Irish Adventures

I leave for Tblisi tomorrow morning, so here's my favorite picture from Ireland. I arrived in Dublin last Tuesday afternoon. Due to major fog in London, my flight was over two hours late. Combine with that lacksadaisical planning of both Sarah and me, her cell phone mysteriously not working, and it took awhile for us to connect at the airport. No big fiascos though.

My only minor fiasco was in the Atlanta airport where I could barely keep my balance with all my luggage before I checked my backpack. Channel 11 Alive News interviewed me because my pack was "as big as me." Whatever, dumbass, at least he called me a seasoned traveller. Actually, it was funny, and a nice diversion from realizing that I hadn't brought Sarah's address to put on my luggage tage. I called my Dad from the airport to get it, and it was exhausting trying to hold the phone, balance my bags, and write the address all at the same time.

And of course, I hadn't tested to be sure the pack would fit into the overbag. It was too big, so I had to re-distribute some clothes out of the pack into my violin backpack case and messenger bag. In the process, I lost the one gift I had to open on Christmas, and my sister's, too. BUMMER. I'm still sad about those presents. The FIRST thing I did in Dublin was eliminate a big stack of clothes. Yes, Les, you were right, though, not quite half:).

The pics aren't really sorted, but the first half are mostly from Killarney/Ring of Kerry. Then after the pic of us in the hostel, they're all from Galway/Cliffs of Moher (pronounced moor). Sarah also took a couple pictures of me playing in a traditional session of Irish music in a Galway pub called The Crane. I'll add that one later.

Atlanta Photos

Here are some pictures from the going away party. Thanks everyone, for coming!! Thus far, I'm using ofoto.com, but I may switch. I also included a few pictures that were on my camera from before the party. My questions about the picture below: whose face is that? what am I looking at?

SAGA

Ok, so I'm here in Ireland, love it, Europe is my new home, at least for the time being. 'nough said. Pics and details will come later. But here's the Travelocity SAGA of which most people caught the tail end.

Here goes.....in mid-October, I bought two separate tickets: one set from Atlanta to Dublin (12/18) and back from Prague to Atlanta, and another set from Dublin to Tblisi (with a connecting flight in Moscow) and Tblisi to Prague (also with a Moscow layover, but less relavant). As soon as I email my itinerary to PCVGE (aka FannyC), she informs me that a flight from Moscow to Tblisi won't work because of political tensions.

No biggie, I can handle that. I call Travelocity who sold me the ticket to change my route. They say, "no, relax, if the flight is cancelled, I'll be put on a new flight. No changes are allowed." Bullshit. But, ok, I relax and trust that 'they'll take care of me.' Once again, bullshit.

Finally, right after Thanksgiving, I get an email from Travelocity saying my flight cannot be confirmed and to call immediately. I do as told, call, then they inform me that I will be issued a refund within 5 days of them receiving my paper ticket. And that's the best option they can offer me. I FedEx the ticket and call the next day WITH THE TRACKING NUMBER, saying it had arrived at 8am. Of course it has to go through processing, but here's where I switch to the angry customer.

Not only will they not recognize that it has arrived, but they also change the refund timeline from 5 days to 15-30 days. I enlist my co-worker's assistance and she gets me beyond the call center into "REAL" customer service.

There, I speak to someone who claims to have the power to make something happen but ultimately gives the same solution as the guys at the call center: refund in 15-30 days. About this time, another co-worker has given me info off hoovers.com, which provides the phone and fax numbers for the top three executives for essentially any big corporation in the world. First I start leaving messages for the CEO. I included a complaint letter with my returned ticket, but I realize that it probably got tossed.

Doesn't take long before I realize that my phone calls will not be returned, so I start dialing every extension possible until I talk to a human being in the Executive Office. This lady, and Exec Asst if very sympathetic, listens very well, hears my frustation, yada, yada, yada. She connects me back to the supervisor of the woman who told me REFUND.

I could have been FINE with a refund, but not after I'd already left for Dublin. At this point, it seems very clear that I'm getting the run-around, passed around, and no help. I call Travelocity's parent company ( I forget the name at the moment)....Sabre Holdings, YES!!

I call there, insist on speaking with a person, but still end up leaving a message. The lady calls me back and says she's "knocked on some doors," but that the two people above the lady I've been working with are out of the country.

At this point, it's very clear that I'm getting the run-around and I become even more irrate. I harass them to the point that by the end of the week, the lady threatens that no one will return my calls if I keep calling. And I know (as my hunch had already suggested) that I have made a name for myself in that office.

That same afternoon (a Friday), the EA that was sympathetic calls to schedule a conference call with the Sr. VP of Customer Relations and the Director of Support Specialists (the two higher-ups who'd been who'd be returning to the country on Monday from Manila.) I reluctantly agree.

Since my previous approach of angry customer had yet to yield results, I consulted with a friend whom I discovered got a refund by simply writing a letter. My letter and phone calls had been fruitless so far. I sent Quickee my complaint letter and he TORE IT UP. He reminded me that the whiny customer never gets anywhere but booted out of a business. Polite, firm, and courteous customers get what they want.

So after major revisions in my letter, approach, and attitude, I emailed a new letter to the CEO as well as the head of marketing for Travelocity at Vollmer PR. And yes, I included the two people who'd be conducting the conference call. I also sent it to the lady I'd been in contact with at Sabre Holdings.

I had my sales attitude ready. I was going to make my case, ask what they'd do to make it right, and wait. Quickee made it very clear that I couldn't be the one to break the silence. It never even got to that point. When they finally called, I was very polite and conversational. Then the SVP went straight into what she saw as the best option.

The put me on a new flight and ate the $500 difference from my original ticket price. The flight times changed, but I was totally prepared for and fine with that probability.

Then, on Monday, 12/18, the day I left for Ireland, the details changed again. But at least this time, I had a direct line to the woman who dreaded talking to me and knew to make me happy at all costs:). So it's resolved again. And I get to spend New Year's with my two best friends from high school, well, and one for the past 25 yrs really. Yay!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Stay Tuned!

Only 15 days until I leave for my Big Adventure!! The really exciting blogs are coming up when I'll be describing my experiences. It'll be an attempt to keep as many friends as possible updated on my life while writing as few personal descriptive emails as possible. No offense to anyone, but I have never been a reliable correspondent. This is my new and improved alternative. I actually enjoy blogging. I'm ecstatic about the opporutnity to take zillions of pictures of everything I see and post them, so I won't have to try to "remember" everything in my head.

Almost all of my furniture has left the apt. I'm storing a small bookshelf and handy plastic storage containers, so I'll have them when/if I return.

My going away party is next weekend, and a ton of really fun people are coming. I'm going to get a Sweetwater Keg and build a fire out back, so we won't be crammed into my relatively tiny apt. I've got various peeps in charge of music and liquor. I decided to not bother with legit speakers and just blast my little computer speaker plug-ins. I'm more concerned w/ good music variety, so that's set.

My roommate says she'll decorate, so we'll see what happens with that. I've got a friend of mine planning a 100% vegan "menu" with me. Totally AWESOME!!!! For once, people have replied to an Evite. Very encouraging. At this point, I'm totally psyched for all of it!

TWO WEEKS!!!! And I'll be in Ireland! Then Georgia! Then Prague! And who knows where else I'll go. We're already planning a trip to Kiev, Ukraine because we'll have a week in Prague before the Beast's classes start!! Woohooo!! I'm REALLY excited about living with the Beast and her super cool friend(s) in her Masters Program. Pretty liberating to anticipate almost three months of being cell phone and car-free!

Oh!!! And get this shit!!! Ok, so everyone knows I just bought a cheap digi camera and iPod shuffle specifically for this excursion. Well, the one drawback I couldn't afford to fix was having to download music and photos onto public or friends' computers. BUT, Friend, from Coincidence? (turns out he's not the Sevananda dude, but still friggin' awesome guy), happens to be a computer geek and offered to loan me his spare Apple laptop. WOW!!! I couldn't be more grateful! I have several friends who are willing to loan me cds to download to his hard drive, so I can rotate my own selections on the Shuffle.

Originally, I expected to be at the mercy who had iTune libraries that included something comparable to my taste to share. But that kind of sucked because it appeared that every time I'd get music off a new machine, I'd have to erase all the previous songs. Whatever, I'm not a computer person enough to try to think about how it all works. I'm good at playing around when I need to in order to solve a problem, but beyond the actually problem-solving, I don't bother to remember most of what I learn about the processes and capabilities.

Life is good. Later, I may elaborate on my Travelocity drama. It will work out to my advantage quickly. They're eating the cost and calling me Monday with new ticket info. CEO Michelle Peluso's Executive Assistant was responsive and took prompt action, so I'm confident that they will take care of me. I doubt it'll be necessary, but if I need to, I'll call Sam Gilliland, CEO at Sabre Holdings if I'm not satisfied with Monday's resolution. Hoo-rah for hoovers.