Departing Melbourne

With this blog we promised scenery, fun and interest, and these we hope to deliver.

But right now let us introduce DRAMA!!!

Yes - real-life, time limited, sweaty-palms type drama - the type that says "will I get on to that scheduled flight - or not???

We arrived at Melbourne Airport some 3.25 hours ahead of flight time (2.15pm) as good passengers do. Found our way to the International terminal by way of a circuitous route from Domestic (airport renovations and all that) and began the book-in process.

"Just one moment gentlemen" says the young check officer. "I just have to check something with my supervisor".

Upon her return she despatched us to said supervisor/service officer who informed us that "we have a record of your booking, but the tickets have been cancelled and we cannot issue a boarding pass or ticket. You'll have to contact the person who sold you the seat."

That person was in America and we had no phone, nor time to do so.

In our hands we held documents from our American ticket broker, records of our Amex payments, ticket numbers issued by United Airlines who handled the booking, the Thai booking details and itinerary as well as the seat numbers we'd gone on-line to choose. Nothing on the Thai booking schedule indicated that anything was amiss. "We seem to be getting at least one of these every day now" the service officer informed us.

In brief, our real-life, TV actuality program unfolded from there like this:

-we were sent back to Domestic to locate the Flight Centre office who might be able to sell us a new ticket or inform us what might have happened to our booking (no luck here as they moved out of the airport months ago). Another 15 minutes lost.

- then sent upstairs to the office of United Airlines. They were helpful but just confirmed there was no payment and therefore no booking (another 15 minutes ticked by)

- back to our extremely patient and polite Thai service desk.

By now it was obvious that irrespective of where our initial booking money has gone to, that if we were to have our holiday we had to purchase two new seats at whatever the Australian going market price was for last minute purchasers.

After waiting what seemed like an eternity she got through to a booking person who was able to re-book our exact booking. With credit cards in hand we paid the local price. To Thai's credit, they gave us a good Business Class deal at at time when we were totally vulnerable.

So $6,300 each zipped through our now scorched credit cards to get us on to the flight.

From go to whoa that took two full hours. So two very relieved boys walked into the customs area to begin the journey.

When we return we will begin the effort to get our money back from America though the web of those involved could prove tricky - on-line ticket broker, United Airlines, Amex, Thai Airlines and our own travel insurance.  We suspect that we will need a big file to hold all the correspondence this might entail.

In summary:

- don't buy a cheap airfare on-line (especially from America). It seems they're cheap because they buy and use frequent flyer points to lower the prices. Airlines flying out of Australia won't honour them as they are missing out on good profits and don't want to be undercut in their pricing

- confirm your booking with a "real live human" a week or so before flying. Just checking online doesn't show up issues like we experienced

- have a good credit card limit available on your credit card over-and-above what you are expecting to spend on your holiday expenses

- leave plenty of time between airport arrival time and flight time.

- when in trouble smile a lot, stay cool, give lots of thanks to those who are helping you - and believe in yourself that whatever is happening is for your own good. Going in to meltdown mode isn't an option. Airport service staff solve problems for a living so believe that they can do for you irrespective of how dark and dire the situation may look.

- accept that things happen, we can all make wrong decisions at times, as players we are not always kept in the loop - and that issues can happen to anyone.

The good news:  we are in Bangkok airport awaiting a flight to Zurich.

We are on the way!

Lake Eyre