Airline Reservation Fun

Downs

Today I attempted to get tickets for Calvin and I to visit mom in March while Jaeger is in India. As recommended, I always buy a seat for Calvin when we fly so he can be secured in his car seat. However, since parents are allowed to hold children under 2 years of age on their lap for free, most just use a car seat if there’s an extra seat available. As a result, Frontier’s reservation page has 3 options: adult, child (2-17), and infant (lap only, no seat). Because I did want a seat for Calvin, I chose 1 adult and 1 child. Everything was fine until they asked for our birth dates. At that point, they told me that Calvin’s birth date was invalid for the fare specified. Looking back, I should have tried to book 2 adult tickets but that didn’t occur to me at the time.

Since buying tickets online had been thwarted, I grudgingly called their phone reservation system and talked to a nice lady. After more than 10 minutes of discussion, it appeared we finally had everything straightened out. However, I never received my confirmation email after we got off the phone. Several hours later, I called again and was informed that my email address had never been entered. The 1st lady had to start over a couple of times due to system glitches so that didn’t surprise me. I gave my email address and the 2nd reservation lady then asked for my name. I assume she wanted to double check that it was entered correctly so I told her it was “Gem, G-E-M, like a gemstone” (my real name). She then said, “no, not the name of the passenger, your name.” I assured her that was my name, she seemed a little abashed but told me everything was in order so I hung up. My email confirmation still didn’t arrive. It belatedly occurred to me that they probably had my first name misspelled (which often happens when I have to call people). I called back a 3rd time and told them I thought my first name and email address were entered incorrectly and this time spelled it out with the NATO phonetic alphabet. Sure enough, they had spelled it with a J instead of a G. This annoys me because every time I say my name to someone over the phone, I always say very distinctly, “Gem, G-E-M, like a gemstone.” People just don’t listen. Jaeger is completely correct when he tells me I should always spell it with the NATO phonetic alphabet. It’s just a hard habit to get into. Anyway, on the 3rd attempt I did get my email reservation.

Ups

  • I didn’t get as much work done today because Calvin was crankier than yesterday and refused to take an afternoon nap. However, in spite of that, it was a pretty relaxing day. I took Calvin outside and he had fun crawling around on our driveway and staring as the cars went by.

Cute Calvin Moment

  • Willow, our white cat, is Calvin’s first unattainable love. As soon as he catches site of her, he enthusiastically paddles toward her. She lets him get within a couple of feet and then bounds away at which point Calvin starts the whole process again. Calvin doesn’t seem nearly as interested in 5 who lets him grab handfuls of her hair when he tries to pet her. Today, Calvin seemed to spend more time than normal watching Willow. At one point, Willow was batting at the blind cords and Calvin, safely across the room, was laughing delightedly at her antics. I wonder at what point Willow will allow Calvin to touch her and if Calvin will still want to by then.

Simplification

  • I didn’t end up doing anything today.

2 thoughts on “Airline Reservation Fun

  1. Kiesa

    Yes, though I’ve given up the hyphen fight long ago and just concatenate when making reservations. However, Southwest, whom I contacted for Christmas because I always complain even though it doesn’t do any good, tells me the correct way to do it is to put a space where the hyphen should go.(I did not actually lodge a complaint with Frontier over the hyphen as I had already commented on their search not functioning and also complained I couldn’t buy an infant seat online).

  2. Jaeger

    First name: golf-echo-mike

    Last name: sierra-tango-oscar-november-echo dash lima-oscar-golf-alpha-november

    Of course, they’d still figure out some way to hear “juliett” when you said “golf”. And the hyphen will totally confuse airline reservation systems last updated in 1972.

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