the flight and we were not notified.

Cheaptickets.com claims that they are not required to tell us because the change is American Airlines' decision. The Airline, likewise, claims they are not responsible to tell us because we bought our tickets through Cheaptickets.com and they should provide us with travel updates.

And here I am, trying to teach my kids responsibility! I know, I know..as the travelers we are ultimately responsible for getting ourselves from one place to another, and anybody with half a brain would confirm reservations made 8 months in advance of the trip but still......

Now, our 12 hour total travel time has turned into close to 15 hours total travel time. With a 4.5 hour layover in NY as we await our Manchester, England flight!! Oh joy.