Sometimes I make dumb mistakes

Do you ever get so excited or into something, you make choices that could only be explained by a manic episode? Yeah, every once in a while I do. I rush into a decision seeing only positive and don’t pay attention to some… important details.

This happened to me last Wednesday. See, I suscribe to all the “super saver” last minute deals from the airlines because, well, i love to travel and you never know where you’ll end up. Well, in particular I have been looking for deals to Houston to go visit my parents. (Seeing them 1x/year is just not working for me.) Well, I got an email from one airline that gave me a terrific deal, non-stop from my airport to Houston. I checked the flight times – yes, yes, they had flights to and from that fit my schedule. I wouldn’t have to take any time off of work… it was within my budget for the trip… so I called my sister to see if she would be able to pick me up from the airport. After waiting nearly 3 hours for her to call me back, she finally did and she said that she could pick me up, there were no special plans for the weekend, and that it would be awesome to surprise our parents. Awesome, indeed. So I bought the ticket shortly before going to bed.

Fast forward to Friday afternoon, 1:45pm. I am at work, getting ready to head to a 2pm meeting. I decided to check in for my flight on-line (since I was only taking a carry-on, so I could walk into the airport and right to security). I went to the website, entered my confirmation number, and clicked “check-in.” It wouldn’t work. I tried again. Nope. Ok, one more time. Nope. So I go look at the ticket.

Horror! I booked the flight for leaving Saturday night, returning Monday night! I can’t do that – I have no vacation time left!!! PANIC! INTERNAL MAYHEM! LARGE DOSES OF DISBELIEF!

Ok, ok, let’s see if I can change my ticket… so I select the correct flight times for flying Friday, returning Sunday. I get this message, “Continental.com is unable to process your request. Please call a customer service representative at 1-800-xxx-xxxx.” Crap.

3 min until my meeting.

I pick up the phone and call customer service. I am put on hold, but only for a few seconds. A very friendly (probably gay) man answered the phone. I told him in a shaky, panicky voice that I had booked the wrong days for both of my flights. When he asked what days I wanted, he was a little shocked. After several minutes of listening to him say things like, “ok… hmm… let’s see… oh… hmm…” he got me seats on both of the flights that I had originally wanted! AND, he didn’t charge me for any of the changes!!!

SO, this past weekend I went to visit my parents… I had a wonderful time. The surprise worked out very well and we had an enjoyable, relaxing weekend.