June 19, 2008 - Bumps In the Road

Now that I think about it, it did seem a bit too good to be true. We had almost seamlessly booked our non-stop tickets from JFK to BKK (Bangkok) for Oct. 31 - Nov. 17. It was a little iffy trying to get El's miles to cover one of our tickets, but he managed to pull it off, cutting our costs in half. But then, due to the ever-increasing costs of oil, Thai Airways began to cut back on their gas-guzzling flights. More specifically, OUR flight. Needless to say it would have been nice if they had informed us when this actually happened, but instead we found out two weeks later when US Air called to let us know (since the "free" ticket was with Star Alliance).

So, now El's struggling to rebook us. He managed to get his flight transferred to a JFK > LAX > Osaka > BKK route, but my ticket was still "up in the air" so to speak (pun very much intended). One option we have is to keep El on the JFK > LAX > Osaka > BKK route and purchase a new ticket for me from LAX to BKK and use miles to get you to LAX. There was no room left on his route though, so another option would be for me to have to fly JFK > Frankfurt > Singapore > BKK by myself, which to be honest, is really not the option I was hoping for. Especially considering it will be winter and I've heard nightmares about the Frankfurt airport shutting down in the lightest of flurries, and without winter clothes I really don't want to be stranded there! Another option would be for El to cancel his rebooked ticket through Thai Airways and then book two new flights through Cathay Pacific. We would still have to purchase a new ticket and save the miles for something else, but it would actually be cheaper than sending us in different directions around the world.

This was definitely not something we wanted to deal with, and I give El a load of credit for being able to figure these things out. I would have already given up if it were left to me and so I'm thankful that I get to sit here writing about it while he spends hours on the phone with the airlines trying to get us seats on the same plane headed to the same country. I suppose it could be worse, and I know for many people it's a practical nightmare in comparison to our somewhat minor frustration. I can't imagine if we had been booked to go in a few weeks instead of a few months. Things will smooth themselves out, knock on wood, and in 4 months we'll have forgotten all about this crappy event out of pure excitement for our approaching departure.

As of this post, we were able to get the full refund from Thai Air after El went to their office here in NYC (which is closing in two weeks) and we will rebook with Cathay Pacific through Hong Kong (and still get to fly over the north pole!).

To learn more about these recent events, please read this article.