Stuck in San Diego

I had a conference to go to for work, in San Diego. Since the conference went through the weekend, Handsome Hubby flew out from Friday to Sunday (since my hotel was covered for the whole time and all we had to pay for was his flight). He'd never been to San Diego, so we thought this made for a good excuse reason to go. I'll post more about the trip later, but for now, deets on our traveling debacle...

We were supposed to get home yesterday. Just as we were getting ready to check out and leave for the airport, HH got a call on his cell from 'Jason,' from the airline. Turns out the first flight was already very delayed and he was calling to re-book us for today. My first thought was that I was so glad they called so that we weren't stuck in the airport. This way, at least we could enjoy the rest of the day in sunny San Diego. But, my second thought was that this 'Jason' fella seemed a bit shady. Or, just very unprofessional.

First, I had never heard of an airline directly calling customers to re-book their flight (NOT that I'm complaining). He was very non-nonchalant about the whole thing, and had a very "yeah, man" kind of attitude (you know the type). One of our major questions was about being sure our extra hotel night was going to be covered by the airline. He didn't seem to know anything. One would think that if calling customers to re-book like this is standard practice, he must have dealt with this question before. I would guess, close to 100% of the time??? Well, apparently because it was Sunday, there was no customer service to call, and the only way to get any answers would be on the airline's website. (And I HIGHLY doubt that would have been helpful in our specific situation) But, Jason assured us, that we could just stay at the hotel we were at and talk to the ticket counter folks the next day. He simply advised us to be sure to get to the airport early. Despite asking him repeatedly for someone else to talk to or another number to call, that was the best he could give us, so that's what we did.

Turns out, our instincts were right. Apparently, that was not standard procedure. I'm not sure if Jason calling us directly wasn't normal, but the hotel situation was certainly NOT normal (which we figured already). So, after an hour of patient determination on our part, and the ticket counter woman walking back and forth to 'the office' we finally got our check. Phew.

The rub? HH was forced to take an extra day of leave since this wasn't his business trip and we haven't received any compensation for that. So, as my mother would do, I'm planning to write a letter! We'll see what comes of it...