About a week ago, we found out that our reserved, confirmed seats on our flight to Europe had been "released." That meant that not only had we lost the exit row seats we reserved 7 months in advance, we'd also lost our seat reservations, period.
As you can imagine, the stress this brought on was intense. Last Sunday, I spent over 4 hours on the phone, in chats, sending emails, and direct messaging both airlines involved to see if we could get our seats back. Finally, I spoke with someone named Raj at United and got our seats for the domestic legs fixed-ish. He was hugely helpful.
Then, I went to our local airport to try getting help with the international legs. Though they couldn't help me because that wasn't where our flight initiated, they were very kind and tried a lot of options to see if there was anything they could do. The also told me to try back closer to my departure time. I did, yesterday, and got someone named Jun D. on chat, who was able to fix the international legs. The seats aren't quite as good as we had initially, but they're close and I'm really appreciative of all those who came to our aid.
I guess my point is this: travel can be messy. Anything worth doing is usually not easy. But the payoff is virtually always worth the hassle. That applies to travel, to fighting cancer, and to life in general.
I'll include some trip pictures in the next blog post a couple of weeks from now. Until then, it might be worth thinking about what's worth the hassle to you and what isn't. I'm working to spend my time, money, and effort on things that really matter to me or bring me joy, and I'm trying to let go of the things that don't.
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