First, there was a Chinese airliner that skidded off the runway in Manila, canceling a lot of flights.
Then we found she needed a transit visa since her flight had a layover in the USA. I was not aware of this: nor did the airline ticket company warn us. Ruby is eligible for US citizenship via her father, but he never did the paperwork, and there was no time to visit the embassy to get that paper.
Ah, but even though it was the airline's fault, they would not rebook her for a fee or let her only pay the difference. No: They said they'd return her money (in 3 months) and she'd have to pay full price for a new ticket (i.e. $2000 USD)... a scam of course. If they had just asked for the difference, no problem, but ah, you see they had a lot of people who were eager to get on flights because their flights had been canceled due to the accident.
Joy didn't have that much money left in her credit card, so they returned home.
Sigh. But it takes 3 days to add that kind of money to the credit card (no, they don't take cash. Duh).
Her mom visited a travel agency in the next province to try to rebook the flight: but they failed to book using her credit card because the money hadn't cleared and it was over her credit limit... so they called me and I authorized them to use my local credit card, and she booked it... but the next day we found that my credit card was turned down too, for the ticket was over my credit limit and the cash I had added to cover the cost hadn't cleared yet either.
So we tried to book from here, via the internet.
but again my card was turned down because the money still hadn't cleared. Then we used our debit cards, but again no deal. Then I called my US credit card company and asked them to okay if I paid for the ticket, and they said no problem... but alas, that didn't work either.
Her mom booked (and was turned down) for so many flights that the online booking company has now banned her from booking there.
Finally, she called her friend in Canada and asked if they would book the flight, and she would reimburse them to their bank account here. And voila, that worked.
Hopefully the airline will allow her to travel even though she is 17.
so she leaves tomorrow morning.
The irony? we had the cash, but they only take credit cards.
and of course, all that stuff about "it takes x days to clear your money" is nonsense: It means the bank is profiting from the cash. (and here, it takes a month for a US check to clear, so you see the profit is good).
Ah, the fun of a cashless society.
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