Day 3 - 254 -- Travel Conundrum

On the weekend, I spent many hours travelling to get home. As I went to the Granada bus terminal by taxi, a song played on the satellite radio -- two songs that were vying for the one that helped most in not "getting stressed out" -- exact phrase used in an otherwise Spanish DJ patter. So -- must be no translation for that phrase. I listened to it and moved on. Bus trip went well. Interestingly, even the superEconomy fare means you have to load and unload your own suitcases under the bus.

When I disembarked at the Malaga Airport, I decided to check-in that afternoon rather than the following morning. Baggage drop is generally quicker. The head airline desk sent me off to a gate number to check in and I stood there for a long time in a huge line with no one at the desk. When someone arrived, it was not the right airline personnel. As I walked back across the terminal, I saw an airline check in desk at a different gate number with only 2 people in line. I gave the fellow all my requisite documentation and then he called his supervisor who then called someone else. I really wished I knew enough Spanish to understand what was going on -- it was rather nerve-wracking. They sent me back to the original main office kiosk where I'd begun. It seems that they couldn't find my ticket number anywhere in the system. She searched online and called the partner airline for the second leg -- nothing. We finally pulled out my boarding passes from the trip to Spain and she discovered that when the outgoing airline had moved me to an earlier flight due to weather delays out of JFK, she had cancelled not only the flight leg between Boston and JFK but also the entire return trip. After two hours working through this, the airline that made the error rebooked the return flights. Learnings from this include that being obsessive and not discarding boarding passes until I can shred them at home is a good thing and being ahead of schedule also is not an obsessive thing. Had I waited until the next morning (when the check in began an hour before the flight left), there would not have been time to fix the problem and I'd have been stuck and need to rebook things myself and argue the case later -- never a good thing. This delay allowed me time to observe that check in was a huge lineup at each gate and not until at least 2 hours before the flight. Then all the flights go through only one security line. As I was ready to head to the hotel for the night, someone behind me said 'hello there' and it was another conference presenter from Canada heading out that evening. That was lovely -- to actually speak English and just chat.

While sitting and waiting for the rebooking to occur, the song I'd heard in the taxi earlier in the day came back to me and helped me to smile and breathe a bit. So -- that seemed the best song to share here with you all. It seemed like a message to me and it did help me remain cool in a scary situation. Enjoy!

Don't worry 'bout a thing -- Madcon ft. Ray Dalton