One of the great sacrifices we made as a family this past year was not going traveling anywhere for a holiday. After making the necessary pilgrimage home with the babies (twins) when they were just 2 months old, we decided that any trip would feel like work until the kids were more mobile, communicative, and (God willing) out of diapers. Having nearly achieved the first two already, and with plans to move them onto the potty soon, we decided to make arrangements for a trip the USA over the coming summer months.

After an 18-month self-imposed travel ban, Savvy, Reina (nearly 7!) and I are all looking forward to getting out of Beijing as a family. Besides, the grandparents have dropped enough hints that photos and calls are nice, but they want to see their grandkids again.

All of this led me to quickly pull the trigger on some tickets this past week on a national carrier that shall remain nameless. Let’s just say they have plenty of flights through Vancouver with convenient connections to Portland, Oregon. Everything went smooth enough as I began booking our tickets on their maple leafed website until I tried to enter in the information for the boys who will still be under the age of two at the time of the flight. Although there is a drop down category for children under two, I was instructed to leave this blank and then simply call the airline’s toll free number to make their reservation after securing the reservation for my wife, daughter, and me. Odd, but okay. I have a vague recollection of doing something similar when flying with this particular airline before.

Funny story. You would think an airline would be eager to take your money by any means necessary: online, phone, fax – heck, bring cash to the airport – you name it, we will take it. However, this seems to not be the case with Air Canada (oops). Every time I call, the recorded greeting advises me (more than once) that I can probably get the tickets for less online. Worse, it keeps telling me, no matter the time of day, that they are experiencing more calls than usual and that wait times are obscenely long. How long can it be, I thought? Fortunately, with the advent of tracking technology, a soothing voice tells me each time I call what the average wait time will be. So far, the shortest wait time I’ve heard is between 31 and 47 minutes, but one time it was telling me over 2 hours. Who stays on hold for 30 minutes, let alone 2 hours? I’d forget I had even called by then and would probably have wandered off by the time an actual ticketing agent (no doubt overworked) took my call.

And so, despite being told that a customer service rep would eagerly take my call if I could just while away an hour or so of my time by listening to a loop of messages and Muzak, I keep hanging up and trying later. Maybe it’s just the weather or the holidays, but whatever the reason, I’ve got six months to get it sorted. So for now, the airline will just have to wait patiently to get the rest of our money.

Photos courtesy of Chris Makarsky (Flickr)

Planning for our summer back home takes a long, long time. We have no home base, and every family member lives in a different state. There hardly seem to be any direct flights these days, and…well…procrastination did not work in my favor. I took care of the international flights earlier, but the domestic parts were more like a very complicated puzzle to be pieced together.

After doing the initial legwork online, I called the airline and was immediately introduced to “Bob.” You never know what kind of personality you’re going to get on the other end of the line, so I decided to test the waters by starting with “Bob, we’re going to be on the phone together for a while…” I could tell almost immediately that he could handle this and wouldn’t be a disgruntled employee along the way.

Instead, I got the extreme opposite.

In between waiting for computers, asking seat assignment preferences, and providing frequent flyer miles, I learned many things about Bob:

*His 16-year old dog died a few days earlier, and seeing the dog’s picture beside his cubicle made Bob very sad. But he’s had good luck with long-living dogs, having one live to be 21 and another to 15, so he feels fortunate.
*Bob used to work (sing/dance) on Broadway, although he neglected to tell me what he was in. Because of this, he was participating in some music video his employer was creating the next day. He was grateful for mild weather these days because it was going to be a grueling “fun” day.
*Several times, Bob told me that he graduated college the year I was born, so I can guess how old he is. That often went back to the dancing on Broadway, and why the next day would be so tough.
*Bob apparently has a high IQ, although our Skype kind of cut out when he told me exactly how high. He did, however, say that he had made some very smart investments over his lifetime and was quite wealthy, having homes in California, New York and a large one in Minneapolis, all paid for.
*Having worked for Delta (and previously Northwest) for many years, during the merger Bob received a few round trip tickets anywhere, but he’s never desired to come to Asia. I tried, but don’t think I convinced him otherwise.
*Bob was working a 16 hour shift, and was close to his 15th hour when I called. He took his friend’s shift so she could have Memorial Day off, but he was getting tired.
*When the phone rang with still an hour and a half left on the clock, Bob was worried that it would be a customer complaining about a flight. Instead, he got me. At first I wasn’t sure if he meant that as a compliment or not, but after realizing that he rather enjoyed chatting me up, I think my nightmare flight schedule rather intrigued him and helped the time pass more quickly. He bid me a nice day in Beijing, and that was that.

Bob. I have to say that he’s one I’ll remember. He was certainly customer-friendly and handled my requests. Humble, he wasn’t, but that really had nothing to do with my flights…just more of my Skype time. But if learning about him helped him help me, I was all for it.

Thanks, Bob, for piecing together the puzzle of my summer vacation.

Photo by virtualpilot88 of flickr.