Lessons learned from recent travels

Raquel and I have been in Brazil for the last two weeks to arrange some things for our wedding and visit her mom in the northeast. It's been good to be back in Brazil after more than a year and this trip has been a good one, with the exception of our airfare. Let me tell you a bit about that:

Until recently, I had a couple of misperceptions about airfare. Like many people, I viewed airfare as a bit of a commodity where price was the only really meaningful differentiator. To me, better service meant more attentive staff on the plane and perhaps fresher peanuts, certainly not worth an extra $100 even on an international flight. I have discovered that better service may actually mean that the airline is more likely to get you where you are going and get you there more or less on time.

Raquel and I bought our tickets from Delta more or less a month ago at the airport. We bought it there because she had to change her departure date, which is only possible at the airport, and because I wanted to fly with her. The woman sold us a flight plan with a tight connection in New York, but we assumed it was ok. We did not get a seat assignment.

Of course, the flight to New York was late and arrived at the wrong terminal. We ran like lunatics trying to make our connection, changing terminals and passing through security a second time. There were several other passengers making the same connection but we were the first to make it to the gate. The last of the passengers were boarding the flight and we gave the staff our boarding pass.

The staff let the others onto the plane but left us standing there. Finally, he closed the gate in our face. We did not get on the flight despite being at the gate on time because we did not have seat assignments, and Delta had simply sold more tickets than they had seats. For our trouble we got some money and a night in a hotel by the airport, but we spent much of the money to change our flight in Sao Paulo, which we of course missed.

I've heard from others that Delta puts their clients in these sorts of situations, as does American sometimes, but that Continental is generally better. In the future I plan to fly with them when possible for international travel.

The last problem is with connections and buying airfare from different companies. We lost a connection in Sao Paulo when traveling to the northeast because of fog. Instead of a single connection, we went from Porto Alegre to Sao Paulo, then changed airports traveling by bus, then went to Rio de Janeiro, then to Salvador, then finally to Macio. Anyway, the lesson is that its worth leaving a few hours between connections, especially in Brazil.

The good news is that we've arranged many things for our wedding, the place for the reception is very nice, our food will be excellent, and we finally had a chance to relax on the beach in the beautiful northeast.