4-1-07

Amsterdam! City of canals and wooden shoes! So far I haven't seen either but hope to as soon as possible. It's my first full day here and am still jet lagged as all hell, suffering through a perpetual headache and strange sleep patterns. But that's not important right now, what's important is that I almost, nearly didn't make my flight. Dig:

A few days before April 1st I made my reservation online through KLM (Dutch airline) via their website, got an e-ticket booking confirmation, printed it out and thought I would be on the plane in a couple of days. The next day, however, I got an email from KLM stating that I would have to submit another credit card as the one I had previously submitted expired April 30th. A bit confused, I emailed them another credit card number and asked to be told if it went through or not. A couple days passed and no word from KLM so I assumed (incorrectly) that everything was fine. At Kansai International airport in Osaka the following day I was surprised when I was told by the pretty woman behind the counter that the piece of paper in my hand was only a booking confirmation and not a reservation confirmation. Huh? There's a difference? Apparently, as I was informed that I would need acquire a reservation before boarding the plane as the ticket had not been bought. What? I had just checked my email hours ago and no word from KLM. Ok ok, they try to contact Visa to see if it was charged but Visa Japan says we need to call Visa America to figure it out. Then later we discover that not even Visa knows what's going on as the credit payment is 'Pending'. Uh, right. I try to use the Mastercard information but no, they need a physical card. They say I can pay for the ticket right there and I think great, here's my Visa card which hasn't been used in a while. Nope, the Visa is freaking locked down! Fraud alert or some ridiculous crap like that, and Visa knows I'll be traveling! Accompanied by a flight attendant we go to the ATM downstairs to try to get out as much money as I can in order to pay cash. Unfortunately I'm down $120, damn. We try to pay the difference with the Visa but, as previously mentioned, it's locked down. Now the possibility of not making the flight is becoming a real possibility, as I can't even pay a ridiculously high price for even a spur-of-the-moment ticket. The flight attendant (who has been with me almost the whole time), suggests that we go back to the ATM even though I've told her I can't take out any more money. Entering the initial stages of total freak out, I accompany her. On the way she asks me "You need to get to Amsterdam today? You can't go tomorrow?" I say 'No', and then she says "I have 12,000 yen, I can give it to you and then you can send me the money after you land". Right then I am totally at a loss for words. This attendant is willing to give me, a complete stranger, money that in all odds she will never see again. I say "Thank you" in as many ways that I know how in Japanese and she says "Just don't tell me boss, maybe she kill me". We buy the ticket in cash and she rushes me to my gate, giving me her contact information and leaves as I look to see my flight . . . delayed 2 hours due to broken plane (technical problem). So all the running around, working up a sweat in the airport terminal was unnecessary but still, I had a ticket and I knew Marije was still going to be there to pick me up when I landed, over 11 hours later.

Waiting for the plane I looked at the woman's information that she sent me, her name is Tsuda Tsugumi and she gave me 3 email addresses, her mobile phone number and address in Osaka. I don't have the money to send her now but will be doing so as soon as I do have it and a way to send it to her. Of course I'll also be sending her gifts as well for bailing me out of a potentially very inconvenient situation. As far as the credit cards are concerned, there were no charges made on them and KLM apologized for not telling me that I had no ticket.