Home With Lessons Learned

We're home - I think. I'm too tired to fully comprehend it. We've returned to the heat and humidity. Because of my failing to read the "fine print" when I booked our flights, Monday was a long day. The Residence Inn would only extend our check-out time one hour to 1 p.m. I had hoped for at least two and maybe three hours. So we had 6.5 hours to kill. We tried shopping. That was good for about 45 minutes. We then went to the Old Country Buffet where we were able to sit about two hours, mostly drinking coffee and reading. Then we decided to head to the airport. There I did some more reading and also completed several items for Awana on my computer. But after hours of waiting we learned that the incoming flight that we were waiting for would be almost an hour late and that would eat up all the connection time we had in Chicago. Since we were on the last round of flights of the day, we envisioned spending the night in the terminal in Chicago. However, the good news was that when we finally did arrive in Chicago, we still had about 15 minutes to make the connection. The bad news was that we had to run from the far end of terminal B, through the tunnel under the runway, and then to the far end of terminal C. There couldn't have been a longer route for two United flights. We arrived, out of breath, with minutes to spare only to find that plane was late coming in. So we had to sit and wait once again. We finally pulled in home about 1:30 in the morning, exhausted. However, there were two times that day when I did read the "fine print". The first came when I received the hotel bill. The first night we stayed there I didn't sleep most of the night because of the noise in the room above us. In the morning I complained and they found us another room in a quieter location. What they didn't tell me was that the new room would cost more. In reviewing the bill I discovered this and complained to the manager. Reluctantly they agreed to only charge us the original rate. So by reading it carefully I saved almost $100. The second situation came when I returned our rental car to Hertz. After accepting the bill I reviewed it and found out that they charged me for a week plus an extra day. We were quoted a weekly rate and we had the car 19 hours less than a full week. Maybe with Hertz a week is only five days (when they can get away with it). The clerk couldn't make a change but fortunately the manager was close by and he agreed to make it right. Here I saved about $50. This was the first, and probably the last time I will deal with Hertz. When we picked up the car last week we had to wait 35 minutes for it to be delivered. I thought that when you were "Number One" that your service would be top notch. Wrong. Maybe you try harder just when you are number two. So we are home having saved $150 by reading the "fine print". Well, not quite. My last surprise came when we left the long-term parking lot at Middletown. Their charges have increased since we last flew a few months ago and our bill for parking was $60. So $150 - $60 ... I guess I am still $90 ahead. As they say, easy come, easy go.