It's Never That Easy.

Mom is coming out at Easter and staying for a week. (yay!!!) The cost of the flight for her this time was considerably mitigated by my use of accumulated Aeroplan miles... all I paid were taxes on her flight. I was feeling pretty good about this.

Then I got the email that dad had changed his mind and wanted to come, as well. No problem, says I, and logged on to the Aeroplan site to book another ticket.

No such beastie. Apparently the one I bought for mom was The Last Ticket Sold. Neither love nor money and certainly not reward miles are getting dad out here on that flight. I called the reward center and was told by a rather snotty agent that I was SOL as the last Aeroplan seat was sold.

(Brief aside here for all the people who are really puzzled 'cause they remember my Dad dying in October. This is my birth mother and her husband I am referring to here... her husband is not actually my biological father but he's my mother's husband... therefore dad. This is as opposed to my adoptive mum. I refer to both as mom/mum, get used to the confusion.)

It was such a major coup to have dad agree to come out, and the argument that decided it for him was the fact that I was laying out my reward points for him, as I had to use them else I'd lose them. (God bless Air Canada. Cheap bastards.)

Anyhow. What to do??! I could book an actual ticket for him, but at hideous expense and kind of taking the point right out of using reward miles. I was panicking hard at this point in time, not helped at all by the fact that DH, my stable rock in such (actually, all) situations, is out of town and out of touch. Damn bad timing.

A few more minutes of panic before something the agent said clicked. If the last Aeroplan seat was sold... what about other reward seats?

DH and I love to travel, as you may have guessed, and are in 3 different reward systems with ample points in each. It was the work of a moment to pull out another card, go to the website and find the same flights- ready and available and fully redeemable by reward points. Due to technical difficulties I can't book online, and can't call- the call center is closed- but if I call first thing in the morning, I should be okay. If these seats are reserved by reward programs, as the agent implied, there ought to be a seat for him left in the morning. Pleeeaaase!!! I hate to get everyone all excited and then call him to tell him it's not going to work out.

Gah!!! The frustration will gnaw at me all night and taint my dreams.