June 11, 2023
About our flight
This entry is out of sequence, but a friend contacted me after yesterday’s post, concerned that perhaps we had a family emergency so I thought we should let folks know not to worry about us. Nothing as serious as a crisis in the family fortunately, but stressful enough. Now that we (hopefully) have a resolution to our situation I might as well write it up while it’s fresh in my mind.
Not that we’re likely to forget.
We’re in Padua, sitting around in the room of our B&B after biking down from Bassano. I’m lapping up the farcical news from Mar-a-Lago (the details of Trump’s latest indictment were revealed last night) when a shriek is heard from the other side of the room. Rachael (fortunately) was looking up the schedule for our flight departure in three days on Expedia, but it’s missing. The only upcoming flights listed on our account are our September flight to Bilbao, and one for Wednesday evening from Vancouver to PDX. There’s nothing at all about our flights from Bologna to Vancouver via Frankfurt, and the final leg from Vancouver isn’t even for the right day. Something has gone terribly wrong, something we’ll worth the shriek.
After we both attempt unsuccessfully to look up our flight on Expedia through every method we can think of I go back through my email history to see what we’ve heard from Expedia about this flight which we booked in December soon after returning from Nice. The last correspondence I can find was for a minor change to the final leg, way back in February before we left for Palermo. Here’s the flight plan we’ve assumed we’re booked for:
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Nothing to be done but to call Expedia, which we do immediately. The first number we call, the one listed on their site for urgent questions, is no longer in service. We look again and find a different number, for calling collect from overseas. This one works, and surprisingly within two minutes I’m talking to a real live person, one who speaks well and clearly in English, inspires confidence, and is courteous and patient.
Unfortunately, the news he delivers is not good. The Expedia website is accurate, and we have no flight from Bologna. Trying to remain calm, we inquire how that could be and why we weren’t notified of whatever change caused this result. I don’t think he really knows why it happened, but he thinks the Air Canada flights were cancelled and there was a notification failure - maybe we missed an email to pick a replacement? I don’t think so though.
Not that it matters now though. The agent turns to looking for a replacement itinerary for us, and I tell him it needs to get us to Portland on the 13th because I have an early morning doctor’s appointment the next day (for my echocardiogram). He puts us on hold and returns about five minutes later with a candidate for our acceptance. It sounds fine to us, so he puts us on hold again while he tries to book it for us.
It can’t be booked, we find out five minutes later when he’s back. He’s found another though which we also quickly accept, and he’s gone again to try his luck with that one. Another wait, and when he returns he says it looks like it’s available but he can’t book it without calling Air Canada (who sold the original tickets) to authorize their replacement. He says it could take two or three hours, so he takes our phone number and email address so he can notify us when it’s been resolved.
With nothing else to be done for now but sweat and fret, I work on the blog and Rachael rushes outside to look for a restaurant for dinner. She returns at 6:45 with the news that we have a reservation at Vecchia Padova for 7:00. We notify Suzanne and Janos, and ten minutes later the three of us are struggling to keep Rachael in our sights as she races down the street ahead of us.
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The four of us are seated at a back table in the large, nearly empty restaurant. We’re lucky Rachael found us a reservation here on such short notice on a Saturday night though, because it’s not long before the place is filling up. While we wait for our meals we look around at Vecchia Padova’s very impressive junk collection.
It seems like it must be about time for our meals to arrive when Rachael’s phone rings with the callback from our Expedia agent. Rachael springs out of her chair and dashes out to a quieter part of the room so she can hear the news, while I grab the camera and follow her.
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The news is good. We’re rebooked, and the agent will wait until we receive the confirmation email. Rachael can’t bring it up, so we go out to an intersection in the street where hopefully the WiFi signal will be stronger. It’s still not sufficient, so he gives us an Air Canada confirmation number we can look up later and then waits while I dash into the open door of the nearest cafe to grab a napkin and pen to write it down.
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So we’re allegedly booked, though we can’t see the proof yet. It comes when I check the email again while we’re eating dinner:
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So, all is good - at least as far as we know. As the Great Yogi once told us though, it ain’t over till it’s over. We’ll know for sure when we arrive in Portland Tuesday evening. And for that matter, we’re still going on faith that our (Suzanne and Janos’, actually) suitcases are waiting for us at our hotel in Bologna so we can take the bikes along for the ride. Time will tell. In the meantime, let’s have a last round of desserts and espressos with our friends before calling it a tour.
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