Flying!!!
So…

Last time I was in China, my grandfather passed away, and I had to fly back early to get to the funeral. Delta was my airline, but I was on codeshares run by Korean Air. Delta had nothing to get me back on time, so I booked a new round-trip on China Air (not to be confused with Air China…) from Hong Kong to Seattle and back with a big break in between. Delta said that wouldn’t be a problem, they’d put my return HK-Seattle flight off a couple months, but that I would need to have a death certificate with me when I checked in to avoid the $200 re-booking fee.

So this trip I took China Air out here, and then today got to the airport and went to check in at the Korean Air counter. The lady there told me that I wasn’t booked onto the flight, that I only had a reservation (note that emails from Delta that I have say differently), and that I would need to pay $200 for a booking. So I told her that I had been told something totally different by Delta. She argued with me for 10ish minutes, then called her manager, and she argued with me for a while. Then the manager called the Delta Hong Kong office, and didn’t get any confirmation to let me get on the plane (after she was on hold for a while). We argue a bit more, then the counter agent says I should call Delta US. I do, and while I’m on hold they close check-in for the flight : ( I get through to a Delta operator, who is AWESOME, probably the best customer service experience I’ve had. Ever. She goes through, listens to what I say, says that there is a very specific note on my reservation backing me up, that the Korean Air agents should be able to see. So the Delta operator asks to talk to the lady at the counter. And proceeds to yell at her for about 10 minutes about what how screwed up she’s made everything, and about how she isn’t doing things right, and about how I should be let onto the plane even though the flight is full. She’s loud enough I can hear some of what she says coming from my phone. The lady at the counter keeps telling her no, that she won’t acknowledge my ticket, so the Delta lady asks to talk to me, tells me that she’s made sure that my ticket is actually booked, but that the lady at the counter is being a total dick (that’s what she said, yes) and doesn’t want to take care of anything. While she is telling me this, the lady at the counter packs up her stuff and leaves. So I hand the phone to a different Korean Air rep, who also refuses to do anything, no matter what the Delta lady tries. Finally I get the phone back and she is *frustrated* and tells me exactly what she thinks of the Korean Air customer service (she wasn’t complimentary). She then goes through and rebooks my flight, as, by this time, my original flight was already done boarding. She did up a whole new ticket, took off any of the issues of the last ticket, and got one of my legs as first class.

Sadly, the ticket kinda sucks, but she assured me that it was the fastest way should could figure out to get me home, and after her 30 minutes of fighting like crazy for me, I believe it. So, instead of leaving here at noon, I leave here at midnight. Instead of flying Hong Kong – Seoul – LA – Seattle, I am now flying Hong Kong – Seoul – New York(!) – Seattle, and instead of arriving at 10:15 pm Wednesday, I now arrive at 8:20 pm Thursday.

But, hey. I get a lot more frequent flyer miles! Like, an extra 6,750 ; )

This is so going to suck...