San Francisco

Well I got lucky and made the second flight from Sydney to LA. It was quite a panic as I got my boarding pass at 12:45 and the flight was scheduled to leave at 1:05pm and I still had to go through immigration and customs. I was the second to last person on the plane, sitting in economy beside this poor young guy that was soooo sick (coughing and sneezing). I immediately pulled out my drug bag and offered him an assortment of my cold and flu medication ( I have been so fortunate not to get sick). I did not sleep much on the way home and arrived in LA at 9:30 am (flight is 14 hours). In my panic to make the flight I emailed Michelle to ask her to change my Southwest Airline flight from LA to San Fran as I would not make the flight I booked as I did not get on the first plane out of Sydney.

When I arrived in LA my name was called over the loud speaker - I knew this was not a good thing and I was informed one of my bags was still on vacation in Sydney. So I waited for my other bag, well apparently it decided to go business class so it took some searching to find it as it was not on the luggage belt with the other economy bags!

I checked in at Southwest Airlines and found out Michelle had to pay an extra $100 to change my flight and had booked me on the 5:10pm flight but because she paid the extra I was able to change to an earlier flight 3:25(all other flights were booked). I enjoyed my first starbucks in a while and made my way to the gate. At the gate there was an announcement that the 3:25 flight was overbooked and was anyone willing to give up their seat for a $100 travel credit. I thought what the hell and volunteered but not only did I get a $100 credit, I got a credit for the entire cost of the flight as well in all a $289 credit (not bad for an hour and half wait).

Yesterday and today I spent with Hannah - she has a fever and has been vomiting to a trip to the doctors to find out the poor dear has strep throat but she is now on and antibiotic so hopefully will be herself in the next couple of days.

A few updates:

1. If you remember back to my issue with groupon - well I did not give up and after many calls while I was in Australia I finally got to talk to someone who was less than helpful. I have ended up with a groupon credit for half the value of what I paid for the voucher and I can use the credit in Canada. I will not bore you with the details but it is suffice to say this company seriously needs customer service training. They admitted they really don't know anything about the accommodation from other countries that they advertise - they take the word of the people who are advertising? They made no apologies for not contacting me and me chasing them down. Guess this is why there is a class action suit against them in the USA.

2. On my day with crocodile Dundee posting there are 4 videos - only two of them you will be able to play as I have not figured out how to remove the other two videos that say private when you try to view - still figuring out the new blogging program.

3. I hope everyone had enjoyed reading about my travels - in the last six months I have travelled all but 3 weeks, taken 46 different flights on 10 different airlines and I have travelled over 118,000 kilometers. This has been an opportunity of a lifetime and full of memories I will always cherish. Not to mention the number of completed ticks I now have on my bucket list.

In late September I am planning a trip to Britain and recently I put down on deposit on a South African safari next May - so this is not the end of my travels and there will be more blogs to come!

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