American Airlines makes it all better

We have put so much preparation into this trip.  All the details had to be carefully organized.  The visa could only be issued 90 days in advance.  But it was dependant on a background check, physical examination, and other paperwork that could be no less than 30 days old.  Madigan had to be examined by a veterinarian and then that paperwork had to be approved by the USDA office; all of which had to be done less than 10 days before she traveled.  My car had to be sold, but only after we could get away with having only one method of transportation.  The apartment had to be emptied and cleaned, keys turned in…but only after four days of cleaning and the selling of several pieces of furniture.

You’d think that after we managed to negotiate all those obstacles, the actual traveling would be the easy part.  We never expected to show up at SFO and find our flights cancelled.

We got a little bit of a late start in the morning, but we had left ourselves plenty of time.  First stop, Marina Cove Apartments to turn in the keys (I won’t even go into what a pain-in-the-ass they have been).  Next, up to Fremont to drop off Madigan with Con & Judy.  THANK YOU to my big brother for taking my baby for the night and waking up at the crack of dawn to get her to the airport at 5:45am!!

Everyone was home at Con’s.  Connor woke up from his nap and was all smiles.  Leila and Jackson say my name…for the first time…ever.  When we see them again, Conner will be learning to talk, and the twins will be speaking in complete sentences.

Next, we’re off to Eddie’s Grandpa’s house to drop off the car and get a ride to the airport from Uncle Tony.  As we try to check in curbside, the guy looks confused.  “We don’t have a 3:05 flight,” he says.  We go inside.  The woman at the counter can’t find it either.  Apparently, the flight from LA to Madrid has been cancelled and we were never notified (check Eddie’s side of the blog to read about that hell).  When we get to LA we learn that Iberia airlines crew was on strike in LA.  We just got lucky!

The woman, whose name we never learned, saved our day.  She re-arranged everything and put us on a flight from SF to LA to London to Madrid.  And didn’t charge us extra (except the bag fee which we had to pay anyway).  THANK YOU to that stranger for putting the last piece of our puzzle together!!

Finally on the plane and the drink service starts.  I order a Bloody Mary, my standard plane drink J  The attendant gives me two little bottles of vodka as I hand over my credit card.  “Two for the price of one today,” she says, smiling.

I thank her by saying, “I gotta tell you, our travel day started off horribly, and American Airlines has made it 100% better.”

When she asked why, I explained—the cancelled international flight, the dog already in transit, the woman who fixed it all.  And then, she handed back my credit card.  “Then I’m buying this one.”  THANK YOU to our flight attendant for a free double!

And now we sit in the “sports bar” in the international terminal at LAX, waiting for our overnight to London.  Futbol is on one TV, in Spanish.  Dog the Bounty Hunter is on A&E, in English, on the other TV.  Here we are in Limbo.