We should have known better.
It was unwise to write about our meticulous planning on the eve of a major trip.
When Phileas Fogg, the hero of Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, confidently states “The unforeseen does not exist,” twelve-year-old Brian was too young to recognize the irony of the remark.
Some decades later, we both definitely do, as it hit us like a ton of bricks this morning.
We suspect the cause of our misadventure was the well meaning efforts of an Alaska agent yesterday after we landed at Seattle.
We asked her to print boarding passes for our flights to Toronto on Alaska, SEA-YYZ, and our Alaska codeshare flight on Condor onward to Frankfurt, YYZ-FRA.
After a light dinner and lighter night’s sleep at the SEA Airport Doubletree, we arrived back at the airport around 5:50 AM in plenty of time for our 9:00 AM departure… or so we thought.
When we arrived at the TSA PRECHECK line entry, the monitor turned us away because Kathy’s BP didn’t include the necessary “PreCheck” confirmation.
Back we went to the zoo that’s Alaska’s baggage drop area. A lot of is self-serve, and the trick is to find an employee carrying an iPad.
As we searched, Kathy managed to find an online BP that included the magic words. We returned to the line, showing off our credentials, and the line monitor let us proceed.
Problem solved? Not quite.The TSA agent discovered that Kathy’s birthdate on her BP didn’t match the one on her passport. In fact, it was identical to Brian’s. It was back to Alaska in search of an employee who could fix the mistakes.
Eventually we found one, but it was a tense 5-10 minutes of searching, the kind of moment in which the traveler wonders if the whole trip has gone up in smoke.
She managed to fix everything on her iPadwithin a few minutes and it was back to the PreCheck line monitor and the TSA agent, both of whom were old acquaintances by now.
To cut to the happy ending, we’re seated in Row 1C-1D nearly halfway to Toronto.
We’ve enjoyed surprisingly tasty breakfast hash dishes, accompanied by yogurt and fresh melon, and lubricated by breakfast cocktails - Bloody Marys for Kathy and Screwdrivers for Brian, since you insist on knowing.
Our marsh has been mellowed, and short power naps are in order, given that we still have Canada immigration and CATSA (Canadian Air Transport Security Authority) to navigate in Toronto, not to mention German immigration when we land at FRA in 14 or 15 hours.
So far, so good, they muttered optimistically to each other.
The unforeseen does indeed exist. How you deal with it is what counts.
Next time we’re scanning every detail on newly issued boarding passes for a start.
And now news arrives of a Lufthansa flight attendant strike this weekend. We’re all scheduled to fly from Germany to France Friday on Lufthansa.
Stay tuned.