Finally....after the third trip!

Our depature date is officially changed and fees paid - after trips #2 and #3 to the American Air representative office this morning and again this afternoon.

This morning, a friend gave me a ride in only to find out that I couldn't use a credit/debit card to pay the fees for ticket changes. You can only use them if you're purchasing a ticket. Funny, nobody told me that on trip #1 to the agency the other day. I had actually gone in there telling them the Sao Paulo office told me I couldn't use my card over the phone and would have to go to the agency near us.

Therefore, Edilberto had to go into town and change a personal check for cash so that I could go and make trip #3 to the agency to pay the fees -- finally! We had to find another ride as my friend was previously engaged and wasn't able to bring me in again this afternoon.

I don't want to complain about all of these inconveniences and endless trips to resolve this problem. Because trips #2 and #3 resulted in the happy news that we only needed to pay the fees and not extra for adjusting the ticket to a different length of stay (which we had been told we'd need to do during trip #1 to the agency. This potentially would have been a huge expense.) I was a little nervous on trip #3 to the agency, hoping it was really the case and wouldn't believe it until the amount was paid and reciept in hand.

I asked the lady if that would take care of everything and that there wouldn't be any surprises upon check-in in Sao Paulo on the evening of our flight. She assured me it was taken care of. I told her the story of when our then 3 year old son had been booked on an international flight leaving an hour later than the one the rest of us were on! We found this out when we were checking-in. They tried to tell me then I would have to pay $100 fee to change him to our flight. I told them, um, I don't think so! Like I'D make a mistake like that? The check-in woman had to go twice to her manager to finally say we didn't have to pay the fee afterall. I said, "Of course not." Geez!