Skiing??...Ha! and other tales from the week...

So from previous posts, you might have ascertained that I planned on going skiing this past weekend. Well....I didn't. Here's the story.

We drove to Dallas Thursday night and spent the night at my parents house. We got up at the butt-crack of dawn to drive to DFW airport to make our flight. We get there and of course there is a horrible line and we were running a little late due to traffic. So Jeff and I stood there and made fun of all the old people who were scared to use the electronic check-in thing. Of course then as soon as we get up there, it doesn't work for us...so we've just become the people that we were making fun of in line. A lady behind the counter helps us and then checks our bags for us and we continue to security check.

At this point in time, we are kind of in a rush to get to the terminal because we were in a crunch and Jeff wanted to get breakfast before we left. So, of course I get stopped and my carry-on gets searched. I ALWAYS GET SEARCHED!!! I swear I must look so middle class, suburbanite that I must be a terrorist. We cross security to hear that our flight has been delayed due to bad weather in phoenix (where our connecting flight was). Perfect! We went and ate breakfast, took our time, talked about the issues, etc. Finally, we go and hang out at the gate and wait while they start boarding. To avoid all the lines, we just waited till one of the last boarding calls to get in line.

Jeff goes to the ticket lady and she lets him through and then she looks at my ticket and she stops me and says, "Where is your paper ticket?"

I was like huh? paper ticket? I have my flight itinerary? She then continued, "You are going to have to go to the counter and talk to that guy about getting a paper ticket. You do not have an e-ticket..see no E. You just have a boarding pass."

Jeff comes back and tells her that he has the same ticket. She gives him back his stub and sends us back to the counter with minutes before the plane is supposed to depart.

We go and talk to the guy and yes we were supposed to have paper tickets with us and should not have been issued boarding passes without them. And no, we could not purchase new paper tickets or work out a deal that would prove that we belonged on the plane. And to top it off, no the tickets were non-refundable at that point and could not be used to purchase a seat on a later plane.

What had happened was we bought the tickets and forgot that the confirmation said that we would be receiving paper tickets because everyone does e-tickets now. My apartment complex signed for the fed-ex package and fed-ex did not notify me that I had received anything. So the tickets that we needed while in Dallas had been sitting in my apartment complex leasing office for over 2 weeks in Austin. We couldn't' even claim a lost ticket because everyone knew exactly where they were.

Oops indeed! And worse yet, our bags ended up on the flight. So, my bag went to California and I stayed in Texas....does this seem fair to you?!? I at least got mine back on Sunday. Jeff didn't get his back until Wednesday.

Needless to say, I was very disappointed with the lack of vacation. We ended up spending the day in Dallas and visiting with the family. I ended up calling work and asking for my vacation days back which I was able to do. Jeff on the other hand had to take his vacation days because of how the system works at Dell. So the ski trip ended up being a waste of time and money. Never use AmericaWest and now I have serious reservations about Orbitz too!! I want my money back but I don't know how to go about placing the blame in order to get it done!

So I said other news from the week would be included...but I'm fatigued and I'm sure this is a fair weighty chunk of blogging to ingest in one sitting. I'll try and post later today with more news.