What me? An upgrade? Oh my!

So we have now all packed and made sure our suitcases weigh less than 51 pounds. A little nap and then I get an email saying our flight has been delayed at least 90 minutes. Quick calculation lets me know that we will never make our connecting to flight to Amsterdam. Time to call British Airways customer service and beat the rush at the airport. I call and am connected to their India Call Center and a polite gentleman with a thick accent by the name of Raj ( at least that what I called him).

I politely explained that our flight from Phoenix to Heathrow has been delayed and will now arrive at 14:00 and my connection leaves at 14:35. He asks for my confirmation code and using Traditional English references I share it is Q as in Queen, Y as in Yardbirds, L as in Led Zepplin, the number 7 as in double oh, P as in which one is Pink, and B as in greatest band ever. He looks at the reservation and reading the factual data informa me that BA flight 400 arrives at 2pm and my BA 0446 flight leaves at 2:35 pm. what is the problem I can help you with?

I politely ask Raj what is the standard allottment for connecting from an international flight to a Euro Commenwealth flight including transversing Customs. ........  2 Hours........ A light bulb illuminates over Raj's head. We now spend the next 45 minutes convincing his suppervisors of the issue and that I require a rebooking free of charge on the amsterdam flight. We are successful in getting the next flight out which will now get us into Amsterdam at 18:45.  Long Day but we will be there and ready for drinks with Cindy.

Geoff drives us to the airport at our original departure time so we are beaucoup early. We breeze through the check in line for our baggage and a delighted to find out that because of my expiring US Air Chairmans status we have been upgraded and it includes Club access to wait out the delayed flight. So now we have business class flight and are currently having GT and VT's in the club away from the economy riff raff.


First of the day!