Traveling Drama!

(post by Marissa) Of course any title with "drama" in it is going to be a girl's post. One thing our kids will have harder than us is traveling! Remember when flying was fun...a whole meal, at least 2 seats to yourself, never a lost bag..etc! Well, how times have changed. Now you have take off everything on you except the bare essentials and even that now is being removed electronically with the high-tech body scanners. Arrive 2 hours early, sit on the jetway, finally take off, eat your measly 2 pretzels, land, look for your bags..oh they aren't there! Well, so that is an exaggeration, but it certainly is not what it used to be. However, it has not really stopped me any because I seem to be on a plane every few months if not more. And this weekend, I am flying to Utah for my sister's bridal shower. Yes, I know it is the weekend before April 15th, but I was leaving at 7 pm today and coming back on Sunday evening. However, my mom called me yesterday and said you should check your flights because you are on American and they are cancelling a lot. Yes, I did know they were cancelling a lot of flights and have been doing airfare stuff for other trips the last 2 days..why did I never put 2 and 2 together is beyond me. It took my mom literally spelling it out for me before anything clicked! So I learn my flight is cancelled. I call American..sit on hold for 30 minutes, hang up because I have to get back to work. Then after work, I call again. This time it sounds like the phones are off the hook. Then my dad calls and says just buy another ticket on a different airline. So I go and buy another ticket that leaves Saturday and would put me in Utah only a few hours before the shower. Finally, I get a hold of American and they say, "You are on the 7 am flight Saturday morning." I was kind of freaking out because I had just purchased another ticket and the American flight is better than my newly purchased ticket, and the lady on the phone thought that 7 am was not early enough. Immediately, she was like okay okay, lets see...she was even going to pay me my Friday salary, but unfortunately, I am needed at work right now! I was impressed with how she handled everything. So back to the two ticket dilemma. I mean tickets are not refundable. Do I take the American flight and just waste the other flight? Well, I immediately call Southwest (the carrier of the new ticket) and explain my situation..and they just refunded me my money! Great business practice. I was very impressed. Well, short story VERY Long..I am flying to Utah tomorrow (Sat) at 7 am and arrive at noon in Utah. I then fly back on Sunday at 1:15 pm. Yes I am only in Utah for a mere 24 hours, but I am going to make my sisters bridal shower!!

Oh and to make things funny..I keep my cell phone charger at work now since I spend most of my time there so I had to sit in my car with my cell phone hooked to my car charger with my computer as I am searching for other tickets, requesting refunds, calling my mom after every phone call with the various airlines..etc. Also, my sister is sending me pictures of dresses she is considering purchasing for the bridal shower and Steve is instant messaging me asking me what is going on!! It was quite the travel drama for a few hours!

Also, in case you have not heard, you can only check one bag now. A second bag costs $25 each way. So good luck packing! The only person I know who will not have a problem with this is Kevin Jensen, but he would rather drive the 16 hours to visit his favorite children for a day than fly for the aforementioned reasons above.

To those who only like pics.. I will post pics after this weekend in Utah :)