I called Delta and explained to them I was not on my morning flight and that I would like to take a later flight. LUCKILY I had a decent person helping me on the customer service line and he explained to me the concept of Same-Day Confirmed Travel. See: http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/ticket_changes_refunds/sameday_travel_changes/index.jsp

What you do is call Delta 3 hours before a scheduled flight you would like to be on and say “I would like to do Same-Day Confirmation for ‘X’ flight.” Hopefully they will not that you have already purchased a ticket, but would like to take advantage of the $50 Same-Day Travel change as apposed to purchasing an entirely new ticket. If there are seats available on that flight it would only cost you $50 to get a confirmed seat on that flight.

The risk to this is if all the flights are booked on your scheduled day of travel then this alternative will not work.

Overall, I was pretty satisfied that this opportunity existed. It even allowed me to get better flight times cheaper than I could have secured through booking online.

Then we called Orbitz who (thank god) we had bought our tickets from. The agent was on the phone being shuffled between Delta and Northwest for almost an hour. Apparently neither would take responsibility and she had difficulty locating the ticket numbers and exchanging our tickets. Eventually she took care of it and changed it to the next day for no charge! Thank you Orbitz.

My advice is NEVER fly with Delta/NW. If you must, then at least wait a year until they are merged so you don’t get stuck in the middle like we did.

This morning I had a flight at 8:30am, but I am currently in Beijing, and the transportation time to get to the airport from where I live (bus, then shuttle bus) is about an hour and a half, which meant that I had to be on the road by 5:30am to get to the airport in time for my flight (I play it safe).

However, last night I ended up packing last minute, and made it to bed at 3am. I set my alarm and even considered staying up because I didn’t want to miss the alarm, but I figured some sleep was better than none. This morning I awoke to sunshine, and immediately my stomach dropped. There is no sun at 5 in the morning! I looked at my phone, which read 7:20ish. I immediately woke up, started running around frantically, called the airline while brushing my teeth…It was like realizing one of my nightmares. I know exactly what you mean. That panic you get when you miss class or the last bus in your dreams is totally real when it happens in full consciousness.

My alarm rang at 7:24am. I don’t know if I should be mad at my phone or glad that it wasn’t my fault. Either way, I’m still extremely disappointed in my myself. AND my phone. I have no idea why it decided to ring 2 hours and 24 minutes later than its set time, when it usually rings at the time I need it to.

But long story short, I ended up changing my flight. It only cost me about $15 USD to book the flight tonight at 8:55pm. The only thing I’m mad about is that my trip was only Thurs-Mon, and now it’s basically Fri-Mon, so I won’t be able to enjoy it for as long. My flight back is at 7:30am, so I guess I won’t be sleeping that night.

I felt some tingling in my belly and legs. Strated to feel dizzy. Not knowing what to do – looking at the lady at the Check-In, seeing her shaking er head. Impossible to get on thatplane, even I stil had 1 hour (!!) to get to the gates.

So I went back out of the Check-In area, called my friend back, who already left for work. I went to the Travel Service Counter, they told me I need to go to the Turkish Airlines Sales Centre in Dubai, which is far away – I knew I was screwed.

I called Turkish Airlines offices in Turkey, 20 Min talk. With international mobile phone. (Looking forward to the bill)
They said no more seats at all everything overbooked. Next flights are next week. OH MY GOD!! The feeling you feel at this moment is the worst you can ever have – I wish nobody of you guys reading this here will ever have the same experience or feeling – ever.

Rebooking was not possible. Only Business Class the next morning where available $400 plus charges plus fees plus taxes.

In the end you really don’t mind anymore, because you just want to get home anyhow! They found a flight from Dubai – Istanbul – Hamburg with 10h stop over in Istanbul.

Train ticket in Germany is gone, lost $100 plus my flight ticket.
I am so screwed – so bankrupt for this month – I am so dead.

Year 2009 can’t begin worse than this for me.
From now on I will be always 2 hours minimum at the airport before departure.

Thanks to my friend, who came late to work and had so much patience with me – I’d me more than screwed if not him.

God Bless You Guys – Learn From The Mistakes Of Others.

I have actually overslept a flight once, and lived to tell the tale — on American Airlines they’ve been fairly accommodating to me (I do have AAdvantage elite status, though). Officially, if you let them know before a flight takes off that you can’t make it but still intend to fly, they will let you standby for later flights same-day for no charge. Unofficially, if you call within two hours after a flight they’ll still let you standby for free, but more than two hours after a flight takes off, and the reservation is voided. Granted, there has to be room on those later flights, but its quite a flexible system.