Day 23 — A travel story
When John and I were making wedding plans the idea of a honeymoon never really crossed our minds because we didn't have a lot of money. We toyed with the idea of just getting a hotel room locally and staying a few days. We honestly didn't put much thought into it.
Then I was on a travel website checking the price for flights to different areas just in case something came up cheap enough. Like a cheap ticket to somewhere in Texas, but I always checked airfare to San Francisco and San Jose (the cheaper alternative to flying into San Fran). Then one day there was a huge fare sale and they had round trip tickets to San Jose for $179. So after some checking on hotel prices and car rentals we decided to just go for it. I was SO excited!
We booked the 7pm flight so we could get everything ready and leave our car at my mom's and she was going to take us to the airport. We made sure with the car rental company that they would be open since our plan was going to get in so late. Everything was good. So the Sunday after we got married we headed to my mom's around 3 or 4 and around 5pm before we were planning on leaving for the airport, I was pulling up our gate information online to make sure we knew where we were supposed to go. I was mortified to see that our flight had actually left at 7am that morning. I had booked the wrong flight.
My heart sank into my stomach.
I immediately teared up, told John what I had done and started crying. I thought for sure I had just cost us all that money and that we weren't going to get to go on a honeymoon. My mom suggested I call the airline to see if there was anything they could do. Fortunately there was indeed a flight leaving at 7pm and there were seats open so the woman I spoke to said for us to get to the airport asap and they would honor that flight for us. And it wouldn't cost us a cent!
Unfortunately though, the lady at the counter at the airport was less than willing to be as accommodating. She gave me the run around and told me it would cost $150 to change our tickets. I pleaded with her that it was our honeymoon and I had just spoken to someone who said it would not cost us and there were seats open. She said they did have seats open but the rest of the way we would have to fly standby since our itinerary was completely deleted after not showing up for the 7am flight.
But at least we got on a plane to San Jose!
We had a stop over in Denver and had to check in at the counter there to make sure we could get seats on the next flight. The guy at that counter was so nice and said that every flight we were originally scheduled on had seats open and we wouldn't have to fly standby. He fixed our tickets on real seats and we were set for the rest of our trip.
I was so relieved when we finally landed in San Jose. It was after 11:30pm and we still had to get our car rental. We took the shuttle to the rental place and every single car rental company was closed except for one (I can't even remember the name of it). But Enterprise, who we had booked through, was completely vacant. John immediately called them and complained and cancelled our reservation because they had promised they would still be open. Then we (and about 5 other people in the same situation) booked a car rental for over $100 more and were on our way. FINALLY.
Driving form San Jose to San Fan takes about an hour, but it was the most beautiful drive I've ever taken. Going across the Bay Bridge then into the city, which is beautifully lit at night because of all of the hills was just awesome. We had a fantastic time. Ate lots of In-n-Out burger. Got a free dinner and Bay cruise for going to one of those real estate investment things. Spent a lot of time driving around the coast and through the city. We really want to go back again. John's nephew is serving in the San Jose mission now and we really hope to be able to go pick him up and take the kids for a few days.
I think I'll just be better about making sure I book the right flight this time.
