The Trip From Hell

Let me preface this first by saying that I do not travel so I may appear ignorant in some areas of this story.

Before I left I mentioned that I was going on a bit of a trip. Essentially what this has consisted of is a vacation in Las Vegas, directly followed by my fourth interview which is almost directly followed by my fifth interview. All in 13 days. Wicked.

The Vegas part was fine, actually you could call it down right fun. Leaving Vegas though, that's when the shit started to hit the fan.

You see in my haste to exit our return flight I left my PSP and all of my games on the plane. Yes, dumbass move on my part (which will soon be eclipsed, trust me). Still waiting to hear back if they found the damned thing because I know precisely where I left it.

The next morning we went to the airport to fly out to my fourth interview. I had everything prebooked before we had left for Vegas, so I assumed we were set. I went to the kiosk to get our boarding passes and when I punched in our code this popped up on the screen.

This flight has already departed. Please select another flight.

What?!?

I glance down, the time is right, the airline is right, the date..... oh shit. Somehow I had selected a fly out date for Saturday, not Sunday. To top it off, despite checking over everything at least a half dozen times, I never caught the mistake.

Fuck.

Over to the ticket counter we go to see how we can remedy this. The chick at the counter was a complete bitch. I mean rolling her eyes, the whole works. She informs me, obviously, that'll have to buy a new pair of tickets and the flight leaves in about an hour.

$450 poof.

Whatever, it was my mistake and at least we had a flight to the city I needed to be in. I took the high road and realized it could be much worse than it actually was.

We arrive in the city and mosey on over to where our rental car is. They give me the keys, and I notice the vehicle they had given me.... a PT Cruiser. Oh dear God no. Again, I said fuck it and lets go. I put the keys in the car start it.... and it promptly dies.

Now what?

Try starting it again and nothing. It appears, to me at least, that the battery is dead. Oh joy.

Luckily they were fairly accommodating and gave me a different car which was able to drive off of the lot. Hooray!

The next day I arrive at the school for our day of activities (note to those who will be doing this in the future, you spend 6-8 hours at the school and your interview is usually only 30 minutes. Make note of this.) and get myself pumped up for my interview.

I arrive at the appropriate room at the appropriate time... and no one is there.

What...the...fuck...

Apparently there was some sort of miscommunication and my interviewer was unaware he was supposed to be here today. I felt like I had been stood up on prom, but this time without the booze to ease my pains.

Whatever, they find me someone else and the interview goes quite well. The trip is done! Or is it?

The next morning we arrive at the airport and find ourselves at the kiosk trying to print our boarding passes when this notice comes up:

Please pick up the phone next to you and talk to a Representative
IMMEDIATELY

Uh oh, am I on some kind of list? Did I utter the word bomb in an inappropriate place? Instead they tell me that my return tickets are void and I have to go to the ticket counter. Okay...

At the ticket counter they tell me that because we did not make our initial flight, it automatically voided our return flight. I don't fly, so I am completely unaware of this fact, but apparently she is. I suck it up, and buy another set of return tickets on the same flight.

$460 poof.

Now here is my question. Obviously the chick at the return airport was aware of the problem and understood that I simply did not have the time to call Travelocity to remedy the problem before I had to board. So why didn't the first ticketing clerk mention that my return tickets were no good.

I could have bought roundtrip tickets for over $400 less if she had just mentioned this fact. I know its my mistake, but c'mon, I thought these people were here to help in that kind of situation.

Alas, that part of my trip is over. With the extra airfare and extra night in a hotel that we didn't stay in (they were a package deal) the whole thing cost me an extra $1035.

Alright!

I have no one to blame but myself for the entire situation. So here is the lesson kiddies, always, ALWAYS have someone else proofread your trip itinerary with you. Otherwise you'll end up like me.