When I was stranded in Germany because of the volcano in Iceland I was able to take full advantage of the wonders of technology. I first tried to call United in Germany, but the lines weren’t working, so then tried calling the US number. There was a wait time of 40 minutes, @ $1/minute!! Needless to say, I hung up and figured I’d have one of my kids call them from home and get me re-booked. Of course, with the time difference I had to wait until the next day when they were awake.
In the mean time I remembered Skype! My son and I spoke on Skype, he called United on his cell and put it on speaker so I was able to talk with the people at United as if I was on speaker, too. And, luckily the wait time was only 3 minutes by then. I got booked for 4/26, which was 2 days after John was leaving, but at least I had a seat and figured I could spend 2 days in Munich sight-seeing, so that would be OK.
Next day I went to take money out of the geldautomat (German for ATM) and my card wouldn’t work. I had told the bank that I would be back in the US on the 19th so they, rightly, put a hold on my card when someone (me) tried to use it in Germany! Again, tried to call, but it was the middle of the night in the US (luckily I still had 30 euros). Used Skype again the next morning and got that straightened out and had access to money! Yeah! I felt so sorry for the countless numbers of people who were truly stranded. All I had to do was tell the staff at the hotel that I would be staying the entire time with John.
And, with the third go-round with Skype and United I was able to get a seat on John’s flight and fly back with him! So, thanks to technology I was able to get things handled and it didn’t cost me a ton of money.
I was also able to post my pictures on Facebook each day for people to see, on their own schedule. And, had a few AIM interactions getting things handled. Current technology certainly worked in my favor and I enjoyed being able to be connected.
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