day of madness

Today has been a day of frustrations, as I deal with major corporations on the phone.

Mayu is not able to join me on my trip to the islands, due to the epidemic passport problems that have been making headlines lately. As a result, I have been trying to work with Travelocity and Air Tahiti Nui to salvage some bit of the coast of her ticket. They're non-transferable, non-refundable, non-changable tickets, it seems. I'm trying, at the very least, to use the credit to bump up my flight to Business or First class as a solution that will at least make me feel like I'm getting something for the cost of the extra ticket. Travelocity, after several go arounds with support individuals who spoke in rapid, Hindi-accented English, promised to get back to me in 45 minutes with their final negotiation with Air Tahiti Nui. That was over four hours ago. I will try again tomorrow, as I don't want to spend 30 minutes on hold to start the process all over again with a new Travelocity rep.

To add to that, my XBox 360 went kerblooey several weeks back. I would put in a game, and it would tell me to insert the disc into an XBox 360.

Strange behavior, but an online search determined it was not a unique problem. Microsoft sent me a returns box (UPS 3 day service, each way) and there has been silence since then. I don't want the XBox to return to me a few days after I leave, then get shipped back to Microsoft, so I call them up and ask them to adjust the shipping information so it will rest here at work where someone can sign for it. Microsoft won't do it. They tell me to have UPS hold it. This is for a box that hasn't been shipped, mind you, so they can't give me a tracking number. UPS is polite, but finds the request rather absurd. They'd have to triple the size of their warehouse if they did this kind of thing for people. I call Microsoft back, and they are adamant that they can't change the shipping address on this box. After all, maybe it's already being shipped!

I ask them if they checked with service to see if the repairs had been completed. They hadn't. But call back tomorrow, they tell me.

Lovely.

The only people who have been truly helpful are the folks at Air Tahiti (not Air Tahiti Nui, which is a different airline) who happily cancelled Mayu's ticket from Tahiti to Rangoria with no penalty.

I like them.

So, I spent a lot of time on the phone while answering email at work, and am really no closer to a solution on either problem than I was when I began. The tickets, I am coming to accept may just be a $1400 loss. This hurts, but I console myself that at worst, I'll have two seats to myself on the plane and will be able to stretch out a little ways. Besides, I've lost far more than that on shows that I've produced. That doesn't make it feel much better, but it lowers my blood pressure a little bit.

I'm going to call my bank now and let them know that I'll be traveling, so that they don't freeze my debit card (again). Let's hope that this is relatively painless.


UPDATE: I couldn't reach a person at the Bank, so I sent an email that will hopefully find its way properly. But the good news is that Travelocity worked it out with the airline and they cancelled the extra ticket for the standard fee. I had hoped for a number of solutions, but this wasn't one I dared hope for. So, no first class for me, and no re-booking to go to New Zealand next year. But instead, an almost complete refund!