What are the chances of this happening? They lost my airline tickets!

[Katie]

I got the wierdest phone call yesterday afternoon, thankfully from a very honest person.

We've been waiting for our tickets/itinerary to arrive in the mail after booking our flights on-line to Brazil last week. Our printer isn't working well and we couldn't print them out from home.

The fellow that called said he was holding them in his hand Now here's the bizarre part....he has the same complete name as my husband, exactly the same, and his wife's name isn't far off mine either. The tickets were sent to the same small town where our friends also live who are going with us, and booked on line at about the same time. They all are about two and a half hours drive from us.

The airline's explanation on this is that obviously there was a mix-up with our friends and us, and because of the cross over between the addresses and the names, the post office is at fault. Now here is where it gets doubly weird. The tickets didn't even go to this fellow's home address....they went to his parent's home! No same first name there, just last.

Apparently, the airline surmises, the post office must have known this man from when he was a youngster and just delivered it to his parent's place instead, knowing it would get to him eventually. (He lives in a nearby second town) It is a small area after all....

How do you like them apples?

While the credit card information was blocked out, all of our other personal data was there and there was nothing stopping this man at least, if not his wife, from using the ticket to go to Brazil for a nice holiday! The agent pointed out that he couldn't have gotten a refund without the CC #, just could use the tickets, as if that made it all right somehow.

It boggles me that she thought it was funny and really OK. We won't get the tickets until he drops them off to my husband next week, just three days before we go. I guess we could get the airline (Air Canada) to email them to us, and somehow get them to a printer, but I want the original ones in MY hand! I can just see the misery at the ticket counter if we showed up second if this fellow decided to get there first. "Sorry, but we've already checked you in for that trip...". We really need a sense of humour in these last days of details before surgery...


Thank heavens for honest people....

[ajj1001]

That is a really bizarre series of events. I can completely understand wanting the originals in your hand. Thanks goodness they went to someone who let you know.

[Cindylou]

OMG!!!! What are the chances of that??!! You couldn't have orchestrated that on purpose, with deliberation!! Just nuts. Get them safely in your hands, as fast as you can. I'm so paranoid, I would be jumping in my car and driving there with pedal to the metal!

[Katie]

Well, the man said he was coming to the city where my hubby works, so it will save us a long trip. If we weren't so bogged down with other details, you can bet I'd be doing that too! The airline assured me that no one else could use it, but I think my faith in them just dropped It will work out... it will work out....it will.......

Where is the icon on someone on their knees praying!!??

[Dave]

"The Little Engine That Could" -- That's you Katie. You have the drive and will make this happen, no matter what obstacles you face.

[WPKat]

WOW, there really must be a one in a million chance of all that happening.

Honest people restore our faith in the overall goodness of mankind. I wouldn't think he would have gotten away with it anyway since the airline would have eventually track them down. However, the fact that he took the time to track you down and even offered to deliver them to your husband is pretty awesome.

The airline really should have offered you something extra for the added stress their mistake caused you

It's a great story and it's good to hear that it has a happy ending.

Here's to nothing else going haywire

K

[Katie]

LOL Dave, that is so appropriate! My hubby is a real railroad buff...he'll get a kick out of your picturebook

I've just got too much to lose now...onward and upward

Kathleen, I know...I have to write a book, I swear! I tried really hard to get something like that from the airline, but honestly didn't have the energy to fight anymore. What a weird story though. Thanks for everything...we should chat again this week...in my spare time

[Justin]

What a crazy story, Katie.

[KBear]

LOL Dave, that is so appropriate! My hubby is a real railroad buff...he'll get a kick out of your picturebook

I've just got too much to lose now...onward and upward

Kathleen, I know...I have to write a book, I swear! I tried really hard to get something like that from the airline, but honestly didn't have the energy to fight anymore. What a weird story though. Thanks for everything...we should chat again this week...in my spare time

I'm going totally off topic, so forgive me. MY step dad used to be an engineer for Santa Fe, which changed to Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF- Big New Santa Fe -LOL) right before he retired. He is huge into trains, has been a subscriber of one of the Train Magazines since the 60's and seriously has every issue from then on. He buys movies and if we dare go on a trip with him, watch out b/c we are stopping at every train place from here to there! It was cool as a kid, since he could take us on a train (not for a ride, though his kids who were 10+ years older than us had been able to go with him when they were younger, before the laws changed).

[Katie]

Kathy, you are describing my life to a 'T' "Buff" was a polite term for my hubby

Yes, he too has every issue of every train magazine he deems important since the 1950s. We stop at everything even faintly related to trains while traveling, and he is a walking encyclopedia on train trivia. He can give every detail on almost every piece of equipment, and we have a 'speeder', a RR workman's work car that travels on the track, plus one of those pump cars that Wylie Coyote used to go down the tracks, both in our garage. He used to race the speeder out in BC on abandoned RR tracks. I am in awe of his knowledge!

And to top it all off, our wedding was based in a train station B&B, Train Station Inn - Tatamagouche Nova Scotia accommodations , where we all slept in cabooses that have been converted into luxurious 'suites'. Your step-dad would be in seventh heaven