The Best Unanswered Prayer

About a year ago, I endured a bitter disappointment. Over spring break, I made arrangements to fly to Guatemala for a Spanish language immersion program that seemed absolutely perfect for my needs and my priorities. The program combined the school with mission work, and all the proceeds benefited the small mountain village where I would be staying. I was a little put off by the admonition not to drink the water or even to use it for brushing my teeth, but I was more than a little excited about experiencing a primitive way of life. Part of my room and board would cover laundry service... washed in a lake! I figured I would try my hand at doing a bit of laundry just so I could see what it was like for my ancestors.

The week before, I had run several errands in order to update my passport. I was so proud of myself for getting that business taken care of months ahead of time.

In under a week, my new passport arrived! I couldn't believe the efficiency of our government (this time). Inside the package was a pamphlet with instructions for registering my trip so that the embassy would know where to find me in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency. Immediately, I went online and registered. At the end of the process, a travel advisory message filled the screen: "The U.S. government strongly advises travelers to reconsider travel plans to this location." I clicked a link for details about travel advisory level 3 (on a scale of 4).

I was horrified to read about violence on the highways out of Guatemala City, where criminals sometimes set up roadblocks and shoot people before taking all of their belongings. I knew that my fair skin and blue eyes would mark me as a tourist, and that traveling alone as a female could also make me a target.

I literally felt nauseated. I had just spent $900 on a nonrefundable ticket and paid a $50 deposit to the school. For two days, I'd been imagining myself living in that lovely mountain village, pounding my clothes against the rocks at the edge of the brilliant blue lake. Maybe I could just go. The village itself seemed quite safe, and I'd be arriving in the daylight. Surely I could get in and out of Guatemala City without incident.

The words echoed in my mind: "Strongly advises... reconsider travel plans."

If I decided to go, I knew I'd have to lie to my mama. Worrying about her daughter in a foreign country for three weeks would have been bad enough, but throwing government warnings into the mix might just kill her.



I said a quick prayer and called American Airlines. I started to explain my story to the agent, but she cut me off. "It doesn't matter about the danger," she said. "If it's been more than 24 hours, the ticket is nonrefundable."

I clenched my fists. "I think it has been just over 24 hours," I said. "So what are my options? Can I reuse-"

"Just a moment," the woman said. I could hear the click of her keyboard, keeping time with my pounding heart. At last, she said, "You're in luck! You're just under the 24 hours. You don't have to do anything."

"But..." I murmured, thinking back. I felt sure that I had purchased the ticket late on Thursday night, and now it was Saturday morning. I thought about how you sometimes don't get the automated email until the day after you purchase a flight. Maybe the flight hadn't actually ticketed until Friday morning.

"So do you want me to cancel it?"

I took a deep breath. "Yes, please."

For the next week or so, I was giddy with relief and gratefulness to my Father. Who ever heard of getting your passport in the mail within a week? And what were the odds that it would arrive, along with the travel registry instructions, just in time for me to cancel my flight with no penalty? As always, I was baffled and awed by God's ability to work out the tiniest details according to His perfect timing.

Within a few days, I had found another perfect destination, the Christian Immersion Spanish Academy in lovely Costa Rica, which carries a level 1 advisory (exercise normal travel precautions). This location also served as both a school and a mission, and it was designed for preparing missionaries to go to Latin American countries--though anyone can go. I loved it that there would be a spiritual aspect to my training. I also liked the slightly lower airfare, only $800 for a direct flight. Nice!

I spent the next few weeks exulting over God's goodness in both resolving the Guatemala problem and leading me to a program that would help me grow spiritually while I learned Spanish.

No More Exulting
On a lovely Saturday morning in April, I went out to check the mail. Inside, I found the first bill for my AAdvantage credit card, which I'd used to purchase the flights. Even though I knew I'd find an $800 charge, I still braced myself as I unfolded the sheet.

What I actually found was two charges, a $900 flight to Guatemala and an $800 flight to Costa Rica a few days later. I let out an involuntary cry in my kitchen even though there were only two cats to hear it. "What??" I yelled. "How...?"

First, I prayed and asked God to help me get this sorted out. Surely the airlines would make it right. Probably they could refund the Guatemala trip and apply that against the Costa Rica ticket.

No. They could not.

In a bored voice, the phone agent explained that a nonrefundable ticket was just that: nonrefundable. "You should have used your ticket when you reserved the second flight. Then you would have just paid a change fee."

"I didn't know I had a ticket to use!" I roared. "I already told you. The agent told me that I had called within the 24 hours. Obviously, if I hadn't been misinformed, I would have reused my ticket."

"I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do for you," she said. But she didn't sound at all sorry.

I said another, more frenzied, prayer and then called the credit card company. Their representative was a little more sympathetic, but she didn't sound too hopeful about my prospects. Even so, she walked me through starting a dispute on the charge for the first ticket.

She was right. They reinstated the disputed charge within about 10 days.

Over the next few weeks, I grew more and more livid as I spent hours on hold and on the line with various American Airlines agents and supervisors. There was one supervisor who appreciated the validity of my complaint, and she tried very hard to help me, but in the end, rules are rules. She did help me to file a complaint online, and after several prematurely closed cases, I received a small concession. I could reuse the $900 ticket toward any destination without a change fee. Yay! Maybe I could use it during the summer of 2019 for a return trip to Costa Rica.

No, I could not. My travel would have to be completed within one year of the ticketing date. Even though my original flight had been scheduled for July of 2018, my free flight would have to be taken by March of 2019.

My arguments that a teacher really needs to schedule foreign travel during the summer months fell on deaf ears--or eyes, as the case may be; at that point, all communication occurred via email. They were very sorry, but that was the best they could do.

When I told the whole story to my family, my sister-in-law Diane suggested that maybe God wanted me to take another vacation. That's not what I wanted to hear. To be honest, I'd been a little mad at God for not making the airlines take responsibility for their agent's mistake.

I decided I would buy a flight to Costa Rica for March 2019, and then I'd pay a change fee and switch it to July. Take that, big, powerful airline! I thought.

Fast forward to last month. Before executing my brilliant plan, I thought it prudent to call American Airlines one more time and make sure that I would be able to change the ticket. The last thing I wanted was to repeat history and blow hundreds of dollars on a trip I couldn't take.

The phone agent told me that I would not be able to change that ticket because my travel on the reused ticket must be completed before March 29.

I raised an eyebrow. "But couldn't I just pay a change fee and change the date?"

"No," she said firmly.

"Well, can I use the credit for two tickets? For me and for my daughter?"

"No," she said.

DARN IT!!! The only option I had, aside from letting go of $900, was taking a trip over spring break, probably by myself. I didn't think I could afford to take Allyson with me.

So I posted a message on Facebook asking where a person might travel for $900. While I waited for answers, I reached out to my oldest sister, Melody. I was prepared to vacation by myself, but I figured it would be a lot more fun to do a sisters' trip.

To my surprise and delight, she readily agreed--even though she'd be taking another spring break trip with her husband the following week. (Joe is a college professor.)

Melody had a lot more time, so I let her choose the destination. She found a lovely beach cottage on St. George Island in northern Florida. This quiet island has pristine beaches and a beautiful state park, as well as a picturesque lighthouse. And lots of fresh seafood. Perfect!

I quickly made the flight arrangements and reserved a rental car for free, using my frequent flyer miles. (For the record, the agent who booked the flight kindly informed me of the $250 fee, should I need to make any changes to my itinerary. I strongly suspect that I had previously been misinformed of my options--a second time. Oh well.) 

Sisters' Trip
Last Sunday evening, we were off. Here was my first adventure:

Melody texted: "Extra special security check... lol!" 

It turns out that when they say you can't have anything in your pockets when you go through that circular scanner, they mean anything--even a cloth hankie that you don't remember stuffing in your pocket. I had one very thorough pat-down, including the area that the agent politely referred to as my "groin." She then swabbed my hands, and the scanner beeped out a warning; I have no idea what it thought it found. 

The agent called over a supervisor. "Her swab alarmed," she said. 

I was then called over to another area, pictured above, for an even more thorough pat-down and full body swabbing. I could see Melody snickering as she took the photo, but I tried very hard to keep a straight face. Somehow, I feared that laughing would make me appear even more suspicious.

Luckily, the second scanning machine found nothing untoward on my swab, and the agent found nothing dangerous between or under my boobs, nor down the waistband of my jeans. 

Because we had arrived about two hours before flight time, the delay caused no stress, only laughter. 

Our flight was uneventful, and we managed to end up at the front of the very long rental car line. We started our 1 hour and 40 minute drive around 11:45 PM. The highlight of that journey was my very first McDonald's coffee frappe, which should properly be called a milkshake. Oh my! I never knew 510 calories after midnight could taste so incredibly wonderful.

The roads were eerily deserted, and we could see nothing of the bay or the gulf due to a heavy fog. I was a little tense, but we kept up a steady stream of conversation all the way there and arrived in no time. Though it was now past 1, we still found the energy to exclaim over the charming decor. The cottage was just as lovely as the pictures I'd been staring longingly at during my most trying teaching moments over the previous couple of weeks. 

Over the next four days, we...

• Climbed 92 steps in the lighthouse. I could not imagine doing that carrying a 5-gallon can of coal oil, like the lighthouse keepers and their wives used to do.

• Took an air boat ride, on which we saw a 14-foot alligator and several alligator babies, plus some incredibly beautiful foliage. 

• Ate oysters.... Melody insisted. Meh! 

• Read for hours on the beach. It was too cold to think of swimming--unless you're a kid, apparently.  

I finished The Nightingale, a gift from my niece Erin.
You've gotta read it!

• Walked for miles along the beach at sunset 

Lots of jellyfish... hard to believe they are so beautiful in the water

• Rode bikes along the beach road, maybe 12 miles.  

Melody may paint this beautiful scene

  

• Ate lots of desserts and drank lots of coffee. This gelato was divine. 

• Walked 5 miles in the wooded state park, through the sand. I got a little winded and laughed at myself as I imagined the fit young soldiers who used to train there, probably carrying heavy packs. We'd forgotten our water, but God graciously provided. At an empty campsite on the beach, we found a case of waters that somebody probably didn't want to carry back out. (I've been there. Primitive camping is a beating.) 
• Watched several great Netflix movies and one mediocre, but sweet, one. We were pretty proud of ourselves for figuring out how to hook the TV to Melody's iPhone. 

The best parts of all were hours of heart-to-heart talks and lighthearted chatter. This is the first time we've had an opportunity to spend so much time together, uninterrupted. So I guess my sister-in-law was right. God could have answered my prayers and made American Airlines take responsibility for their agent's mistake... but I'm so glad He didn't. He is so good to me!