Be careful where you click, it can cascade into a nightmare

My daughter (who is 18, fresh out of high school) spent the summer at a pottery school in Tuscarora, Nevada. This is a place with a population of around 15 people. To get her there, I flew her Jet Blue into Salt Lake City, then via Greyhound to Elko, NV (a 5 hour ride) where the pottery people picked her up. I purchased her bus ticket online and mistakenly picked the wrong time for the ticket back to SLC (the wrong bubble in the selection list). She changed her tickettoday in Elko, they don't let you do that online or over the phone, and selected the ride that would arrive in SLC at 10 tonight which she thought would be plenty of time to catch her 11:40 flight out of SLC (I had originally meant to get her the one that arrived in SLC mid-afternoon).

Welllll, of course the bus was over an hour late and she missed her SLC flight(although she arrived at the airport before the flight left, they didn't let her through because they didn't think that she could make it through security in time for the flight. She calls me in tears from the airport so I immediately got online and on the phone to see what I could do. Getting a flight at the last minute is virtually impossible unless you have a credit card with the passenger name on it. JetBlue said they couldn't get her another flight until Monday at 11:40 PM. That was unacceptable. Being a discount airline they don't have privileges with other airlines to move her to another airline.

I tried Travelocity and the cheapest flight they had was over $900. I booked it, then checked Expedia which could fly her for $350 something. So, luckily, the people at Travelocity let me cancel, I was impressed, and I started to book her the flight, 4 different ones, to get her butt back to Rochester. Expedia can't handle a flight on that short of notice, so they said I should contact the airlines directly. It took me 3 hours of being on hold and figuring out that she had to pay cash. If you use a credit card, it has to in the passenger's name. I transferred some funds around, robbed Peter to pay Paul, and she will pay cash for her tickets(debit card) and be home Sunday night at 11:30. Holy fuck, what a night!

Just wanted to vent and warn you that if you are sending your offspring off traveling, make sure that they have a card in their name or all Hell can break loose. I am disappointed in JetBlue, but I understand that in order to keep fares low, they do these things.

Just feeling sorry for myself and my daughter. She will be in good shape by the time she gets home. I am gong to finish this glass of wine, maybe even another, and then catch some zzzzzzzz.

I never thought of asking for people in the SLC area who could have put my daughter up until the flight Monday night. I know there is a strong bond amongst us. Perhaps someone could have stepped up to the plate and offered assistance.

It's always worth asking, although there are certainly safety concerns.

Flying used to be so much fun... (sigh)

It sounds like Am is even getting hard to travel in, Soon I will need a visa to get out of Maine and into NH.Do you think we are any safer for all this? I do not.

By the time you need a visa to travel between states, you will be able to keep track of whomever you wish on line. Just put in their name and/or their easy to remember 23 character personal number.... and with the help of an federally mandated, privately operated company that tracks the whereabouts of every ones implanted microchip....

Ahhhh, peace of mind.

My son called me from Rome to ask me to help him find his luggage that never made it.. They were boarding a bus to Florence (where he was going to school), and lots of his group's luggage never made it onto the plane at Heathrow..

I spent hours on the phone with British Airways trying to find his bags.. Everything he took with him was missing for 4 days, but it eventually got to him :)..

Kids get used to Mom & Dad "fixing it" for them...even when they get older :)

We have had good luck with Jet Blue and I am sorry your daughter had problems.. :(

on short notice it's always better to coontact the airlines directly and always GET NAMES :)..

Glad that she's on her way :)