This is yet another post that could be titled “Home Warrior Saves the Day.”
Over the weekend, the Home Warrior and I went to Playa del Carmen for a close friend’s wedding. We had a great time and the wedding was lovely, so of course we were sad yesterday when it was time to head home to reality. Our ride to the airport was supposed to pick us up at 9am, so we were packed and ready to go in the lobby at 8:50am. It got to be 9, then 9:05, then 9:10…. I was thinking, this is odd—even though we’re at the beach, these guys are typically very punctual. Evidently the Home Warrior was thinking the same thing because he said, “I wonder why they’re late?” Something told him to pull out the tickets and double check everything, and it is sure lucky he did.
See, when we set up our ride to the airport two days prior we verbally confirmed everything—we leave Monday, our flight is at 12:40, we need to be picked up at 9—plus we handed the clerk a copy of our airplane itinerary so she could see exactly what was going on. Both the Home Warrior and I noted that she seemed really tired, but didn’t think anything of it at the time. She filled everything out, printed our tickets, and we were relieved to check this item off our list and go back to the beach. But neither of us ever actually read the ticket to confirm everything was correct. Ugh. Classic rookie mistake! We should know better.
So. Back to yesterday. Something told HW to look at the tickets and confirm everything was correct. He turned to me and said, “Today isn’t June 6 is it?” My heart dropped. No, yesterday was in fact June 4. Cue Road Warriorette freak out. I grabbed the tickets and ran over to the shuttle booth. (Okay, “ran” may be overstating it. I am pretty pregnant after all. But HW later said it was the fastest he’s seen me move, outside of meal times, in months.) I explained to the lady what had happened. She got a panicked look on her face and got on the phone immediately. She called the home office and started trying to get a shuttle headed to pick us up ASAP. While she was on hold, she told us that if this didn’t work our only option would be to get a cab, which would be pretty pricey. The Road Warriorette freak out got worse. Finally, after about ten minutes on hold, she said a shuttle would be there to pick us up in fifteen minutes. Whew!!
The shuttle came, and we got to the airport with plenty of time. But the moral of this story? Always, always, check and double check important travel documents to make sure the dates and times are correct. This is especially true when traveling in other countries. Obviously it’s easy to get complacent when you travel a lot like many of us do, but the one time you catch something you will be so glad for your vigilance!!
Readers, have you ever had a close call because you didn’t double check something?
12 years ago I was flying back from Heathrow after a month in Europe. Sick, tired and badly sunburned I arrived early and even went to the gate early. Then I heard them call my flight. And no one was there. Board still read BA to Toronto. Then I notice the time. I was at the wrong gate. Grabbed my pass and check the board and made a run for it. I made it but missed an opportunity to have a good look at the Concord.
RW i was at a Big Conference recently and got a call that my daughter was in labor two weeks early. i verbally made flight arrangements. a little later READ my confirmation email and saw i’d booked a flight three hours earlier than i thought, hearing the arrival time as the departure….yeah….check and recheck
Number One: I had a close call in Rome. My boyfriend and I were in rome for a weekend and while we were in rome we decided to change our flight (well, actually book a new flight with a different airline).
I was sure this low-cost airline flies from the low cost airport. About 10 minutes before our shuttle arrived I checked-in online and looked at the boardning pass… the airport code on the boarding pass was NOT the low cost airport. luckily the shuttle was a private shuttle and was able to drive us to the right airport.
Number Two: I booked flights to istanbul. When I received the confirmation I glanced over the papers. Luckily! I had booked myself as Christina Christina (instead of Christina WhatEverMySurnameIs). I called the company and they changed it for me but told me that they only do such changes in the first 24 hours after the booking was made. Could have been fun if I had only found out at the airport
Number Three (yesterday). I am planning our vacation where will stay in 18 different hotels during 21 days. Yesterday I had done the final hotel booking and as a final check I put all the bookings into my online calendar. I looked at the one hotel confirmation to check the date… and realized that I booked for 20 July (which was 1 month ago) instead of 20 August. Well, lost the money but at least I didn’t have to experience showing up at the hotel and finding out right there that my booking was actually done for 2 month earlier