Worst than WINZ

Many NZ students have applied for a student loan using the voice automated phone system. The voice says "I can understand what you say", but sometimes it has issues understanding. Well, what happened last night was much much worst.

Let me explain the situation first. My flights back to Sydney goes as follows: Houston-Sanfransico-Sydney. I had decided to go to Memphis and we thought it best to go straight after my honkie-tonk experience in Forthworth since we would be closer to an airport (Dallas) than Nachodoches. I had one free ticket for a round trip and could use it for part of my trip (Memphis to Sanfransico) and just needed to purchase a ticket from Dallas to Memphis. This seemed perfect since it would save someone a trip to Houston to drop me off at the airport.

Abbey and I had no issues purchasing the ticket to get me to Memphis. It took probably 5 minute intotal to book and pay. The silly thing though was it was cheaper to a round trip (return ticket) than it was to buy a one way. Secondly, I needed to buy the ticket to connect me to my international flight. This proved a lot more challenging. Over an hour of talking to a voice automated service and speaking to travel agents (who had hearing issues and had english as a second language), everything finally seemed on track.

One of the conditions for using my free ticket was that it needed to be booked at least 14days in advance of the trip taking place. Since it was yesterday and the flight wasn't until Dec 13th, it would be ok. Well, so I thought! 14 BUSINESS days! so what does that mean?

It means that, for me to use the free ticket, I need to be at an airport to take the ticket within 24hours of booking a flight. I checked for flights for this coming Wed to get a comparision of the likely available flights, if I were to wait until I got to Dallas (Dec 9) in order to book and get my ticket then. There were flights, but they were early morning and would arrive AFTER my international flight. I'd have to leave on the Tuesday and stay over in Sanfransico (if I manage to get a ticket). Oh, the drama. So... here I am, Monday 6:43am, writing this, thinking... hoping... praying... for a good solution and for God's peace in me.