i've had a pretty bad percentage of frustration with airlines given the number of times i've flown compared to how many times i've been frustrated. and after reading many other stories of annoyance from other interwebbers, i've decided that the airline industry is pretty screwed up, and it's only getting worse with terrorist paranoia, and gas price increases.

my problems mostly had nothing to do with either issue unless you count that increased gas prices caused me to be over-elated and had me jump on a plane ticket that was half the price of every other ticket i'd seen. and that ticket i got actually turned out to be incredibly wearisome.

shortly after purchasing a one-way ticket to korea i received a phone call from the airline asking if i have all proper documentation for a one-way ticket. interesting. i of course had no follow up documentation to help me out so she told me to call the embassy and make sure that it was alright. I called several people, the embassy, the korean school I was going to work for, other friends in korea, and asked them all if it was alright. nothing seemed amiss, but nothing was absolutely definite. I figured if all else failed I had enough money in the bank in korea to allow me safe passage.

When I got to the airport it was a different story. it seems that regardless of my confidence of the flight being ok, they have an absolute no fly rule unless you have a visa, or a ticket out of the country, because if you don't then the onus is on the airline to fly you back.

I didn't understand this before, but they made it more than clear as I was standing there ready for check-in, and they wouldn't let me. They gave me a number to call to book another flight out of korea. Since i needed to fly to japan for my visa anyway i booked a flight for japan. of course i was not able to book a flight with their airline because they did not fly where i needed them to fly.

so what happens when you can say you have a ticket but you can't prove it. of course. nothing. so i said if i bought some internet time on my laptop to show the email confirmation. funny story, i ran to the other side of the airport to try and get the internet when it turned out i could get the internet right there. it cost $10 just to show an email confirmation of my ticket. and it turned out they couldn't even use that confirmation because it didn't say the ticket number.

to get a ticket number i had to go back to the payphone and call this new airline to get my ticket number from the ticket i just bought an hour ago. this process usually takes much longer, but after 10 minutes on the phone i was able to get it.

i raced to check in finally at 9:40 with my plane leaving at 10am. as i got through i luckily found out thatthe flight was delayed.

and now it's 10:20 and i'm boarding. see you in korea