Reconfirm

Does this sound redundant to anyone else? OK, but I know it's a good thing to do and being the detail-oriented, semi-perfectionist that I am, I'm not sure I could let myself get away with not doing it. However, I've never found it any fun... If you are just reconfirming plans with friends or family, they usually think you're nuts because you've discussed it so many times, how could you not remember what the plans were.

If you're reconfirming airline flights however, this can be a whole nother ball game!! Now, I will admit that most of the time with domestic flights I don't bother to reconfirm with a phone call to the airlines, but if the reservations were made more than a month or two in advance I will look up the flights online just to make sure the times haven't changed. With the exception of our Bahamas trips (which everyone knows is a beast of a completely different nature with all of its own set of rules that apply to there and nowhere else... no worries mon!) I really had not done much international travel until starting 3 years ago. So now, I'm having to change some of my habits.

SO, today I began calling the 4 different airlines I'll be using in my 2-week, 6-country, round the world trip coming soon to a suitcase near you! Oh sorry, got carried away, anyhow, called Delta and confirmed my flights going, there were only minor changes of 5 minutes or so on one of them and I also was able to get my seat assignment. When I asked about the flights for the last portion on the return (LAX through Cincy back home) I was told those were on another airline and they couldn't confirm or do seats. After some hesitation and thoughts toward beginning to panic, I looked from the travel agency printed itinerary, what I was using to make the calls, to the actual tickets/receipts and realized she was correct, those flights showed on the China Airlines ticket which begins in Bangkok to Taipei to LA to Cincy to home. OK, no problem, thank you for your help.

Next up, Air France. No problems there only I can't do the seat assignments they must be done at the airport. Again no problem, it's only an hour and a half flight each way (Paris to Nice and back) so I'll deal with it later. Oh also, of course I'm having to ask each airline for their baggage limit policy so that I can make sure I meet the strictest. Thank you, France, have a good day.

Now on to Thai Airlines. I have to reconfirm my flight from Paris to Bangkok, again all goes smoothly and they assign my seat as well. Now, even though my parents have picked up my round trip tickets from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and they are on a separate confirmation number I have that info and ask about my seat assignment. They look it up and tell me that it's domestic and no seat assignments at all, first come, first serve. OK, works for me. You better believe, I'm a great note-taker because there is no way I'm going to remember all this in my head!! Thanks Thai Airlines, see you next week.

OK, last call, China Airlines. No problem on first two flights, slight change on the time leaving Taipei, but not an issue.
Baggage limits?
Good.
OK, seat assignments?
At the airport only or 24 hours in advance online at their website. Great, could you tell me that address. So I wrote down the address, where to go and the confirmation number I'd need to do so. Will I even be where I have access to a computer 24 hours before my flight? I have no idea, but my motto is better to have too much info than not enough!
OK, great now, what about the flights from LAX through Cincy to home?
Oh, we don't have access to those they are not on China Airlines.
I'm sorry, could you repeat that?! (which he did and darned if he didn't say the same thing). I proceeded to tell him that the ticket I had in my hand for China Airlines, all one ticket, was from Bangkok all the way back to my home city. He said that I'd have to talk to my travel agent because he doesn't have access to that information.
OK, so what your are telling me is that when I get off the plane in LA and go to the China Air counter, because that's what my ticket says (even though, remember, that the printed itin says Delta), that they will not be able to check me in. He again repeated himself saying that was correct and I'd have to talk to my travel agent.
OK, thank you very much for your help, I will give them a call.

NOW, I hit the panic button!! I have an itin that says it's Delta and a ticket that says it's China and they both say they can't confirm it! This is a big problem... I'm not a California girl by any stretch of the imagination and I don't think I'll be able to keep my job if I have to commute from LAX!!

So, I call my friend Julie at the travel agency...

Yes, she does remember me! Go figure, I only talked to her multiple times daily for a 2-week stretch trying to get the reservations and then the tickets in hand to start with! So she pulls up my info and I explain the above to her. She says that part of it is that there has been a change in this last part. I'm now going from LAX to Atlanta to Cincy to home, and of course that means an added 3+ hours before arriving home. OK, so I can deal with that. She assures me that I do have confirmed reservations and there is room on the planes for me, which I don't doubt, but I need to know who to talk to in LA and what to show them so that I can get on these reserved flights! She said she would do some checking and get back with me, her opinion is that the China Air gut didn't know what he was talking about. OK, so 20 minutes later she called and told me that they are working on it and she will let me know for sure tomorrow (the whole everyone-around-the-world-is-on-different-time-zones issue, gotta love it). In the meantime, she is going to send me a brand new itinerary that shows all the updates, beautiful! That would be great and very helpful!

So now I'm waiting to hear from Julie tomorrow, to know for sure that I will continue to be a resident of Tennessee when I return and not become a beach bum!