The Joys of Travel

Yesterday we flew back from Montreal to San Diego, via Chicago. We arrived at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport (formerly Dorval) with ample time before the flight (notwithstanding a flat tire that had necessitated a car change prior to departure). We gave the gate agent our passports and were promptly told that we did not have a reservation. Karin and I looked at each other in disbelief. Was it the wrong day? Had we somehow missed our flight?

The agent ("Supervisor" was written on his lapel) explained: "You did not use the portion of your ticket from Chicago to Montreal on May 15, 2008. Therefore the entire ticket automatically canceled out of the system. At this point, you are probably going to have to pay full fare economy to get back to San Diego. That's probably in the $1500 range each."

I then addressed the agent: "Let me explain what happened on May 15, 2008. Due to a mechanical problem, our plane leaving San Diego was delayed and we missed the connection at ORD. I called AA and was told that there were no other AA flights to YUL that day and that the only other flight to YUL was on United and it was sold out. I then had them book us on the first flight the following morning - on AA - and we went to the United gate to see if there might be space on the "sold out" UA flight. That flight did end up being sold out but somehow, at the last minute, we were given the last 2 seats on the flight and they accepted our AA boarding passes. I just assumed that they would take care of whatever had to happen behind the scenes for AA to be informed and credited."

The agent was not impressed. He said he would try to get us back on the flights but was still suspicious. He kept saying that my story did not make sense.

We smiled politely while he banged away at his keyboard. Then, after about 20 minutes of typing and periodically asking me to explain things he found suspicious, I saw baggage tags print! We were going to San Diego after all.

The agent told us that we were really really really really lucky and that we should immediately buy a lottery ticket. He said that normally he would not have been able to retrieve our ticket at all but that by some fluke he found a worm hole or something that made it all possible. He then handed us our boarding passes and wished us a good flight. Crisis averted!