What I did on my summer vacation — part 2
August 10, 2022 | Family,Summer,Traveling
Dream vacation, nightmare travel planning
I went to the agent’s website and filled out her form, telling her what I wanted. I said I’d like to do the Starlight Coast train trip from Los Angeles to Seattle. I wanted to stay in Seattle for several days, and I also wanted to take a short trip to Canada. I said I needed a rental car because I have some health issues and can’t do a lot of walking. I said I’d like the best prices I can get but I was willing to spend more if it meant I didn’t have to be at the airport in the middle of the night. (📌Stick a pin in this.📌)
She replied right away, and we set up a time to talk on the phone. Within a week, she sent me the first of a few itineraries.
Let me interrupt this story by talking about 🚩red flags. I spent most of my life being oblivious to red flags until I search for them in the rear-view mirror. It’s taken lots of practice in the last few years to see them and recognize them for what they are. I mean, I saw that Perkins Restaurant-sized red flag Michelle was waving at me. But alas. Not all the flags are that big or that red. So, I’m still learning. And sometimes I still have to look back to see what happened and how many I missed.
🚩 In that first itinerary, she booked a rental car for only two days, saying, “I highly recommend you not have a car the whole time so I only included one for the days you will need to go to Canada.” In a later email she expressed how expensive it would be to have a car every day, plus I would have to pay for parking at the hotel. Mind you, I did not start out asking for the cheapest vacation ever. I made it clear that I needed a car. So, I explained further that having a car for the whole stay was important. I told her that unless everything actually passes by the hotel we’re staying in (they didn’t), I’d rather program my GPS than try to figure out whatever transportation options there are. I am horrible with directions and get lost every 15 minutes. I told her that when I visited Washington, D.C., several years ago, I got off the train at the wrong stop and ended up walking MILES to get to my hotel. I don’t have the stamina to walk like that anymore if I make a wrong turn and get lost.
We exchanged more emails, she sent me a couple of itineraries, and we kept ironing out the details until we had a final one. Once we had that, she had to start locking everything in. She said the cost of our train ticket almost doubled, did I still want to book it? I said yes, but here’s another thing that’s frustrating about the travel industry. Why does it have to feel like I’m trying to win at a casino where we all know the house always wins? Why are they allowed to change prices with the wind?
When it was all decided, I had to pay half then and would pay the rest a month before my trip. (📌) Part of all the forms I completed for her included my credit-card info, passport, and ID. She was working on lining up cars to pick us up at various places, and she would let me know when she had those. She started booking things with my card, and I got a fraud alert text message, but it wasn’t from my credit-card company. So, before I jumped on that, I asked for dollar amounts of things she’d charged already, so I knew it was a legit fraud alert. I said that it was weird that I didn’t know what bank my credit card was affiliated with — that’s why I thought I’d better double-check. She told me the dollar amounts, and they matched.
🚩🚩 And then she said, as if I were insulting her and stupid because I didn’t know how all this worked (mind you, I’m not the one who books travel stuff every day, so is it that unusual that I don’t understand every little detail?):
“It’s not MY bank. It is the bank of the rental car company. You’re welcome to call me if you have any questions.
“In the state of FL, I am licensed as a travel agent and have been for more than decade. I follow the laws explicitly and the laws state that I am an intermediary between you and the travel providers. You’re not paying me. You are directly paying the suppliers and I am facilitating that payment. All of this information was in the reservation form that you signed.”
Whoa, Nellie. Well, that was uncalled for. I went back over my email to see if I had implied that she was doing anything wrong or illegal. I hadn’t. She misconstrued what I said and got all pissy about it. But I was this close to having everything scheduled for this vacation. So I ignored the red flag, I apologized to her, and I hoped maybe she was just having a bad day.
More later …
