Online Lawyering

 So we had a big trip to Argentina and Chile planned with friends for December, and unfortunately due to a health issue with a dear friend, have to postpone it. I had been dreading the dealing with the airlines, or specifically Expedia.com.

Typically I book on AA.com, and, as we have become spoiled and like to fly Business Class, understand it will cost a lot. But this trip, from MIA to Buenos Aires and then returning from Santiago, Chile, was way past my tipping point. The round trip on AA was going to cost about $25K for Wifey and me. No way.

So I checked Expedia, and sure enough, by flying down on AA and returning on Delta/LATAM, the price was still a lot, but under the tipping point, and so I booked it in March. They were non refundable tickets.

I figured the best I could do was get credits, which always ends up being a hassle. So with great trepidation, I went online last night and got a virtual agent named "Cristian."

Cristian, whose gender remained unknown to me, though I suspect male, was very polite. And then I took a shot -- with that name, I had someone pretty Evangelical, and so I peppered my texts with "prayers" and "blessed."

Cristian found my reservations and kept asking me for more time. He said he needed to "escalate" in order to do the best for me. Finally he came back on with "great news" - he was able to offer a full refund, minus a $30 service fee. My AMEX card should show the credit within a week.

I stayed online and gave Cristian a stellar review.

And of course, the only "great news" will be when our friend fully recovers. Hopefully that will be very late this year, or early 2024.

I also emailed the hotels. One already responded -- full refund. I await a second, and I think there's a third that our friends booked for us -- I seem to recall Zelling money to them.

I generally handle all of these matters. It's a huge pain -- daunting to this near 62 year old. Yesterday Wifey had to book her own flights to a wedding in August, on account of I was uninvited because I might get drunk and "ruin the whole thing." Nah. The wedding is in Colorado -- I would have probably eaten edibles there like everyone else and passed out under the Roger Waters posters (the groom is an ultra Lefty).

Anyway, she decided to use some of the 500,000 points she didn't know she had on a credit card. It took her 2.5 hours with an agent from Manila -- and he got it wrong! She had to have him cancel everything and do it all over again.

Maybe it gave her a new appreciation for the mule who typically does all that stuff for her -- along with much of the rest of our financial lives. I wonder what it's like to simply get into a car and drive without thought about registration and insurance and oil changes and current tires. I guess it's like magic. Well -- I always say the Heart song "Magic Man" was written about me -- I guess it's true!

Meanwhile, these are just the annoyances of the quotidian. Important things are health -- and hopefully our dear friend gets over this speed bump of life. And when she does -- we'll book again. 

At the beginning of Covid, we had a dustup with the manager of the Arsht Theater. The County had already shut down, and we had 6 tickets to see "Hamilton." The jerk Director refused refunds. I actually called Doug Hanks, a Herald reporter, and he did a story, in which he wrote "David just wants his money back." Somehow that has become a humorous saying in my family now -- Jonathan's brother Dan was particularly tickled by it.

And last night I got it! Thanks, Expedia.com.