More Travel Madness
Just before 06:00 my time, Chris Carson called me from his room in the hotel in Chicago (a few doors down from Lisa's room). He filled me in on his side of yesterday's madness. He'd not been able to get into the hotel internet either, and he told me that the hotel hoped to have that fixed today.
I got up and dressed, and as I was considering going to the Wigwam to have breakfast just as they opened, Lisa called. Despite the grueling schedule from yesterday and her exhaustion, she got very little sleep, as the hotel's heating system (radiators) was clicking and pinging all night long, and it kept waking her up. She told me she couldn't tolerate this because she'd never be able to sleep. So it was time for Travel Agent Kevin to go to work.
First I called Amtrak. As I feared, there were no roomettes available on any trains until Tuesday, which is the day she's leaving anyway. The agent did tell me that even if rooms became available, Amtrak's website is useless for making that sort of change, so you have to call and talk to a human being to make such a change.
Next I took stock of hotel changes. I have a lot more IHG points than I had at the start of this trip, in part because we ended up not having to use some of them at a very expensive property we originally considered using in Munich for the end of Lisa's stay there. (The H.ome Serviced Apartments managed to suffice until the day she left.) I discovered that I had almost exactly enough points to buy three nights at the Holiday Inn south of Union Station. Lisa and I stayed there once, many years ago, and had the odd experience (due to it being the last room available and my having a confirmed reservation) of staying in their "conference room" hotel room: a room that is mostly a small board room, but that also has a sleeping room attached to it. It turned out to be significantly less expensive for me to purchase the small amount of additional points that I needed to book a three-night stay than it would be to book the room on money, even on their "points and cash" offers. So for about $70 worth of purchased points, I booked a room at that Holiday Inn.
The Holiday Inn & Suites Downtown Chicago turns out to be not that far from the hotel in which Lisa was staying: about 1300 m, and it's on the same street. It's also decently convenient for when she leaves on Tuesday. I called the hotel to make sure they would let her check in even though it's my name that booked the room. They confirmed that they had her name on the reservation. They also arranged to use my IHG credit card for any incidental charges. It was still pretty early, so I asked if they had any rooms available into which Lisa could move today. They said they were still cleaning rooms, but if she came there now and did not mind waiting in the lobby, they could give her the next available room.
I then called the first hotel and ended up speaking to the manager, to whom I explained that the pinging radiators were driving my wife mad and she was going to have to leave. The manager agreed to refund the remaining three nights of the reservation. I called Lisa and explained what was going on. She was packing to check out anyway, even if it "stranded" the remainder of the reservation. This revised arrangement was a big improvement. I also called Chris to tell him what was going home and to let him know where Lisa would be.
It's a pity that I hadn't spotted that Holiday Inn when doing the initial booking, because due to a a feature of my IHG credit card, I could have got Lisa a four night stay for the price of three nights' worth of points - what I'm spending anyway now - and saved over $200 in hotel costs from last night's stay. Oh, well, more spilled milk over which crying does no good. Also, I didn't have the points at the start of this trip that I have now, much of which I earned from Glasgow and from some of Lisa's other stays, so I probably wouldn't have considered doing this.
So after more than 90 minutes of being on the phone talking to Amtrak, hotels, Lisa, and Chris, I finally have everything re-sorted, I think. I went to the Wigwam and had a slow, leisurely breakfast. When I got back, I checked with the first hotel, and Lisa had indeed checked out. I'm composing this, I see that the "Welcome Amenity" points from IHG have posted to my account, which means Lisa has made it to the Holiday Inn and checked in. (It's a peculiarity of the IHG system that I get 500 points even when staying there on points.)
I can see why travel agent isn't an easy job.
I got up and dressed, and as I was considering going to the Wigwam to have breakfast just as they opened, Lisa called. Despite the grueling schedule from yesterday and her exhaustion, she got very little sleep, as the hotel's heating system (radiators) was clicking and pinging all night long, and it kept waking her up. She told me she couldn't tolerate this because she'd never be able to sleep. So it was time for Travel Agent Kevin to go to work.
First I called Amtrak. As I feared, there were no roomettes available on any trains until Tuesday, which is the day she's leaving anyway. The agent did tell me that even if rooms became available, Amtrak's website is useless for making that sort of change, so you have to call and talk to a human being to make such a change.
Next I took stock of hotel changes. I have a lot more IHG points than I had at the start of this trip, in part because we ended up not having to use some of them at a very expensive property we originally considered using in Munich for the end of Lisa's stay there. (The H.ome Serviced Apartments managed to suffice until the day she left.) I discovered that I had almost exactly enough points to buy three nights at the Holiday Inn south of Union Station. Lisa and I stayed there once, many years ago, and had the odd experience (due to it being the last room available and my having a confirmed reservation) of staying in their "conference room" hotel room: a room that is mostly a small board room, but that also has a sleeping room attached to it. It turned out to be significantly less expensive for me to purchase the small amount of additional points that I needed to book a three-night stay than it would be to book the room on money, even on their "points and cash" offers. So for about $70 worth of purchased points, I booked a room at that Holiday Inn.
The Holiday Inn & Suites Downtown Chicago turns out to be not that far from the hotel in which Lisa was staying: about 1300 m, and it's on the same street. It's also decently convenient for when she leaves on Tuesday. I called the hotel to make sure they would let her check in even though it's my name that booked the room. They confirmed that they had her name on the reservation. They also arranged to use my IHG credit card for any incidental charges. It was still pretty early, so I asked if they had any rooms available into which Lisa could move today. They said they were still cleaning rooms, but if she came there now and did not mind waiting in the lobby, they could give her the next available room.
I then called the first hotel and ended up speaking to the manager, to whom I explained that the pinging radiators were driving my wife mad and she was going to have to leave. The manager agreed to refund the remaining three nights of the reservation. I called Lisa and explained what was going on. She was packing to check out anyway, even if it "stranded" the remainder of the reservation. This revised arrangement was a big improvement. I also called Chris to tell him what was going home and to let him know where Lisa would be.
It's a pity that I hadn't spotted that Holiday Inn when doing the initial booking, because due to a a feature of my IHG credit card, I could have got Lisa a four night stay for the price of three nights' worth of points - what I'm spending anyway now - and saved over $200 in hotel costs from last night's stay. Oh, well, more spilled milk over which crying does no good. Also, I didn't have the points at the start of this trip that I have now, much of which I earned from Glasgow and from some of Lisa's other stays, so I probably wouldn't have considered doing this.
So after more than 90 minutes of being on the phone talking to Amtrak, hotels, Lisa, and Chris, I finally have everything re-sorted, I think. I went to the Wigwam and had a slow, leisurely breakfast. When I got back, I checked with the first hotel, and Lisa had indeed checked out. I'm composing this, I see that the "Welcome Amenity" points from IHG have posted to my account, which means Lisa has made it to the Holiday Inn and checked in. (It's a peculiarity of the IHG system that I get 500 points even when staying there on points.)
I can see why travel agent isn't an easy job.