Ryan McFarland

1. Pen and paper - Even in the digital world i still need paper and pens on occasion. If you have not already, writing your name, address and phone number on a piece of paper and putting it on top of your stuff inside your luggage can help if your tags are torn off of your luggage in transit. Keep one handy on the plane so you can jot notes of thoughts (like a list of things to steal from a hotel). When you get home keep one by the phone for messages or one at the table for shopping lists or things to do.
2. Toiletries - Of course grabbing the shampoo and conditioner is a good idea. If you use some of them then they will just throw them away anyway. If you use the soap bring that home too -otherwise it will be trashed. Use the bag from the ice bucket or the laundry bag clipped to a hanger in the closet to transport your wet soap home. It is supposedly good for your hair to switch products fairly often. Throwing in a sample size will sure help. But maybe i’m making up the switching products thing.
3. Sewing kit - You should have these stashed everywhere. Have one in the car, at work, camping gear, in your travel bag…
4. Fist full of tissues - Put them in your pocket for the rest of the trip. I get sick often after travel. I get bloody noses sometimes now because i’m used to high humidity.
5. Laundry bags - If you don’t already have a barely used bar of soap in it then you can double bag your toiletry collection or put dirty laundry in it. Once it is home use it as a small trash bag for the laundry room or bathroom.
6. Coffee and tea - I don’t drink coffee but i know plenty of people that do. I especially like finding regional coffees so that i can put them in my brother’s stocking for Christmas. Having a few around our house is good for when we have long term guests. Or it would be good if we had a coffee maker! Some places will also have tea, spiced cider or cocoa.

I stayed at the Seattle Airport Doubletree hotel on my way to and from D.C. It is not possible to make the trip from Petersburg to D.C. in one day now that Alaska Airlines only has one flight a day from Seattle. I used Priceline’s name your price booking service and asked for a three star room by the airport for $50. Adding taxes the room came to under $65. Cena did the same for me the day that I was stuck in Seattle (I was actually in the parking lot while she made the reservation).

It’s a nice hotel but some rooms you have to walk quite a way to get to. They give you a warm chocolate chip cookie to eat just after checking in. There are a few fast food restaurants extremely close (Taco Bell and Jack in the Box are on the same intersection.) And you can walk from the baggage claim area to the hotel in about 15 minutes. They have a free shuttle that runs every 15 minutes also.

The shower head wasn’t so low that i had to stoop and they were quite generous with the toiletries… shampoo, conditioner, shower cap, lotion, facial cleanser and medium size bars of soap. Here are some pictures of the hotel.

Delayed return

Originally uploaded by zieak

Apparently it was snowing hard enough in southeast Alaska that my flight was delayed from 10:50 to 1:45. So I would be missing my connection in Juneau down to Petersburg. At about 11:45 I made the decision to spend the night in Seattle again instead of Juneau. That gives me two chances to make it home tomorrow. More than an hour later and I’m still waiting for my checked bag to be pulled and delivered to the baggage claim area. I have a rental car but still need to book a hotel. With internet acces I can extend my reservation from last night. I’m out of clean socks and shirts. My jeans are getting grungy too. I do have a spare pair of underwear if I ever get my checked bag.

The white house and a manhole in the lawn.

The Washington Monument reflected along with a pair of mallard ducks.

The Vietnam Memorial.

Lincoln Monument.

Korean War Memorial

The Washington Monument behind the Alaska pillar of the WWII memorial.

Part of the collection of flags at the base of the Washington Monument.

Me at the Washington Monument.

Me at the U.S. Capitol.

The U.S. Supreme Court.

Capitol building

Originally uploaded by zieak

Supreme Court

Originally uploaded by zieak

Sunshine in D.C.

Originally uploaded by zieak

Soaking the sun in while waiting outside the Longworth building for a meeting with one of Young’s staff members.

When Kevin and i were driving across the country this fall i thought that it would be great to buy my next vehicle in Florida and drive up to Alaska with it. I’ve made quite a few cross-country jaunts now. In 1995 i drove from New York to New Mexico in early May with Scott Schaeffer. In the summer of 1996 Naomi and i moved from New York to Alaska. We drove clear to Bellingham, Washington and tried to put our trailer on the ferry. It was over $500 so we decided to just make the rest of the drive with the darn thing.  I probably should have though. We made it back to Missoula, Montana to head north on the Alaska Highway and ended up spending over $500 on upgrades to the trailer. We kept exploding tires on the hot road. The trailer was overloaded for the size of the axle and the leaf springs. We ended up driving clear to Whitehorse and getting on the ferry in Skagway. When we moved from Sitka we drove from Haines to northern California before turning left and landing in Utah for six months. The spring of 1999 we packed up, moved our stuff to Colorado and then continued on to New York for a month or two before driving back to Colorad,picking up some stuff from storage and then driving north to Prince Rupert, BC to board the ferry and take our summer jobs for another whirl.  That summer i got the position in Petersburg so we flew to Denver and made the drive to Seattle with a U-Haul truck and loaded our belongings onto a container van.  This past fall i flew to DC and Kevin and i drove to LA in two weeks — with a long stop in Indianapolis for a conference.  Soon, Cena and i hope to drive up here from Florida after buying a vehicle for her.  Taking a few weeks to take in the sights of course!

When Cena and i first booked tickets to Vietnam and Bali we made our arrangements using frequent flier miles and a few reservations through Expedia. Our initial reservation used miles to fly to Singapore from Seattle. Then we booked tickets for a round-trip flight from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City (255.89 for each of us) for the Vietnam portion of the trip and another round trip ticket to Bali and back to Singapore (284.89 each) for that part. Unfortunately there were not seats available for the Singapore to Tokyo segment of our legs that we used frequent flier miles for so we also had to pay for one way tickets to complete the flight ($546.59 each). So aside from our miles we spent $1087.37 for each of us ($2174.77 total) to complete the flights mentioned above. Then in late September we decided to add Cambodia to our trip. We received all of our frequent flier miles from Alaska Airlines without a penalty. We purchased tickets on Eva airlines to fly from Seattle to Ho Chi Minh City for $858.70 each. Cena contacted Expedia about receiving a refund for our tickets. They initiated a refund for the $546.59 tickets which i received on November 30 minus a $100 cancellation fee per ticket and without a refund of the Expedia booking fees. My credit card was credited $431.60 for each of us. On the 5th of October we paid $561.10 directly to Garuda for our flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Bali and back - that price was lowered by us using one of the Expedia purchased tickets toward the purchase. Our second time booking the trip cost a total of $3409.39 for the two of us - which includes the cost of the original Garuda ticket bought through Expedia ($569.79). The last tickets that we were left with amounted to $511.79. Expedia told us that we could take them with us and use them for credit with Garuda. So we carried them around and 4 different times tried to use the credit. Each time they refused and told us we needed to seek a refund through Expedia. We were not trying to get a refund from Garuda - just use the credit Expedia told us we would have for a seat upgrade or a side trip ticket. We were supposed to have two credits of $240.

At this point, Expedia has $741.78 in purchases that they have not refunded or fees that they have assessed me for travel that i never made.

Upon returning i contacted Expedia. On January 10th i spoke with Meriel. She put me on hold while checking our account file. I explained how we attempted to use our “credit” and she said I had to cancel with Garuda directly. She called Garuda and then told me to call Expedia back the next day when the Garuda call center would be open. On January 11th i called Expedia again and spoke with Laurie. She told me to mail the tickets back to the Expedia.com Refunds “Customer Service Department” with a note indicating i am seeking a refund for the tickets. On January 12th i mailed the tickets out with delivery confirmation and return receipt for $5.38.

At 6 pm tonight i received this email:

Dear Expedia.com customer:Thank you for using Expedia!For itinerary number - [redacted] This e-mail is to inform you that our office has received tickets to process for a refund.Please allow thirty days for the refund to be credited to the orginal form of payment credit card. Expedia.com representative are ready to assist you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Please do not reply to this e-mail. Thanks for choosing Expedia.com!
Expedia.com Customer Support Team
Dont just travel. Travel Right.

Yes, the spelling error and lack of apostrophe was like that. Exactly three hours later i received this email.

Dear Ryan,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your paper tickets with Garuda Airlines. We have received your paper tickets in house at our ticketing department. However, we are awaiting instructions of how you would like to use the value of these tickets.

Your tickets expire on January 27, 2008. Please contact our offices immediately to advise us how you would like to use the tickets.

Please contact us at 1-877-247-0153 and reference your case ID [redacted] when you call. This is the only department that will have the full details surrounding your reservation. We are available at this number 24 hours a day. We look forward to hearing from you immediately.

Thank you for choosing Expedia.com for your travel needs.

Sincerely,

Brandie
Air Fulfillment Operations
Expedia, Inc.

So naturally i call. I spoke with Sarah who briefly looked at my account notes and just had one question - what do i want? I told her a refund for the tickets and she said it wouldn’t be a problem - just a week to 10 days to process and then one or two billing cycles on my credit card. I hung up smiling. In less than an hour she called back and told me that she couldn’t refund the tickets. She could offer me a $90 credit on Garuda for each of the $240 tickets because each would require a $100 change fee. I asked Sarah how i will be able to get my money back and she suggested calling customer service during a time that a Garuda agent is available for a three-way call to iron out the confusions (as was the intent on January 11th). So of the $741.78 that Expedia still has of my money they plan on returning $180 of it but only in the form of a credit with a regional airline in Southeast Asia. You can bet that I’ll be fighting this. I’ll continue by calling tomorrow to try and arrange the three way call.

I’m on the ground in Juneau on my way to Anchorage for a few meetings. I’m trying ultralight travel this time. I didn’t even pack a laptop. Considering the colder temperatures my bag is pretty small. I did pack an empty duffel in my carry on in case I do make it to Michaels to spend my gift card.