A Couple In England – Free Airline Tickets?

You will no doubt recall how thrilled my husband was when I recently let him in on the fact that we’d be flying to England on Christmas Day. One of his first remarks, made just after, “Oh, eh?” was, “How much is this going to cost us?” “Hardly anything at all,” I replied, content in the knowledge that I’d been passing every purchase I conceivably could through my American Airlines credit card.

Recently, I used all the Advantage Miles I’d accumulated in order to book tickets for our flights to England and used the miles for two tickets from Newark to London (I just missed out point-wise on two round trip tix). I figured I’d use cash and buy our return tickets later. When later came, I was shocked and dismayed to find that purchasing two one way tickets home would cost us three times what a round trip ticket would cost. Holy C@@P!!!!

To put it mildly, I had Royally Screwed Up. What to do? What to tell the Hubby, who lingers under the impression that I have everything to do with this trip under control? And that it’s going to be relatively economical? I pondered this dilemma for days, all the while with Alec Baldwin’s voice playing in my head as he laughed maniacally about `blackout dates’ and the horrors of trying to use one’s accumulated miles, much less rearranging them. I remembered every frequent flyer horror story every friend of mine had ever related.

I put off calling American Airlines for days, certain of the fact that no good at all would come from the call and that I would be left with no choice but to triple pay for our airfare. Finally, I worked up my courage and called. And an angel named Betty answered. And listened patiently to my panic stricken tale. And then undid and rearranged my previous travel arrangements, smoothed everything out and only charged me a $150.00 penalty to do so. And all without said Hubby finding out.

Oh, there was one hitch – those dreaded black out dates. It turns out that no frequent flyer seats were available for our planned return date, so now Hubby and I must make the supreme sacrifice and stay in England an extra day.

Betty, you are a star.