Yesterday was something of a triumph (eventually) because I managed to draw lines under things. I don’t mean I was one of those recalcitrants who go about scribbling on walls. I don’t think I’ve ever done that… Oh, apart from once when I drew an Intercity 125 (complete with train) on the wall of an underpass in Chippenham, but that was part of a project with young people, and we had been asked to do it by the council… I mean, I drew a line under the editing of the next book and sent the files off to my proofreader. Challenge one completed. Then, I had some ideas about the front cover and sent those off to my cover designer. Challenge two completed. The next one was to take the rest of the morning: cashing in the free tickets we won from Aegean Airways on January 1st. First, this:
[In a side quest, we walked down to Yialos at 5pm yesterday, making a rare late-afternoon appearance before taking a taxi back.]
I have to admit, I had a few frustrating starts and stops when I set out on this ticket-booking task, mainly because I could not get the special code accepted on the website. I read and reread the instructions on the letter, and one of them said if you have any problems, phone this number… A few days ago, when we started the process, we’d done just that, and the lady told us to follow the link in the email she would send. It came, and we followed, and it led to the booking process that would not accept the code. So, we thought again. Yesterday, I had another go, trying various options, and managed to have the code accepted during the first phase of the operation, but it failed later in the process, and I couldn’t understand why. In the end, I threw my phone phobia aside and called the help centre. A very helpful chap there talked me through the process as though I were an imbecile (for which I was very grateful), and off I went to have another go. To no avail, and I still couldn’t work out why. In the end, I dropped them a message via their Facebook Messenger, and Lo! There came unto the quester a very helpful reply by a human. (I had already encountered a few ‘bots’ along the journey, various AI-driven searches and so on, all to no useful avail.) Being written to by a real person was so refreshing, and so right that I was able to identify the problem within a few minutes, and Lo! (I hit a few Lo!s yesterday), there it was, code accepted all the way to the end of the process, massive discount applied, only the taxes to pay, and please use a credit card to do this… Which wasn’t accepted. Nor was the other one I tried, so back to square two, because I had already passed square one.
Another random pause:
I was only booking a ticket for Neil to go to Scotland and visit the littl’uns (on his own because we can’t afford for me to go swanning around the yUK for ten days), so I tried using his card and, for some reason, it worked. Hi! We have a ticket as promised, which, although isn’t completely free (you still have to pay airport taxes), is heavily reduced and has saved us over €600, so Happy New Year and thank you to Aegean Airlines! Who, it must be said, were completely helpful and charming throughout the process, and the problems encountered only came about because of a vague piece of wording in the letter. It transpired that I had to opt for the most costly of the three economy options, the FlexiPlus, to ensure that the passenger not only pays nothing for the flight, but also has free hold luggage, etc. The online system only told me in pop-up boxes what was wrong, ‘code not accepted’, not what to do to correct the error, ‘please select FlexiPlus’, but we got there in the end. Which means, all remaining well, he will get there in the end too.
I’m not sure what to do with my ‘free’ ticket as yet. If there is a sudden upturn in fortune, then I may still join the flights and do something in the yUK, though I am planning to go there early next year for Mother’s 90th birthday (my freebie runs out on December 31st, so I will have to travel with ‘ready’ money).
Anyway, you didn’t need to know any of that, but with little else to report locally, it will have to do for now.
