Predeparture tribulations

Okay, so I lied. I'm still in America, but something happened today that merited another entry, and I wanted to get it all down before I forget the details.

It began at 4:40 pm, exactly nine hours before my scheduled departure to Beijing. I opened my confirmation email from Vayama Travel Agency to print out my itinerary just in case, and I happened to read this line for the first time ever: "A separate email will be sent shortly containing the Federal Express Tracking number which will allow you to track the shipment of your Paper Tickets." Fedex? Paper ticket?? What?? I never received anything. After a momentary freakout, I went to both the Vayama and Air China websites to see if I could print something out that could serve as a replacement ticket. Nothing. (For future reference, don't try to do anything useful on Air China's website: it has enough broken links to make you cry tears of web design agony.) At the suggestion of my dear friend Wen, I called Vayama customer service, expecting to hear the worst. After holding for about five minutes, I got to speak with a real human being, who, with some searching, discovered that either Vayama or Air China had changed my paper ticket to an electronic ticket without telling me. I said thanks, hung up the phone, and decided that I was more relieved about having a way to get to China than I was annoyed about not being told that I'd be able to pick up my ticket at the airport.

I learned a few important lessons from this experience. First, read the emails that I get from airlines and travel agencies thoroughly and ahead of time, or risk not knowing about something crucial until it's too late. Secondly, not everything can be resolved through email or the internet; sometimes it takes real human interaction to make things happen. Finally, customer service doesn't always have to be painful (although it often is).

Anyway, I'm finally all packed up and, largely due to my mom's insistence, done reviewing the past two semesters of Chinese. My excitement is building by the minute, so I better stop writing before I explode. See you from China!