Amazing Race: Mischiefmakers style

So...we were all set to fly to Trinihubby's native Trinidad for the Christmas holidays on Christmas eve. We arrived at the airport three hours early for our international flight. We handed our itinerary to the Delta ticket agent who acknowledged that indeed there were four seats plus an infant ticket reserved on that flight...but, they needed to see our PAPER TICKETS!! EXQUEEZE ME!?!? The flight had changed and the stupid Cheaptickets.com site we purchased them from NEVER BOTHERED TO SEND US UPDATED TICKETS! We assumed that in this electronic age that we wouldn't need to be sent new ones but that our tickets would be acknowledged electronically.

I mean, we booked those tickets in April because we knew we had to purchase so many and at that time the fuel prices was causing ticket prices to rise astronomically. We resolved to drive up to New York city to catch a flight from JFK International in Queens to save ourselves nearly $1000.00 in the extra fare we would have had to pay to fly out of DC.

In any event, we were told to contact cheaptickets.com (BIG MISTAKE. EVERYONE NEVER USE THIS SERVICE EVER IF YOU CAN AVOID THEM) and to get our ticket numbers.

We called and were given our ticket numbers but told that since we didn't have paper tickets we would have to go to Caribbean Airlines and pay them a small fee to print out new paper tickets.

What?? After being on hold for 40 minutes and talking to 3 different agents, we had eaten away our early arrival and had to witness dozens of passengers pass us and go through security! To save time to go to the Caribbean Airlines ticketing in an entirely different Concourse that was like 1/4 mile away, I opted not to take the Air Tran which was a timely trek to get to. We figured the time saved to make our flight would be worth spending the money on a cab! Yes, a cab! Instantly, my mind went to episodes of Amazing Race because it did seem ridiculous to have to stoop to such levels to save time.

In any event, the cab driver was royally pissed to lose his place in line to a 4 minute fare. I even offered to pay while the meter ran and gave him a $5.00 tip to circle the airport. Well you know rude arse New Yorkers, that joker opted not to wait. &%@#@43 Hrmph!

I get to the Caribbean Ticket and am immediately discouraged by the sour faced, non-helpful persons behind the counter who had no inkling of customer service. They did not acknowledge customers' presence, took their sweet time to do their tasks and acted as if they were doing us a favor to serve us rather than doing their jobs that we pay them to do.

Long story short, they refused to print the tickets even though they had the printer and capacity to do so. They gave us some song and dance about having to get authority from Trinidad to do so and b/c it was Christmas eve no one was there. See right there? That is reason #1 to go with a reputable internation airlines with quality customer service standards and access to managers 24 hours.

I opted to go back to join my family and see what options we had but I got lost in the airport and spent another 45 minutes trying to find my way back while having a supervisor with Cheaptickets.com on the phone. Those bastards refused to issue us electronic tickets so we could catch our flight. They acknowledged their mistake but for some reason did not have the capacity and would not eat the cost of new tickets!

All that time wasted and especially with three small children including an infant, they still did not do it.

We decided to hitch our stuff on one of those smart ride thingy ma bobs and try to catch the stand by Caribbean Airlines flight that was set to depart at 1am. Meanwhile, Cheaptickets.com supervisors stayed on the phone with me because they were going to make one last effort to get the lazy ass Caribbean Airlines staff persons to print the tickets.

No such luck. I put the rep on the phone via my cell phone and she and the Carib Airlines supervisor got in a shouting match.

The worse was it that the Caribbean Airlines person offered to put us on standby and claimed to call the managers of the next shift to explain our position. That heifer plain out lied. Trinihubby stayed to wait in line and we called his cousins in Brooklyn to come pick me and the kids up so we could unwind at his cousin's home while we wait.

The imp wouldn't bother to tell us that the flight was overbooked and we had a snowball's chance in hell of getting on the flight. The two young people on the next shift too never bothered to tell us that it would be highly unlikely for us to catch the next flight. I mean they saw us with three small children (the kids and I returned around 10pm and waited until 1:15 when they told us Stand by would open up) and they didn't have the cohones, smartness and common courtesy to tell us straight up so we can make an informed decision.

Had we known the idiots had overbooked the flight, we could have gone home and rested and then driven back down to DC, collect our paper tickets we left at home and made an attempt to catch a standby flight the next day!!!!! That really pissed us off royally!

We did have a fabulous time at Trinihubby's cousins house. That particular cousin and her children are known for being fantastic cooks so we were able to stay for the family dinner and sample all the delicious fare. All the sisters and extended family gathered and we were able to reunite with them all. Many, we hadn't seen for several years and some of the children we hadn't seen since they were babies and now they are like big kids. The boys and GG opened up the gifts we had brought along on the trip for them to open in Trinidad. They had fun playing with their toys and hanging out with their cousins.

We drove home Friday night, unpacked the unneeded and dirty clothes and the toys and rearranged to reset and attempt to fly out Sunday. We ended up having to purchase one way tickets directly from an airline because Trinihubby's mom was really looking forward to having him and the family home for Christmas. She even had planned this huge reunion dinner party for the Friday after Christmas which she ended up canceling because it was centered around our arrival in the country. We're gonna have it out with the cheaptickets.com and will try to get a refund plus something extra for all the pain and suffering on account of their mistake. The supervisor even admitted she/they made a mistake by not sending us new tickets!

So that is the story of how CHEAPTICKETS.COM, CARIBBEAN AIRLINES AND DELTA AIRLINES screwed us royally and totally *uffed up our Christmas holiday. In hindsight, we were kicking ourselves in the rear for not fighting with Delta more because of the three, they may have been more pliable and at least they would have had supervisors and managers available to override all the bullshit.

It just blew our mind that all three sources acknowledged that we were supposed to be on the flight but noone wanted to step up and help us get home for Christmas. They each kept passing the buck and they didnt' give a rat's ass that we were traveling with small children.

*sigh* Alas, I assume everything happens for a reason and it may be a waste of energy lamenting over it now. We both personally got an opportunity to run some errands, do some work and even attend a Holiday party, things we wouldn't have gotten a chance to do had we caught our flight.