There is something wrong with me - I suppose this isn't news but the problem presented itself again this morning and I've decided to admit I may have a problem.
I showed up at 6:15am to check-in for my flight from Auckland to Wellington this morning. The check-in kiosks are really great,and fast and within minutes of entering the terminal, my bag was on the belt to the plane and me and my boarding pass were high-tailing it down the concourse to Whitcoulls.
Ordering a juice was the next order of the day as I waited for my boarding call. I really don't know what possessed me to check my boarding pass. I've had this flight booked since December 2010. But check it I did, and yup, sure enough there was my boarding time: 1840 hours. Yup, I thought, that's awesome. Twenty to seven for boarding, taking off at seven - on track. But I kept looking at it... why did it look wrong? Then I saw what you've already figured out: I had a PM boarding pass for an AM flight.
The help desk was extremely helpful - understanding that I am extremely stupid and quite possibly "special" she went out in her high-viz vest to retrieve my bag. I was running through the scenarios while she was gone - if I get the next possible flight, maybe I'd only miss half a day of the workshop I was booked into for the day. Re-budgeting in my head to compensate for the new ticket I would need to purchas (I had a non-transferable, non-refundable ticket) wondering how to cope with the ribbing and eye rolling I would have to endure from everyone - this isn't the first time I've done this.
When the Air New Zealand help desk woman came back, I was surprised to see she didn't have my bag. I was also surprised when the boarding pass machine cranked up and she handed me a new one.
"I've got you on the 7:20am flight, Michelle." she said "You bag has been relabeled and checked in. It's already on the plane."
Wow. I mean, wow! With all the commuters in the terminal wanting to travel to Wellington on a Monday morning I didn't think I'd get a seat until lunchtime.
I expressed my gratitude. My surprise. Credit card in hand I asked how much I owed her. She screwed up her nose a little and said "Don't worry about it."
"Really? but I don't have a refundable or transferable ticket!"
"You booked this online in December. Next time use the 24 hours after purchase to check and change what you need to. This time, we'll take care of it."
So joy of joys, I was only 15 minutes late for my workshop.
I'm going to have to employ someone to double-check all my travel tickets and, as we've already established at work, my leave applications*.
*I booked two return flights to NZ in December. Without looking at a calendar, I didn't realise there were only two days between those two trips - so I could have taken those two days leave and spent 3 weeks in NZ! I wonder if this old dog will ever learn these coordinating tricks....