Jaunted

Travel Snafu #1: No ride to JFK
Despite impeccable directions, the Dial 7 car service I'd pre-ordered to take us to the airport at 5 am never showed. After 30 minutes of escalating panic--and several choice words to the dispatcher--Jeff and I tore off into the predawn darkness searching for alternate transportation.

Solution for next time: Order three cars and just take the first one that shows up.

Travel Snafu #2: Check-in mayhem
After tracking down an overpriced ride, we arrived at the international terminal to find a line at the Avianca desk so long, it looked like an American Idol general casting call. We decided to wait our turn, as patiently as possible. As 90 minutes turned into less than 30, I finally broke down grabbed the lone Spanish-speaking Avianca ticket helper and frantically told him that we were going to miss our flight if we weren't allowed to move up.

Solution for next time: Jump on the shorter, faster business class line and feign surprise that I'm actually holding a coach class ticket.

Travel Snafu #3: Overbooked flight
With 20 minutes till departure, we were standing in front of a ticket agent who peered at us apologetically and said, "Oh yes, I am sorry, but we have overbooked your plane and you cannot go today. Every airline reserves the right to overbook the flight by 3 percent, and everyone else has checked in. You'll just have to go tomorrow." With that, I erupted into sobs, and moved away from the counter, afraid of doing something illegal to the ticket agent.

Solution for next time: Actually, I wouldn't change a thing. True, is wasn't an empowered female move, but tears virtually never fail. The guy called a supervisor who somehow squeezed us on the flight.

Travel Snafu #4: Missing boarding passes
Snatching our tickets, we tore off through security and barely made the flight. We later realized that the ticket agent had neglected to print our connecting boarding passes, requiring us to go through immigration in Colombia, exit the terminal and try to explain our situation (in Spanish) to a reservation agent in Bogotá.

Solution for next time: Not much to be done here--all bets (and temper tantrums) are basically off once you're in South America. We followed the rules, got our tickets and finally made it to Ecuador on our flight--after another two hour delay, of course. The day's silver lining? The airline managed not to lose our luggage. Now that's lucky.

Related Stories:
· Jaunted Field Trips [Jaunted]
· Ecuador Travel coverage [Jaunted]