This morning I woke up with a headache that I don’t understand. I slept well. I’m not sick, but the headache put me on such bad mood to start the day that I wanted to print a sign in my face saying “do not talk to me”.
Yet today is the day I’m taking the family to my beloved Buenos Aires for the first time.
I rushed everyone out of the house by 6:30am to catch 9:20am flight. Because we are 5 we needed two Ubers. Me with my mom and Sofia, husband with Lizzy. 5 mins into driving I checked our documents bag to find out that I had husband’s expired passport. Crap! Because I had the key of the house I went back while calling him where he put his passport. 10 min later, passport retrieved. Husband arrived airport 10 min earlier than us so I asked him to line up.
We arrived and he was at the wrong line. The line for our check in was slowww. We finally got to the counter, my headache exploding further due to last minute stress. 15 min later after checking we all had the docs to travel, the lady told me there are no more seats on this flight. The airline has over booked so we can’t board. “Wonderful! Exactly what I needed”.
2 more hours of finding alternative flight, issue us travel credit, booked us round trip uber home, and sent us home with boarding pass for the next day.
This is the first time we’ve been denied to board due to overbooking. I asked Sofia: you learned something with this? She said yes, next time we need to come way earlier, and that we need to demand compensation for the trouble. I said: oh good. At least it was not wasted.
Back home, I was still mad at husband because I had to be mad at someone given my helpless headache and that we missed one day in Buenos Aires.
I ordered take out for the family and went to do ying yoga for half an hour and then slept at Sofia’s zen room.
It’s 3pm now and my headache is gone and having an over due mani pedi while catching up with a friend in Manila.
Oh… I learned about Sarah’s third fall, which made me feel even stronger about how fragile our good day truly is. A minor incident as headache or trip cancellation, or a major incident like a child’s fall, can happen to anyone anytime.
That’s just life. It reminds us to appreciate even more a good day, and a good sunset like this one in Rio.
Hopefully next post will be from Buenos Aires, and headache free.
Our New Journey 
That really sucks you were turned away, I didn’t even know airlines could do that 😦 Love that Sofia is clearly on it though, clever lass! 😂
LikeLike
So sorry you had to go through that! I wonder if the airline offers online check-in 24 hours in advance? It can really reduce the risk of issues at the counter – and definitely helps lower the stress, since you’d only need to drop off your bags once you arrive.
LikeLike
We couldn’t do online check in this time because they need to check visa requirements. Otherwise we always do check in before.
LikeLike
Overbooking!!! How frustrating is that? I really don’t understand why airlines do that. I’m so sorry you went through that – I hope all the travel goes smoothly today.
LikeLike
That is frustrating! US airlines will pay volunteers to take a later flight. So if you bought a ticket, you will get on the flight. I hope things went smoothly today!!
LikeLike
UGH!!! How frustrating. And, having a headache through all that is the worst. Well- I hope you’re flying out today and the rest of the trip goes well.
LikeLike
That’s so frustrating – I didn’t even realize you could be bumped from a flight because they overbooked it. (And how does that even happen??? Gah.) One time, a friend of mine got a $1,200 check for volunteering to do a later flight for an overbooked flight. Imagine!
I’m sorry you also had a headache through all of that. That sounds miserable!
LikeLike
Wow, that’s wild! I’ve never had that experience. I hope I never will… I wonder what happens when it’s overbooked? Too many people, too few seats? But it’s a person per seat, no? I just don’t understand how that happens…
Hope you made it to BA safely and with little trouble.
LikeLike
Ugh, that’s horrible, and the worst part is the headache. I think a ‘don’t talk to me’ sign would be really good for all of us sometimes.
I used to work in hotels, and we would sometimes overbook. It’s a calculation to try to get to 100% occupancy, because there are always some no-shows. So how to minimize the chance of an empty room when it could be full? Overbook. IT SUCKS. Is that why airlines do it? I have no idea. How often do people not show up for flights, after all? I have never done that. Then again, I’ve never not shown up for a hotel reservation either, so they’re not talking about me.
LikeLike