What I did on my summer vacation — part 3

August 11, 2022 | Family,Summer,Traveling

Dream vacation, nightmare travel planning

A few days later — less than two weeks after I contacted her — I had my reservations for the train, hotels, and rental car. I was getting excited! She was still working on several things — insurance, rides from airport to hotel, hotel to train station, and train station to airport. She was able to get the Victoria hotel that initially told her they were full. So, we were rolling right along. I asked for info about getting TSA PreCheck, which we got, so I gave her our numbers for the travel reservations.

There was trouble booking one of the cars, and I learned that my card had been deactivated. The company switched it from a MasterCard to a Visa, and I had somehow missed that. So, I called the company, and they sent me a new card, which I got in a couple of days. I asked her if she wanted me to send copies of the new card, and she said, “I don’t think there is anything left to pay for at this time. Do you?” (📌) I sent her a copy of my new card, anyway, for booking some other unrelated travel, which had a whole other set of mistakes, but that’s another story.

🚩🚩🚩Then came time for her to charge my card for the rest of the big trip. And guess what? She hadn’t updated her system with my new card, so the automated system she uses tried to charge the old card, and it was declined. I got an email and a voicemail at 7:21 a.m., telling me, “We have a problem.” She said I needed to call back ASAP because she didn’t know how long it would be before the system would automatically cancel everything. No need for coffee that morning to get my heart pumping. I called her back and asked her why she wasn’t using my new card for this. She didn’t think she had it. I reminded her I had provided her with all the required information and it was up to her to fix this problem. She did.

Then my daughter’s summer schedule changed, and she wanted to join us for a week, so I asked about that. The agent gave me a few options for flights, and I made it clear that I was willing to spend more on plane tickets to get my daughter to the Seattle airport at a decent time of day. One of the options had her arriving at about 3 p.m. So what did she book? The one that had the plane arriving at night. Because of delays, I got to pick up my daughter 📌at the airport in the middle of the night.📌 I think her flight finally got in at 1 a.m.

Before that happened, though, my son and I took off from TLH to LAX. We got there as planned with no delays. We only had to wait a few minutes before our car arrived to pick us up. We got to the hotel before check-in, but she had a room ready for us. I was messed up by the time change, and I didn’t even realize we were early. The hotel and service there was great. In the morning, the bellman got us a car to the train station. Checking in there went smoothly, and we even got free drinks and snacks in the Amtrak lounge. (I didn’t know about that.) Red Cap service took us to the platform where we would board. (I didn’t know about Red Cap service until then.) We got settled on the train, and it took off. Because we had a bedroom, we also had an attendant. (I didn’t know about that either.) The travel was nice. I got a little claustrophobic when I first got on the train, but I was able to work through it. The food was great. Our attendant, Cesar, was superb. I made sure to tell him that (and tip him).

Our train’s arrival at the King Street Station was delayed, so instead of getting there at 7:51 p.m., we got there at 8:25 p.m., the time our ride was scheduled to pick us up to take us to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to get our rental car. We exchanged phone calls, and she said she would be there soon to get us. After getting our luggage (two big checked bags each and two carry-on bags each, as well as a backpack and bag), we loaded all that into the car that picked us up and unloaded it all again at the Delta departures sign where the driver dropped us off. We walked inside, and I kept looking for a car-rental desk. We walked the length of the airport – with all our bags – to get to a shuttle. I was exhausted by this time. I called the driver and asked why she didn’t drop us off at the car-rental area. “We aren’t allowed in there,” she said. Sigh. She also told me to double-check my car bill, because I had been booked and paid for 5 people. At this point, I don’t even know why the agent did that. I haven’t found anything about it in my receipts and emails. Only thing I can figure is she was booking something for 5 people in that other trip and got confused with the numbers. (She messed up several other things numbers-wise, so maybe that’s just her MO).

Back at the airport, we found a place to sit to wait for the next shuttle. When it got there, we loaded all our luggage and then unloaded it all again when we got to the car-rental place. We wheeled all our luggage up to the desk, and I got the contract for the car. Did I already say I was exhausted? We lugged all our luggage to an elevator and into a parking lot. It was not immediately clear where our car was. I asked someone working there how the numbers worked. We eventually found our car and then loaded all our luggage into the car and took off to find the hotel. It was about a 20-minute drive, and we checked in around midnight.

NOTE: The Seattle airport was not user-friendly for us. There was the whole shuttle thing and drivers “not being allowed in there.” And when we left for home, we had a helluva time finding TSA PreCheck, which they tucked away in a corner waaaaaaay at the other end of the building. I might be wrong, but I would think a travel agent might know some of this and be able to mitigate or at least warn clients about it. (I had asked for airport assistance, but she didn’t note that on my reservation, so we didn’t get it.)

We got all our luggage up to our room on the 11^th floor in the hotel. Imagine my surprise when I opened the curtains, looked out the window and saw … the King Street train station RIGHT NEXT DOOR. We could have walked about two minutes with all our luggage from the train station to our hotel, checked in, gotten a decent night’s sleep, and worried about the rental car in the morning. This is so egregious that it felt intentional. I mean, nobody can screw up that badly, can they?

Oh-huh-ho. But of course they can.

More later …

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 …

What I did on my summer vacation — part 1

August 9, 2022 | Bad service,Family,Summer,Traveling

Dream vacation, nightmare travel planning

Several years ago, I dreamed of a family vacation to California because I’d never been there before. Fast forward to a time when I don’t have to ask anyone else’s permission for anything, I started planning that vacation. I knew it would be in July. I’d worked with a national travel company (the one that shows up to jump your car) to plan getaways to Orlando with the kids, so that’s where I called on a Saturday in January. I spent an hour on the phone with someone named Brian. He said he’d get some information to me by Monday. Monday came and went. I know things have been chaotic in offices everywhere, so I tried to be patient. At the end of the week, I sent him an email, saying, “There’s no rush yet to get information, but I thought I’d check in with you since you said you’d have something for me Monday. Is everything OK?” I got back an automated reply:

I am currently out of the office 

Please Note: I have been out of the office for an extended period of time and am following up with member requests as quickly as possible.

Maybe everything was not OK. I checked in again about a week later. Got another automated message. A week after that, I got a real email from Brian:

I am back in the office FINALLY !!!     Trying to dig out on emails and Voicemails …..       Have you given up on me or are you still looking ?     Please let me know and I will get this to you !!!!

Please accept my apologies !!!!

I replied that, yes, I was still looking for help. I gave him travel dates again, and he said he would get to work on it. Almost two months later, I checked in and got the automated message again, this time with more red and all caps. The next day, I called the main number, hoping to speak with him or someone else. Michelle answered the phone.

First, I asked for Brian. He wasn’t in the office. I asked if she had access to his notes so I didn’t have to start all over again. She checked (or she said she checked) and said he had no notes in my file. What?!? How could that be? I had spent at least an hour on the phone with him in January. And now this? I started giving her details of the trip I wanted to take, and she said she would send me an itinerary. Then she said, “And going forward, what I am not gonna do is listen to you complain about anything.”

My head tipped like a dog’s would when trying to make sense of a new sound, and my brain said this to me, “Oh-huh-ho. Going forward, there will be no going forward with this shit.” Out loud, I said, “Thanks, bye.”

She sent her email, and I ignored it. I asked folks I know for travel-agent recommendations. I got three, and I chose the local one.

More later …

Though I’ve got to say goodbye to the summer …

September 10, 2011 | Forest City,Iowa,Summer

… I’ll send my love to it every day in a letter, sealed with a kiss.

Sigh. No, I’m not ready to say goodbye yet.

Praying mantis

August 23, 2011 | Family,Missouri,Summer,Vacation

We sat outside in the heat, enjoying ice cream. I watched this praying mantis leave a garden, cross two lanes of traffic, hop up on the sidewalk and continue past our table. The crowd parted, and it kept going. There must have been a big praying mantis party out behind the Dairy Queen. Either that or she’s a regular customer.

(I know. The pictures suck. I took them with my phone.)

These boots were made for walking

August 18, 2011 | Family,Missouri,Summer,Vacation

I stopped in at St. Joe Boot Co. and got some fine boots.

Heritage Park field trip

August 10, 2011 | Family,Iowa,School,Summer

The kids had a field trip to Heritage Park during summer school. Every time I go there, I see something new and different.

I love this pin, especially considering that they’d be serving lutefisk at the Heritage Festival the following weekend.

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Hot fun in the summertime

August 9, 2011 | Family,Iowa,Summer

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July 26, 2011 | Iowa,Summer

Barn swallows, part 2

July 18, 2011 | Iowa,Summer

Remember the nest of barn swallows we waited out so the baby birds could live? Well, the little boogers are at it again. They moved to the other corner by the front door. As if I wouldn’t notice.

My friend Tracy says barn swallows are good luck. John Switzer of The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch agrees.

But they’re supposed to be good luck in a barn.

Hey, I can use all the good luck I can get. But, c’mon, birds. Go back to the barn.