| rev:text
| - This is just for the service at the US Airways ticket counter. I had to share.
My grandmother, bless her heart, wanted to buy my ticket with her flyer miles. On Friday night we arrived at the ticket counter and they appeared to be closed. Though I believe that we went to the wrong counter. We vowed to come back at six the next morning and by golly I was up at 5:22 a.m.
I'm not a happy morning person so I'm quite asleep. My grandmother is awake and on a mission. We pay $4 for parking and walk up to the ticket counter, no line, no waiting. Things are looking pretty good.
My grandmother says she wants to buy a ticket for me using her flyer miles. The ticket lady looks at us and asks us if we had made a reservation.
"What, we have to make a reservation to come to the airport and buy a ticket?"
My grandmother is irritated with the lady and it hasn't even been 2 minutes. She doesn't let this show, but I can feel it.
I tell her I need a ticket from Phoenix to Dublin and I tell her Sept. 15.
"Booked," she replies.
"Well, try the sixteenth."
"Booked."
"The fourteenth?"
"Booked."
"Try everything from the thirteenth to the twenty-first."
"Booked, booked, booked, booked, booked, booked, booked, booked, booked."
"Really? This is more than a month in advance? A friend of mine just bought a plane ticket to France three weeks prior to her departure date. Try another airline, maybe Aer Lingus. I found round trip tickets from $768 and one-ways for $459."
"That's a really good deal you should probably go with that if you can get it."
"Well, how much is a one-way ticket for Aer Lingus on the 15th of Sept.?"
"$2,000."
I was afraid that my grandmother was going to have a heart attack. She gasped and stood there with her mouth open. We walked upstairs and sat at a table to call the flight fund people that were supposed to make a reservation for us and magically bestow the flyer miles.
After giving the guy on the phone her life story for computer input on his end he asks, "So where is your grand-daughter going?"
"From Phoenix to Dublin."
"Ma'am I'm sorry this is US only. I'll have to transfer you to our international department."
I sit and stare at the people walking through the airport at this ungodly hour (for me anyway.)
Now she is talking to a woman in the international sector for the miles.
The woman asks what my return date is and my grandmother tells her that the ticket is one-way. I am going for school for a year and have no idea when I will be back.
The woman kindly informs us that unless I am a citizen of the UK I can not get a one-way ticket to Ireland by using flyer miles. But I can get a round trip ticket and then just change the date for a fee of $275! And also to do that my grandmother is 20,000 miles short, she only has 30,000 miles which would have been enough for the one-way ticket.
My grandmother asks how much would it be to just buy the 20,000 miles and the woman on the other end tells her that it would probably cost as much, if not more, than buying a regular ticket.
"Well how much is a regular round trip ticket?"
My grandmother turns white as a ghost. She is breathless as her mouth hangs wide open. I am afraid her heart actually did stop.
She looks at me as she writes the figure on the paper in front of her.
$4,798.
I tell her to hang up. We are going home and I'm going on the internet.
I bought a one-way ticket from Phoenix to Dublin leaving on Sept. 15th for $530.
Funnier yet, I actually got the ticket for the two airlines the ticket lady said was either booked or expensive... US Airways and Aer Lingus.
Thank you Priceline.com.
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