Why I'm not in Jordan

I should be floating in the Dead Sea right now.

Instead, I'm still in France, not on vacation. On January 1st, Alitalia called me. I was slightly taken aback. First, it was a Sunday. Who does business on a Sunday? Second, it was New Year's Day. Who does business on New Year's Day? Apparently, Alitalia does.

The woman informed me that Alitalia is cancelling permanently their route to Amman, Jordan. And thus...my upcoming flight is cancelled. When I asked her if they could rebook it through one of their constituents, she replied, "Our only constituent who flies to Amman is AirFrance and they are refusing to cooperate with us on this. We sincerely apologize."

I laughed and wanted to tell her, "Honey, I live in France. I understand the 'refuse to cooperate mentality'." Instead I said, "So what are my options?"

"You can fly to Jordan and back before January 8th, or we need to cancel your full itinerary." Well, since I couldn't leave for Jordan the very next day, I asked them to cancel my full itinerary.

"Would you like to be refunded?"

Well what kind of question is that?! No, no, y'all go head and keep my rather expensive vacation plane ticket for yourselves and I'll be content with no vacation and no money. I think they were hoping that I would say I'd like to use the part that got me to Rome, and therefore to keep some of my money. The thing is, I've been to Rome. If I'd wanted to go to Rome or anywhere else in Italy for my vacation, I would have booked my ticket as such. But I wanted to go to Jordan, and that's why I booked my ticket to go there. Crazy, I know.

"Yes, I would like to be refunded, please. Will you be sending me an email that explains you cancelled my flight and refunding me for it?"

"No...you can use your confirmation email from when you booked your ticket as your documentation."

I scratched my head in confusion. A confirmation email for a confirmed, booked, paid-for ticket will by my proof that THEY cancelled my ticket and are going to fully refund me? After a week had gone by, and I'd received no email and no money, I called Alitalia back.

After this particular woman had confirmed that my flight definitely was cancelled, and the original call had not been a scam, she too, asked if I would like to be refunded for my flight. Um, yes please! I in turn asked her if I could please receive some sort of documentation about all of this, and she replied, "My department is incapable of providing that. You'll need to contact customer service."

Huh? I understand contacting customer service...but you'd think with this many cancelled flights they'd have a blanket email they'd already typed up and just click "send." In today's day and age, it sure seems ridiculous to me that they were not providing any kind of written documentation about why my flight was cancelled. I wrote the customer service asking for something, anything, in writing.

I have not heard back from them. And don't really think I will.

The good news is...the money finally showed up in my bank account yesterday. A full refund. I am grateful for that. However...the tickets to Jordan during the next two months (when I have to finish up "this year's" vacation time) are way more than what I'd originally paid. So while I might still hopefully get to float in the Dead Sea this year, I don't think it'll happen in the next two months.

It looks like I'll either be doing a staycation or a Pariscation before April 1. And probably avoiding Alitalia from now on...

I would also like to add that I think it was God's providence and grace that Alitalia cancelled my flight. The friend I was supposed to stay with and visit in Jordan had a sudden family death this past week, and thus had to return to the US. If I were in Jordan right now, I'd be floating in the Dead Sea all by myself. And I'm very glad I'm not. And sad for my friend and her family. And thankful for the hope that we have as Christians that she only had to say goodbye-for-now.

God is good...even in cancelled vacations.