I realized today that my ticketed name was missing an “I” and was listed as “Kevn” [sic].
It’s been a long, awful waiting game trying to get information on what this clerical error, what this SNAFU, was going to cost me.
After three hours, four CSRs and various iterations of hold music, I’m still not entirely clear. I do know I f’d this up. Big time.
Originally to fix this and add the missing “I” to my name was going to be an airline specific change fee of $50, plus a $30 processing charge from Priceline. Eighty bucks more than I’d like but so be it. I messed up and the only one to blame is me… and far better to getit corrected than to be denied boarding before or perhaps worse DURING the trip.
Then it turned out we couldn’t just do the change fee as it was too close to the date of departure or maybe it was too long since I had originally purchased the ticket… whatever the rationale, the outcome was I had to pay the price differential of the fare from the time I booked to the fare charged today, on top of the change fee.
Then, because there was some other issue as there were code share flights with partner airlines, ultimately I had to buy a whole new ticket at the currently prevailing prices. I almost passed out at the number but the only other option was to write-off the whole trip and not go. That was not an option at all. On the possible upside, I’m supposedly going to get a refund on the original ticket in two to three business days… but that depends on some other department signing off on something else.
So, how much is it to buy a vowel, Pat and Vanna?
The answer is – that depends. But my understanding is that the going rate is an “I” for an eye… I think it’d be easier to sell my eye on the organ black market than to get this thing fixed.
Worst case scenario, they’ll bill my Amex a figure so jaw dropping I don’t want to even type it here. I feel like if I type it it might come true. And I don’t want that. Not by a long shot.
Best case scenario, the one where I get a refund on the original fare and apply it back to the new one? An “I” will cost me $849.96.
I should note that a vowel cost $250 when Wheel of Fortune premiered in 1983 and has NOT gone up one cent in over 34 years. Had the price been adjusted for inflation, a vowel should cost $613.77 in today’s dollars… still less than the price I’m paying for my “I.”
There’s a reason SNAFU applies here… or perhaps I should say it’s a SNAEDU.
Given the way things have been going, this truly is a “situation normal: all [expletive deleted] up.”
I have no one to blame but me.
