Day 45: Discouragement

Dear Everyone who is reading this blog,

Today I ran into a slight problem.  I would appreciate your prayers on this if you are of the praying inclination.  If not, maybe you are a travel agent and can solve all my woes!

What happened was this: I took myself over to the Air New Zealand office to arrange a date for my flight home.  I have already purchased this ticket, but, I guess because it was too long in advance, since I bought it in Feb. 2009, they couldn't actually book a date for it.  So I was told that I need to contact Air NZ in February.  Well, perhaps to my folly, I waited until early March to do this.  I want to book my ticket home for next January - both because the ticket is only valid for use until Jan. 17, 2011, and also so that I can use as much as possible of the one year visa that I possess to stay in NZ.  At the office I was told that there aren't any seats available for my fare class (which is the lowest possible fare class, I'm sure.)  The woman told me that she would put me on a waiting list for a seat, but she couldn't tell me what my chances are of actually getting a seat.  She also said I could pay a fare upgrade and move to a different class.  I don't especially want to do this; I have already paid for my ticket!  I am a bit concerned that I won't be able to get a flight that works with my other plans, or that it is going to cost me a lot of money to do that.  Additionally I'm frustrated that I didn't know that I had to act so fast to get a seat.  I have contacted the travel agent in the states who set me up with the ticket to see if they can help.  And I will check back with Air NZ because I think they can tell me the answers to those questions but they just have to find out what those answers are.

Thanks for listening!  I'm sure this situation will all work out somehow in the end.  I just hope it isn't too painful a process!