Arg. I’ve spent the past two weeks happily looking forward to a trip this weekend to Saalon‘s, to spending a good three days out of town with my best friend and another good friend. Of just hanging out.
A couple of days ago, I realized that my tickets had not yet arrived. Since I made the reservations on the 29th, they should have arrived by now. So, I went out walking today, called up CheapTickets.com and, after being routed through the service several times, I promptly waited on hold for nearly twenty minutes.
Even better, their hold music consisted of exactly one song, a folky guitar piece. The song wasn’t bad; it simply looped incessantly. At least they didn’t interrupt it every thirty seconds with a soothing female voice that tricks you into thinking you finally got off hold, but turns out to be an advertisement.
Then I finally got through to their tech support, where I discovered that my Visa card had denied the transaction. When this occurred — approximately 4.3 seconds after I had happily received my confirmation page on CheapTickets.com — the service had been kind enough to hold the transaction and
So I am faced with an unpleasant choice: (1) Forget about the trip. (2) Get on the web tonight (violating my ban, but eh…it’s the spirit of the thing), simultaneously call Saalon, arrange another set of good times to arrive and depart, and spend something close to USD $300 for a much longer flight which will now include a connection at LaGuardia. Neither of these are particularly pleasant alternatives.
But, of course, we aren’t guaranteed pleasant lives. I’ve got to decide whether I’m willing to spend the significant extra cash and inconvenience of the flight. Hmmmmmmmm.
I think I’m flying this weekend.