Travel problems =1, Suzanne =0

It's a good thing I'm so darned prepared and organized or this day could have been a lot worse. My connection today in San Franciso was only an hour, therefore I missed the connecting flight to Seoul, Korea (then on to Hanoi, Vietnam). If I received a boarding pass for this leg of the flight in Denver I probably would have made it, but Asiana Airlines made me get the pass in San Fran...and their ticket counter was closed by the time I got there. After spending an hour on the phone with Asiana and their reservations agency I was told "Come back for tomorrow's flight and pay $100 for a new ticket and hope there is space available." WHAAAAT? The res guy also kept telling me to go to the Asiana ticket counter and I kept telling them they were closed and no one is there. And again he would tell me to just talk to agent at the counter. After the 3rd or 4th time he told me that (No exaggeration!) I opened up a can on him. He was absolutely no help and had me on hold for about 40 minutes while he checked with his supervisor who was also no help. After that phone call, I called talked to someone else from Asiana and they said the same thing "Go talk to the ticket agent at the ticket counter or come back tomorrow and pay for a ticket and the res office will reimburse you once you make a claim." After crying on the phone to her she said to talk to United Airlines since it's a codeshare flight. I went to United and two other passengers were having the same issue! Long story short, United got me onto a flight for tomorrow, rerouted my baggage, called Asiana to release my tickets with them, and didn't charge me a dime! Even the United agent was super frustrated with the Asiana agent she talked to and kept telling them that it was not my fault and that the connection time they booked for me was too short for international flights, so it's their fault. Scott flies to Cambodia in less than 3 weeks and he has the same connection time in SFO so hopefully he is able to change it before the same thing happens to him. I've never in my all my travels had such an awful experience with an airline's customer service. I could continue to go on and on, but I'll save that for the letter Asiana is going to receive. United seriously saved my ass, so they'll get one too...a nice one :)


So good news? At the very last minute I decided to bring my cell phone and my Ritz/Marriott employee ID. I also packed an extra outfit and my swim suit in my carry-on bag for those "just in case" scenarios. Well, this is a "just in case" moment and lucky for me I'm lounging at the SFO Courtyard Marriott for cheap and I'm going to test out my new swim suit in the hot tub!