Trouble in Paradise
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007Who would have thought the biggest challenge I would face would be simply returning home.
I am now sitting in an internet cafe in the Tuban neighborhood near Kuta Beach in Bali. The weather is gorgeous, albeit hot, and not a cloud in the sky. I am waiting an hour and a half for Skype to finish downloading so I can contact Expedia about my case# and once and for all figure out my plan for tonight.
My mom has been on the phone with supervisors at expedia while I have been emailing and dealing with Japan Air and Northwest here on the island. The latest information from my home is that I am to show up at the airport tonight with a 6 digit confirmation code and my identification and there should be no problems. It isn’t the norm for Japan Airlines to take an e-ticket but this will be an exception. Well, I decided I wanted to go to the airport early today to find out if this is going to work but there were no Japan Airlines counters open and the one for my flight isn’t till 8pm tonight. My flight is at midnight. It is now 3:30pm. So I go into the main office for Japan Air at the airport and spoke with the woman who couldn’t help me the first time. She got me in contact with reservations and the woman basically told me they couldn’t do anything with the confirmation code and that I need to contact Northwest Airlines because it isn’t their problem to deal with. I tried to explain that this is what Expedia put together to fix my problem and that they were already in contact with both Jap and NWA.
I had already contact NWA 2 days ago since they have an office on the island. Their systems weer down so she told me she would call me back. I tried a few times and didn’t get an answer and this afternoon NWA called me at my hotel to tell me they need me to come out to the otherside of the island which is about an hour by taxi and file a police report indicating a lost ticket. I would then have to go to the NWA office and have them issue me a paper ticket. This is all well and good but I am nowhere near that part of the island, the taxi is expensive both ways and the NWA office closes in 1.5 hours.
So, I now sit here with only the hopes that Expedia’s plan for me to show up at the ticket counter to check-in with the confirmation code will be enough. I am hoping that the people I talked to today in the Japan Airlines were just unknowledgable of the situation. I will get to the airport as soon as the ticket counter for my flight opens which is 8pm. I have to check out of my hotel at 6. If I can’t get on this flight with my ticket I may have to purchase a brand new full fare that Expedia claims they will refund me. The only bright side of all this is that I may be getting a first class seat if all of economy class is full.
I just want to get home though really.
Joey