Changing the itinerary

Well right now I'd have been on a flight back to the USA, but it ain't so. I decided to stay another week here - actually that was pretty much decided for me on the first full day I was here. I haven't posted in a week because I've been very much "on vacation." The country is *de facto* closed all week because its holy week

It was down to the wire this afternoon with changing my ticket. I figured, OK, if the airline has a ticket office that should be easiest...

Of course I went right after two of the three employees were returning from lunch. I'd also forgotten that no matter how nice the office look - there's still going to be someplace, somewhere from which you have to take a number. I was reminded of this when two groups of elderly people walked in and grabbed numbers ASAP. No matter I'd been there first by a couple of minutes, I was now 3rd. There's no sense even discussing it.

Well the first group of crones simply wanted to confirm some flight times and details. The second group... I think they were still there after I'd returned to the ticket office a second time!

So this woman who's just returned from lunch looks vaguely afraid of me yet calls my number all the same. The deer in the headlights look is quickly explained by the fact that she's new. Her pat answer to the question "How much will it cost to change my ticket" was "$150 us, usually." She pecks away unconvincingly at the computer and then tells me there is no availability on the flight.

"I know there are seats on that flight, they are available for sale on the internet."

Then she falls back on, "I'm kind of new, this is the phone number for our reservations office in Buenos Aires." I'm dismissed.

I get someone on the phone and he finds availability (imagine that) but he wants me to send him a faxed copy of my credit card along with an authorization letter that he starts dictating to me... um, no. I cut him off and ask him if I can pay it at their ticket office. I confirm (he says) the changes are in the computer under the same confirmation number.

Faxes have a tendency to get lost or the authorization letter isn't quite exactly what they were after or ... something. It's more room for something to go wrong.

Back inside the ticket office I take my wretched number and wait. The "new" girl is busy screwing something up and one of the more experienced employees is trying to sort it out. I explain to this woman that I've been on the phone to their reservations office in BsAs and I simply need to pay the charge rather than sending a fax.

It turns out that no, there is nothing changed about my reservation. No evidence anyone's touched it. She quotes me a price three times higher than what the guy on the phone said. I smile. My little internal steam gauge has gone from the green, over to the yellow and is wavering at the red. On the green side it says 0 and on the red side it says "PUTEAR." (bitch and complain) "This is roughly the same experience as a visit to BPS. Take a number to be poorly attended by someone who through no fault of her own is not well trained. Get sent to the phone to find that a credit card cannot be accepted without a letter being faxed - so I may as well go back to the office where an employee can see me and my credit card because I KNOW a fax is going to get lost. And the price is now higher than it was ten minutes ago during a phone call I must never have made. I am not moving from this spot until we have a solution."

"Well what price did they quote you?"

"Tell you what, a lower one than you just quoted me. When I hear it again I'll let you know."

Finally she quotes the same price as the person on the phone and says "but you have to pay four dollars higher than that here because we have to calculate the tax differently."

"My hotel would have charged me four bucks to have sent a fax, same thing."

She's on the phone awhile longer while they go back and forth over something. Yes, definitely the fax would have been lost and this would be a last minute drama at the airport.

Finally she's ready. She's gotta get one little dig in though: "Let's see if your credit card is approved now."

Hour and a half to rebook a flight.