Disclaimer: I’m about to board, and I haven’t done a final edit on this yet, so it might be a bit messy, but I want to get it in now instead of tomorrow. Bear with me. I’ll fix it when I get home.
I had a talk with my daughter-in-law who was so kind as to wake up in the area of 4AM to take me to the airport. We somehow got to talking about the movie Encanto and how much I liked it. I’d call it my second favorite, after Coco. It keeps growing on me every time I watch it. I love the music and the vibrant culture of it. Same with Coco. Maybe it’s making up for the place in which I grew up, where I didn’t see any persons of color until I was well along in life (my high school had one black student that I can remember, and that was about it). Odd though – I guess I didn’t much think that Nina Sanchez was anything different when I was in elementary school. Face it – in the 60s, rural Wisconsin was about as white as it got.
So yeah. I’m making up for it. I love living in a land of another culture, and I love seeing as many others as I can. And it seems my love for them is growing even stronger as I get older.
As I’ve already mentioned, my travels this time have been less than pleasant. I thought I was going to do fine, travelling to the area in which my son and his family live. But it was pretty rough from the start, beginning with the Enterprise Incident, and ending with a costly bit of misinformation on the part of Budget car rental. With my flight leaving at 7AM, and them not opening until 7, I did the research and was shocked when their website told me they did not have after-hours drop off. I called them and got the same answer. Unfortunately, when you call Budget’s San Antonio number, you end up talking to a national rep anyway, and the national rep “confirmed” for me that they did not have after-hours drop-off. This meant that I’d have to drop off my rental car the night before travelling. I even called Avis, which is Budget’s partner, and who had after-hours drop-off at the airport, but they said “no” to my request to drop with them.
I should have been suspect of this right away (and I was), but there seemed to be no other option. There was no way I could get through to the actual rental counter at the airport, so I had to take the national rep’s word for it. Problem is, he was probably just looking it up on their website, which had told me as much already. But really, what kind of rental agency at an airport with planes taking off while their counter is closed doesn’t have after-hours drop-off? Problem was, I couldn’t take that chance. If I gambled and lost, it would cost me a good day of travel, and even that with no guarantees (and quite a bit of expense too, I’m sure). So I took the car back the night before and had Jack pick me up and take me back to his home.
And when I got to the airport, I was shocked to find that no one was there to meet me, check my mileage, scan the car in, and give me a receipt. I parked the car in Avis’s return lane (as instructed by the signs) and looked all over for someone with no luck. So I started walking toward the terminal and noticed a box with signs for Avis and Budget telling me, “If you left your keys in the car, that’s alright, but if you haven’t, please drop them in this box.” So I did as instructed and walked out to the airport arrivals pickup area to wait for Jack without seeing any further instructions. I was flabbergasted. First off, if I dropped off the car the night before, shouldn’t I have to pay less? I have no idea…and neither do they. For all I know, my car sat there all night and they just assumed I dropped it off this morning.
So, I lost the last few moments I could have had with my grandson before leaving because I was taking a car back to the airport based on Budget’s faulty information, and that is disturbing enough, but the complete lack of assistance was even more stunning. There wasn’t even anyone to talk to for help. The best I could do was drop those keys in the box and hope for the best.
And it seems, so far, so good. Even last night, I got an email copy of my receipt. But the email said “be sure to drop off the keys,” which led me to believe it was a canned email they sent out because they expected me to drop off my car the next morning.
Anyway, the whole trip was mentally draining, despite the incredible highlights of seeing my grandson and my best friend. I felt I learned a few things. The summit I attended left me wondering if it was really necessary to fly all that way, and I may reconsider in the future. But I especially learned to be more careful with my rental car agencies. What they tell you on line and what they tell you after you get there could very well be two different things, and they’ll certainly hear from me about it.
A couple of final thoughts: I went to a Peet’s coffee shop here in Seattle-Tacoma Airport and ordered a small coffee. Thing is, their menu only listed “Medium” and “Large.” Still, I stuck with “Small.” Why? Because I’m a firm believer that if you offer more than one size of something, the smallest one is “Small” and the largest one is “Large.” They just don’t get it.
They just announced that they’re yet again looking for people to check their carry-ons because “it looks like we won’t have room for them” on this flight. Please see my recent post on that. This is completely on the airlines and their agents – the people who let obviously larger than allowable luggage into the passenger compartment. This makes the third flight (of four) on this trip where they’ve made that request. I’m shaking my head. Fortunately, I’m not concerned with losing my luggage and being left without clean clothes at my destination, so I checked my “suitcase,” although it easily qualified for carry-on. I don’t want that hassle. Nothing worse than walking back to your seat only to find all of the overhead bins are already filled. So I’m only carrying my backpack now. I just hope that we land in Korea at least on time if not early. There’s a 7PM bus (I’m scheduled to arrive at 5:50) that’ll get me home before 8:30. If I miss that one, I won’t get home until nearly 10PM.
And lastly, there’s a woman sitting near me whom I recognize from the flight over on Sunday, so it looks like she’s on the same schedule as me. She’s noteworthy in that if you look at her from behind, she looks like a thin, older (50’s at least) woman, but when you see her face, she looks 30. I suspect she’s had some work done…and it was pretty good.