Becca Jane St Clair

(X-posted)

I seriously have an awesome friend.

My friend’s mom works for an airline and gets “buddy passes” that can be used on any flight. She talked to her mom, and her mom offered me buddy passes to go to the UK, and for less then what AirIndia was charging me…..AND she’s letting me pay her back after I get my refund from AirIndia.

The caveat is that I have to fly out of Dulles, which is farther from the house than PHL or BWI, but…I already talked to my mom and she’s willing to do it, so I also don’t need to use trains and shuttles anymore to get to the airport (As far as I know, there isn’t a train to Dulles, other than going through DC anyway), which will save us money, because Train+shuttle was going to probably run $100 extra anyway!

God, I love them both so much right now.

I booked my trip to the UK back in August through cheapfareguru.com to fly on AirIndia on Oct 16 out of JFK (getting to LHR Oct 17) and coming home on Dec 22 because my mom wanted me home for Christmas. My flight was US$602, which was perfect for my budget.

They called me today to tell me my flight was canceled and it will take two weeks to get my refund!

The exact conversation went like this:

cgf: Your flight’s been canceled
Me: can you put me on another flight?
cfg: Air India canceled all their flights for the next three months
Me: Can you put me on another airline?
cfg: We can’t apply money paid for one flight to another. We can rebook you using the same card
Me: I don’t have enough money to do that. Did the refund get credited back today?
cfg: It can take two weeks
Me: that’s not acceptable, I need to leave for London on October 16
cfg: We can try to expedite it
Me: Are there any other flights you could put me on after I get my refund and I rebook? Anything in the same price range?
cfg: I will look into it and call you back, but I can only hold a price for three days

…and then I went to their website and the best they have is $760..which I can’t afford right now, and it would even be tight to try to re-book after I get my refund, assuming flights are still that low.

My mom has agreed to letting me stay over through Christmas, so if I can find a cheaper flight that’s longer, that’ll work, but Tim and I have tickets to a show on Oct 21, so I need to be there at least by then. And Tim took leave Oct 17-31 so we could travel, so if I go later, we wouldn’t have that leave available and I wouldn’t actually get to see much of the UK because Tim would be working.

But I can’t book anything until I get my refund. because I don’t have any extra money hanging around to book with.

But the saga gets deeper.

I called cfg back to find out if there were any options. Sam (the guy I talked to) told me I needed to call Air India directly, and gave me their 800 number.

Cue two hours of getting no where. The 800# goes to Bombay, btw, and they have no connection with the New York office. They give me a 212 number, and I call it and get nothing but piano music. So, I call the 800# back. I get another number, but this one goes to a law office in NYC. I call back, get another number that no one answers. I call again, and get another number that goes to the law office. I call the 800# again and ask for a supervisor right away.

Supervisor (which I swear I kept being bounced around. I’d abruptly get told to hold on and then I’d have to re-explain everything) told me that this was all my travel agent (cgf)’s fault, and they couldn’t re-book me because a refund has been issued. I said I hadn’t gotten the refund, so why couldn’t they cancel the refund and re-book me through EWR (which a friend of mine on another message board told me they had been doing to everyone booked with a JFK flight that was cancelled). They told me they couldn’t because of something with cfg. Oh, and this person told me the refund could take two months!

So….I called Sam back and told him what happened. He told me it wouldn’t take two months, and he was trying to get me my refund faster so I could rebook something. He’s calling AirIndia to see what he can do, since all AirIndia would tell me to do was “call your travel agent”.

Tim and I also did some flight hunting before he had to leave for work, and I found a BA flight for $722. The problem is that without the refund, I don’t have $722 to book anything, and if I have to wait 2 weeks? I’m sure the flight will be way more than $722. I mean, I’m supposed to leave in 28 days! 2 weeks for now leaves me with…two weeks to get a flight.

So, I’m at my wits end. I need a way to re-book a flight before the refund comes through and I just don’t have it.

I can’t completely cancel this trip. Tim and I have been looking forward to this and we have tickets to Shakespeare in October and we have loads of plans.

*sigh*

I can’t sleep. Not really because I’m not tired, I am, but because the neighbour came home early this morning and turned on the porch light. The houses are very close here, so close that if I stand on the bed to look out the bedroom window (it’s a high window), I can read the parking permit hanging from the neighbour’s rearview mirror.

I have a horrible time sleeping when there’s lights around that shouldn’t – I even had to tape a piece of electrical tape over the light on my external harddrive in addition to turning it against the wall because it’s light was so bright. If my screensaver goes off in the middle of the night from a cat touching the mouse, It’ll wake me up.

Sarah and Joe have a lot of electronics with lights on them. So many over near the TV that it looks like it should be sending landing signals or something between the green lights, the red lights, the blue lights and the orange lights. Those aren’t bright though, so they haven’t been bothering me…but the worst has been the street lamp outside their living room window and if the neighbour has on their porch light.

I haven’t posted photos of their house, but their house is built much like a studio apartment would be with an alcove on the side for the “bedroom”, and an open area for the kitchen and living room, so I can essentially look out the front window (living room window) from the bedroom as well as the bedroom window. If I really crane my neck, I also can see the kitchen window. It’s a nice set-up, and probably the best way to utilize the small space. I never saw the home before the remodel other than in photos, so I can’t really give a good comparison.

Anyway. So, the bright light from the front can be dealt with by me facing the bedroom wall. Which works, until there’s a light shining in that window.

Surprisingly, I’m okay with falling asleep during the day. I think it’s because the sun is bright in general and isn’t as focused as a street light or porch light. The bad thing is, I really don’t particularly want to be awake right now (at 5AM, there’s nothing to watch on TV and no one to chat with online, and I’m not sure I have the concentration to read right now). The good thing is, once the sun does come up (at 7:19AM!), I’ll be able to get back to sleep.

In July at home, the man across the street put in a bright blue halogen bulb into his lamp post, and the light from that kept me up for three nights in a row until I finally hung a blanket over my window at night.

I really need to invest in some kind of sleep mask, but somehow I’m sort of afraid that if I wear one I wouldn’t wake up if there was an emergency.

…And now the geese are making lots of noise outside. Uuugh, I’m never going to get back to sleep!

So, apparently it’s allergy season in Dauphin. For the past few days I’ve been sneezing non-stop and have had an on and off sinus headache. Wheee. But, the Movie Channel 2 has been showing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, so I’ve been entertained. The nice thing about re-watching this over and over is catching things you didn’t see before….and with the large TV, it’s easier to catch the things in the background.

I’m used to my allergies though. At home sometimes I’d have to take three different kinds of allergy medicine before being able to breathe, so this is pretty mild.

I spent all weekend inside though, and my leg finally feels better. Walking down to the basement sort of hurt this morning, but I don’t have that dull constant pain I was having over the weekend. Yay for no longer falling apart! 😀

Really, I just wanted an excuse to post more cat photos (are you tired of them yet?)

Hobbes and Quincy in a sun spot

Casper, covering his eyes snoozing in the sun spot. He’s snoozing on this padded envelope Sarah and Joe got in the mail last week. I put the envelope on the floor while I was sorting the mail in it and the cats claimed it as their cushion…they all take turns sleeping on it.

Lately Hobbes has been sleeping right up against my side, under my arm. I managed to snag this last night when he had his paws wrapped around Mitch, my UM bear!

My mom sent me some photos of my cat, Will, because I was missing him….and he’s missing me. Last night while mom and I were on the phone I could hear him meowing in the background, and today he kept trying to type while mom was IMing me. He’s also been sleeping under the covers on my bed…I really miss him. I got Will when he was just a wee kitty of barely six weeks old in January 2004….and now he’s catzilla!

Then:

Will perched on my shoulder the first day I got him.

Now:

The city of San Francisco looks mighty tasty.

Yum!*

*No music boxes were harmed in the taking of these photos! 😀

Yesterday was my birthday. This wasn’t the first time I’ve not been home on my birthday (I wasn’t while I was in college or the year I turned 27), but this was the first year I wouldn’t have at least been with close friends or a boyfriend for it. Mom was sneaky – She e-mailed Sarah and asked her about getting a cake delivered, and Sarah suggested she contact C (and this was before C and I met). Mom and C conspired for me to have a birthday celebration at C’s house. Mom also contacted a lot of people I know (family, friends, past co-workers) and asked them to send me e-mail for my birthday, so I had e-mails coming in all day from people I haven’t spoken to in a while. My friends on facebook sent me a lot of messages, and several message boards I frequent had threads wishing me a happy birthday!

So far I’ve received cards from my aunt and Tim, though Tim’s package hasn’t arrived, and I know I at least have a few more cards that haven’t yet come through.

The nicest surprise yesterday was a flower delivery from the cats I’m catsitting with a note that they “promise not to try to eat the flowers and then puke”. hehe. Of course, as soon as I put them down they started munching, so I put the flowers in the shower (it has a door) for the weekend.

Over at C’s, she made me my favourite meal – Spaghetti. We even fed some (pureed) to Baby C. C also made a Cheesecake Pie, and B & L came over with their kids and the kids sang for me.

UPS package is “in transit”. The website says rescheduled for 2 September, but the woman I talked to on the phone seems to think it will be delivered today. I won’t be here though, so J is going to stop by and check for a package since he’s not joining us at the campsite until tonight.

Flowers from the cats (Sarah)

The “what did I just eat” look on Baby C.