When we got back from Hawaii — days after we got back, actually — Daniel and I got online to book our flights to Amsterdam for the exciting honeymoon in August. We had been tracking fares all year, so we knew to be prepared for a hard hit on the pocketbook; this is a grueling summer to go to Europe from the US, and for months the fares had been more than $1000 a person. Ouch!
So, we booked two tickets on American Airlines’s Web site and groaned to ourselves at the bottom line: $2300+ for two tickets. Double ouch!
As of last week, those tickets were still showing up on aa.com as “On Request,” and somewhat worried that we didn’t have a confirmation yet, I called American to inquire what the holdup was. They said my credit card had been declined when I booked the reservation, and so it was just sitting there on hold. The fare was locked in and our seats were reserved, but it needed to be paid for. (Mind you, this had been the case for nearly a month, but they seemed unconcerned about this.)
So, I had them go ahead and resubmit the card (this, apparently, requires them to put it in a queue, from which the charge emerges for processing about 48 hours later). In the meantime, Daniel called our bank (I had used my check card) to find out if the charge exceeded my daily limit. Sure enough, it had. So, we alerted the bank the charge would be coming back, and they assured us it would be approved.
Then Sunday night, still not having received confirmation that the ticket had been purchased, we got online again to check things out… and, holy crap, the fares had dropped, precipitously! The bank apparently had rejected the credit card charge again, because our tickets were still showing as “On Request,” so a flurry of activity ensued. In the end, a few tense moments later, we had cancelled the old reservation, booked a new one at the lower fare (about $950/person, or around $1900 total), and gotten our same seats back. Not only that, but the credit charge cleared a day or two ago, and now we’re all set.
It’s hard to be upset at the bank for screwing up the second attempt to book our tickets, given that their mistake essentially saved us $400+ in airfare. You know?
We’ve also recently booked (and opted to go for the prepaid/”Expedia Special Rate” route, given the weakness of the dollar and the fact we’re traveling during high season) our hotels in Amsterdam. We’re there three nights ahead of our cruise, and we’re staying at this very promising-looking hotel called the Victoria Hotel Amsterdam, which is conveniently located near the train station (we can take the train from the airport) and across the way from the cruise ship terminal as well. It’s also relatively centrally located within Amsterdam and should make for a good base of operations. On our way back, we’re in Amsterdam for a full day and one night after getting off the ship, but our flight leaves at the dreadfully early hour of 7 a.m., so we decided to stay at the Hilton Amsterdam Airport hotel, which is actually connected to the airport by walkway. That should be really nice.
I had a dream the other night that we decided to take the train to Paris for a day while in Amsterdam… but then I checked, and it would cost us about $300/person to do that! HA! I love Paris, but this is clearly not the trip to visit there. That, perhaps, will come next summer, when (assuming nothing changes) I’ll be going to Essex for a two-week summer stats class there. Daniel has talked about flying over at the end so we can putz around England, and perhaps we can shuttle over to Paris for a couple of days then. Do it proper.