Visa Notification, and pleasant airline ticket story

March 25 late afternoon we both received an e-mail from the Portuguese consulate informing us that our visa application was approved and authorized. Tomorrow morning I will take the train in to the city and hand-deliver our passports to the VFS office! Typically it takes 4 working days to put the visa sticker in the passport. We have learned to not count on the timing -- don't hold your breath. After all, we applied for the visa last December 4th, and other later applicants already got their visas! And I had purchased a cheaper round-trip ticket, expecting to return to Porto on the 24th of March.

When the visa notification still had not arrived by last Friday, I worried about changing the ticket: what date would I change it to? We cannot be sure when the notification will arrive, and when we will get our passports back. Fortunately, they can suspend the itinerary for successive five-day periods. What a relief! Now we truly will not schedule our flight back until we have the passports + visa sticker in hand.

Details: I purchased our roundtrip ticket on KLM, with a change-fee. When I called FlyingBlue customer service they surprised me by offering to cancel the return schedule and hold the ticket open for 5 calendar days. After that time they will simply cancel the ticket. However, if I call before the 5-day period I can re-schedule the flight and then pay whatever extra fees the computer shows (I presume the change-fee plus the current charge for that flight over my credit for the ticket). Further, if I call before the 5-day period, I can simply ask them to reset the 5-day clock again, multiple times until I am ready to schedule the flight. Final deadline is 1 year after ticket purchase.

However, I did not ask about fees for seat-assignment and checked-baggage, some of which I already paid separately from the original ticket purchase. Will they re-instate those as well?

I assume other airlines would have similar policies -- at least the major airlines. But, as always, Your Mileage May Vary. Any similar stories?

Comments

Where we are working now

ISG Jubail School is the Anglo-American school for this area: Jubail is one of two planned industrial cities in Saudi Arabia, given a special royal commission for development and planning. Our district, the seven schools of International Schools Group, runs the school in the other industrial city -- Yanbu -- as well. Jubail is on the east coast, between Dhahran and Kuwait. Our nearby "big city" is the tri-city metropolis of Dhahran-Khobar-Dammam, where all the big shopping malls and quaint old markets are, along with the central 3 schools of our district, where Coleman attends high school. ISG Jubail has 410 students -- an average of 2 homerooms for each grade, K-10. Class size varies, up to 22. I have 12 in my required course "Computers & Information Management"; Barb has 12 students in her first-grade class. Most of the teaching staff come from the U.S., some from the Commonwealth. Several teachers are wives of engineers an...

Riding the Bus often

From 201010 Saudi scenes It is ironic that this land of cheap gasoline has so much group transport -- buses. From 201010 Saudi scenes Our housing compound has a Toyota-Coaster bus that takes some to/from school (we usually go earlier and return later, on a similar bus that the school provides). Driver Yahya takes residents on the 90-minute trip down to the Big City shopping every Thursday morning. The above picture shows our group one Thursday, usually going to Ikea or the new Lulu's Hypermarket , or the Dhahran Mall. Coleman rides a different bus every day to and from school -- usually 100 minutes there, 80 minutes back. His bus is evidently an old tourist bus, usually comfortable but a bit dusty. The air-conditioning usually works too well. I've ridden it with him several times, to attend business meetings at the district office. From 201010 Saudi scenes There he is, at 5:45am every morning, at the start of the bus run. Fortunately only about 20 stu...

Reservoir of European Youth, Parliament

A few days ago I walked to the nearby Pasteleira Park, planning to visit the city museum at the Reservoir. Walking through the park I noticed a large group of young people gathered in a circle, engaged in team-building activities. My days in education attuned me to the spectacle and piqued my interest, so I sat on a nearby bench and watched as a succession of enthusiastic students ran to the center and started an activity, which all the others joined enthusiastically. What sort of group would this be? A typical high school class would include a portion of disinterested teens, and others only half-heartedly participating. This crowd was unanimous in their excitement. I also noted that the leaders were speaking in English, though the breeze muffled the words. I walked around, found a couple of older participants on the side, with official-looking lanyards, and asked: this was an activity of European Youth Parliament , simil...

Thomas journals

Search This Blog