Stuck in Sydney, or How I Almost Didn't Make It Home

The most harrowing hours of my life. I went to check-in for my noon flight to the States. I had been confirmed for that flight online, but the airline never recorded the information, and told me there was no room for me and the flight I was supposed to be on left 3 hours earlier. I showed them my confirmation, and they gave me my correct itinerary. Problem was my flight left THREE hours before I arrived to the airport. I was screwed.

For two hours, I was stuck in Sydney Airport until March 1st because I had booked the flight with flyer miles, and the first American Airlines person couldn't help me without me spending $2,600. The problem is I had to be in Pittsburgh on Monday the 28th and I have a flight for Pittsburgh on Sunday at 10:00 am. I reiterated that I had to be home no later than Sunday (it was life or death!) to a new American Airlines representative, and 1.5 hours later, some tears, conversations between American Airlines and Qantas, and two wonderful airline people helping me, they found me a flight for 3 o'clock the same day with NO additional charge AND re-booked my connecting flight to Chicago. A true miracle!

Seriously, those two people saved my life and understood that my info became jumbled in the computer since I changed my flight twice. Bless them and their help, since they saved me ridiculous amounts of time and money I feel like such an adult for taking care of this and figuring it all out, but I'll admit I didn't keep my cool since I was tearing up the whole time. I was devastated, but I had people that spent 45 minutes working things out. The lady who first told me I couldn't check in said there were 11 seats remaining on the only other flight home for the day, but since I was using rewards miles and they had allotted the remaining rewards miles seats away, I had little chance of gettting on, but she brought me to a sales rep who gave me AA's number. Like I said, the first lady didn't help, but the second lady saved me.

Truly, when traveling by yourself, you need to be ready to handle the most grave, unexpected situations. In any case, give me 18 hours, and I'll be HOME! And only THREE hours behind my original time. Thank you to David from Qantas and Linda from American Airlines.

AND to top it off, the first lady who told me I couldn't check me in DID check me in for real. She was so happy for me and was impressed that I could get on. She didn't charge me for being .3 kilos over on my luggage because she cut me some slack, and didn't check my carry-on bags (I was definitely WAY over the limit), so thank you to Koula as well . Yay for lifesavers! Yay for Australia! Yay for America! See you all soon!!!!

Stephanie