Greetings from Cappadocia!
Ian, Cailin, Brooke, Lauren at Tio's -- photo by @aussie_ian
On the final drive from Zetland in the evening, Pat and I still couldn’t believe we would be leaving on Saturday, the next day. We were exhausted already, and Pat said his throat was hurting a bit, which I quickly wrote off as him standing in the bathroom for too long while using strong cleaner.
We were zombies.
Hadn't finished packing toiletries yet...
It’s a fairly monotonous process… open file, click print, open file, click print. I had just started printing off our flight itineraries when I noticed a discrepancy… a rather huge discrepancy.
My flight was set to take off at 3:55 pm on Saturday afternoon, and Pat’s was set to take-off at 10 am on Saturday morning!
How? Why?!
The last time I had checked, we were still on the same flight.
Pat wasn’t even close to being ready for that wake-up call, and we had plans to head out first thing in the morning to grab a few last things.
And most importantly, I wanted us to set off on this adventure – the Silk Roadistan tour – together.
I panicked as I normally tend to do, calling for Patrick who was busy in the other room. His mom was in the TV room and heard the urgency in my voice and aided in calls until he came running.
“Pat, we’re not on the same flight!”
What…
“You’re actually set to fly out at 10 am – that means you’d have to leave here in less than 8 hours!”
I bring him into the computer room to show on the screen with the discrepancy, completely shattered with this stress after such a long day and also frustrated at the idea of having to call the US Airways reservation desk (this was an award booking) – or just having to deal with going on separate flights. Ugh!
We grab the phone and my phone card (Skype never seems to work when I want to call the reservations desk), and I heatedly pound the number out on the keypad. Meanwhile, Pat starts sneezing in the background, followed by intense nose-blowing (he sounds like a fog horn) and more sneezing. I frantically explain what is going on to the phone agent, to which she responds that we were on the same flight, but after a slight schedule change, Pat was moved to an earlier flight. The reasoning for it didn’t seem to make sense, but she continued to mull over the notes to get a better idea of why this might have occurred.
At this point, Pat is sneezing so intensely that I have to shoo him out of the computer room in order to hear the agent.
To think… if I hadn’t checked his flight times, too, we would have showed up at the airport in the afternoon to the bad news that Pat had missed his flight!
The phone agent put me on hold, and I waited what felt like ages until, of course, my phone card ran out of credit. Double ugh!
Over the next few minutes, I add some credit to my card online and call back to get a completely different agent… so I had to explain the situation again to her. She checks the info and lo and behold… the other agent had fixed our flights!
WHEW!
Overcome with joy, I run into the other room that Pat had been banished to in order to tell the news. We’re both really, really excited to have that fixed.
Until Pat drops the bomb that he is really sick.
Seriously?
Yes.
Not exactly what you want to deal with the day before 20 hours of flying. But, at least we got to head out together!
Moral of the story: Always check and double-check your flight itinerary. Add that to the list with “don’t lose your passport“.
American girl left to travel the world in 2007. Studied languages, slept in a yurt, taught English, met Aussie guy and fell in love. Moved to Australia. Calls Sydney home. Wants a puppy. Still loves to travel. Read more 
You were able to get it fixed.. Good on you! Have tons of fun, Brooke, and I hope Pat gets better soon!
Talk about a bullet dodged! I hope the rest of the trip is much smoother, and that the two of you have the adventure of a lifetime.
I always say that trouble right before leaving signals the most incredible trips (and you’ve had your fair share of it)! Have a great time!
Aw man, sounds stressful already! But, at least you got it fixed in time!
So many favorites in that top picture! I miss you guys and the Travel Massive gang. That sucks about the separate flights because I know US Airways is far from a delight to deal with. But I’m glad you arrived safely! Tell Pat Extreme I hope he feels better.
Pat kind of looks nervous in that last shot…
Oh I hate travelling with a cold – its miserable – poor Pat! Funny about the flight mixup – I’ve actually just deliberately (sorta) booked a short break with us on different flights – the first flight was more convenient but I could only get one cheap seat on it. I thought the 2nd one might come free – but no such luck – so partner had to overnight in another town for the nite and arrives about 4 hrs before me. Not a big deal
Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, but… these were our award flights in business class… that I wanted to book so Pat and I could enjoy them together :/ That was why I was frustrated — not to mention that he wasn’t even ready for that wake-up call. Whew. Traveling with a cold is horrible, but luckily his dad is a doctor and is well-stocked on all the latest cold pills and nasal sprays.