The Adventures of a Rally Roadie

We’re leaving for Finland. I was supposed to do the 2020 Alcan 5000 but I wasn’t needed for staff and although I have a great offer to compete in the rally, I decided to pass for the first time in years. I didn’t have a co-driver, Barbara wasn’t too keen to be a co-driver again and I was really having trouble getting any enthusiasm for driving back and forth across the continent again.

Barbara, on the other hand, said she still wanted to see the Northern Lights and we had talked about possibly going to Yellowknife (one of the best places in North America to see them.) The problem with Yellowknife is that I’ve been there a few times in the past and there’s nothing to do there other than drive the Diamond Road (been there) and, in early March, see he Ice Castle (done that.) That left going to Scandinavia to see the Aurora. We chose Finland.

So last night, I notice the our flight across the Atlantic (Atlanta to Amsterdam) was in Economy. I though I had select Comport Plus which, on Delta, gives a few more inches of leg room and is a bit more comfortable. Go online to Delta.com and change the seats to Comfort+. The seat chart shows plenty of available Comfort+ seats. What could possibly go wrong. As usual, something can always go wrong. Fate is quite inventive.

I select 2 new seats which have a cost for the upgrade. I put in the credit card info and click on Submit. Oops, an error. I try again. And again. And again.

What Delta’s computer has done is remove our original seat assignments, assign Barbara to a Comfort+ seat as requested and completely abandoned me. A new error message says that they cannot complete the request and and to call an 800 number.

I call the number, get a very nice agent who listens politely and starts working on the problem. She finds B’s seat assignment and sees that I don’t have a seat assignment. Unfortunately, she can’t complete the seat assignment and says that I have to be transferred to the International desk to complete the assignment.

It takes quite a while for the phone transfer to take place but eventually I get an International agent and he starts working on the problem. He has problems and has to put me on hold for “a few minutes” to work on it. Every few minutes, he comes back on the phone to thank me for being patient and puts me back on hold.

Eventually, he tells me that we’ll have to try to fix the problem at the airport. He apologizes profusely. I thank him for trying. An hour and a half gone. Still no seat.

So now it’s 10:30 AM and we’re headed to the airport so that we have 2 full hours to work on my seat assignment before we have to board for the flight to Atlanta. Katti drives us to the airport. Out of the car and into the terminal. Schlep down to the empty Delta counter. Explain the problem and hope.

The first thing we hear is “We can’t fix the problem here. You have to do it in Atlanta.” Grrrr. I give her our passports, she types away and the boarding pass printer comes to life. Out come the boarding passes with new seat assignments INCLUDING the Atlanta to Amsterdam leg. Surprise! The only explanation from the agent is “They must have solved the problem after they got off the phone.” Whatever.

The only wrinkle, a new one, is that there are no boarding passes for the last leg of the trip, Amsterdam to Helsinki. Instead of boarding passes there’s a printer slip telling us to get our boarding passes in Amsterdam. Whatever. We board and we’re on our way to Helsinki.

Obi-wan