Comments on attempting to book airline tickets (aka talking to India)

Holy Crap!!

We are going to NYC. Yes, that's right, NYC. So we decided to book the tickets ASAP so that we can get this show on the road what with all of the other little trips we have planned this summer.

We thought this would be an easy venture, but 3 hours later, we're having a whole different experience.....

It all started when Lisa got online at delta.com. I should mention that Lisa's job is organizing travel, which she is quite good at doing. But Delta was thwarting our efforts. Anyway....She found the flights we wanted and she attempted to purchase, but every time she got to the end of the purchase the site went down. Lisa called Delta to find out if there's something wrong with the site.

Call #1 to India-pretty unfruitful, and Lisa had trouble with the language (broken English).

So I decided to try. But first I had to find my Delta Sky Miles card (heaven forbid I miss out on miles). Unfortunately, my card is missing. I had to call Delta.

Call #2 to India-I did pretty good with this one, I was able to make out all the words and I got my sky miles number and all-but communication broke down at the end when they asked if I wanted an american express card. All I understood was american express card and 17,000 free miles. No thank you.

So I got online, and after several failed attempts I was able to book a flight. Yea! Lisa's turn

Lisa gets on and books her flight. No big deal. Then she goes to book Emily's flight. After trying to do that for 20 minutes she looks at her itinerary and realizes that the flight she booked for herself ended up being on May 16th at 12:30 am, not May 15th at 12:30am. What the $@!&? We rechecked those dates every single time we looked them up.

Call #3 to India:

This call lasted 3 hours and 15 minutes between me and Lisa. Some highlights from the call:

** Lisa asks the lady if it would be cheaper to book her and Emily separately (Lisa will be blogging this so look for it to pop up in the next few days)

** Lisa gets told there is a problem with her card (since there were already 2 flights on her card she had hit her limit) I hand over my card (thank goodness I have a large line of credit on there). And frantically search on delta.com to see if it's cheaper for me to cancel there (it's not, it's $20 over the phone, $100 over the internet)

**Lisa asks the lady if I can talk to her

**I can't understand the lady and have to bite my tongue to keep from busting up laughing

**The broken english pronunciation of my email address (jjannoyed@hotmail.com) is hilarious

**The lady says something and all I understand is that I'm going to be charged a $75 cancellation fee because it's after midnight. I said it's 12:05, I booked that flight 30 minutes ago, I am not paying a cancellation fee (Ok ma'am let me verify please hold)

**There is a problem with my card (homegirl didn't understand 2880 Summit) and I'm asked to hold again

**Meanwhile we notice that Emily's original flight (the wrong one) was never cancelled and we get that all straightened out-I mean didn't the lady think that maybe we didn't need overlapping flights?

**We are finally successful in obtaining tickets and it's 12:30A.M. Lisa's taking out her oppressed anger on her tupperware and we both can't stop laughing. At least we find it funny. This trip better be worth it-hopefully this is the last bump in the road.......