American Airlines is NOT my friend.

The kids are due in Las Vegas on Saturday. I made their airline reservations two MONTHS ago. They will be traveling without an adult, and the airline was well aware of this fact.

I called to confirm the reservations and to make certain that they had them listed as unaccompanied minors. There was good news and there was bad news.

They did, in fact, have the reservations. They did, in fact, have them listed as unaccompanied minors.

BUT, and this is a biiiiiiiig BUT...Perrin and Darcy are too young to travel on this particular schedule. EXCUSE ME?! Kids under 8 cannot take a flight that isn't a direct flight. They cannot change planes. Our reservations required a change of planes! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!

One would THINK that they could have told me that when I made the reservations with them the FIRST time! Ok, so they offered to cancel these reservations and give us credit with American Airlines so we could buy other tickets to get the kids there.

That's a problem. See, they don't have any direct flights from DC to Vegas. So that credit would do us no fucking good.

As I was talking to the AA representative - who fully understood my frustration - I conferenced in Tai at work. I figured he ought to hear this bullshit, too. Thankfully, he asked to speak directly to the woman's supervisor, who agreed, immediately, to simply refund our money.

Now, my mother-in-law has already spent several hundred dollars on tickets for things that she is taking the kids to in or around Vegas. She has specific dates that they are supposed to do these things. Plus, of course, I am flying to Illinois to see my grandfather, and I was going to be gone essentially the same time the kids were. If they weren't going to go to Vegas, I couldn't fly home either! Sooooo...I had to find a damn flight to put the kids on that would have them in Vegas the same days the original itinerary had them there.

Another problem. When a company credits your credit card, the credit doesn't go through for several days. Well, in just three short days, they need to be on a plane. Ugh. I had to ask my m-i-l to use her credit card in order to make the second reservations. That totally sucks. I hated that more than any of the rest of the fiasco.

Thankfully, United Airlines has a direct flight from DC to Vegas on Saturday, so I was able to get the kids reservations with them. There weren't any flights available for the original return date, but they did have seats for the following day. So Grandma will get to have the kids one extra day.

It has not been a good day. But thankfully, it's all been straightened out, and life can go on as planned.