Travel SNAFU #1

We left Ghent this morning for the Brussels airport to return our faithful Vasavagn and board our 15:55 flight out of Europe. I like to arrive at airports early; I don’t mind being bored and I do mine being stressed and rushed. We added 45 minutes to the drive time (in case of traffic), added another half hour for possible complications returning our car, and aimed to be in the airport two hours before our flight.

The drive worked out okay, but the airport was under construction and we missed the rental car return sign so the extra loop through the construction zone added about thirty minutes. Returning the rental amounted to throwing the keys over the counter and saying “see ya!” Very simple return. So, we get into the airport terminal about two hours and forty five minutes before out flight… only our flight wasn’t on the departure board. Another flight to Marrakech was, but it left at 13:55 (in thirty minutes time).

Oh shit. United had notified us that our itinerary had changed, but on a 20 segment RTW ticket, it is very difficult to see what changed. We’d missed the flight change! Amazingly, the lady at the counter was polite, helpful and fast! Bags checked, Star Alliance Gold fast track through security. We got to gate ten minutes before boarding. The only thing we failed to do was getting Moroccan Dirham.

The flight actually had a stop-over in Agadir and though it left two hours earlier, it arrived only ten minutes shy of our originally planned arrival time.