Papua New Guinea is a hard place to travel to. Schedules get changed, planes break and are grounded, etc.
Tonight we had an interesting situation.
Only hours ago we were saying 'wow, we're really ready ahead of time, I wonder what might go wrong to make us scurry at the last moment? Well whatever it is, we're fortunate to be able to have the time to handle it."
Around 2pm we got a bunch of new documents to fill out and as per usual, we didn't procrastinate, we did it immediately. We filled them out and sent them in, and WOW that surprise was easy to handle.
But a few hours later we found all those documents were moot.
A plane in PNG had a mechanical failure and was grounded.
Our flight from Australia to PNG was cancelled.
EVERYONE had to scramble. People in PNG had to scramble to figure out how to get us un-stranded....
appointments were to be changed...
documents changed...
flights booked... etc.
AHA! This is the big surprise! Okay.. so as usual, with slightly elevated calmness we deal with it.
We go online and book a flight.
Only the flight booking doesn't go through. Because our credit card fraud protection stopped us...
So I call in, fix it, rebook
The flight now costs $200 more, because the value of the seats went up.. why? because I booked the same flight a few minutes before but failed. Qantas was unwilling to bend on the refund. ..... moving on.
And... also, because we changed airlines, we're not longer considered as coming from America so our baggage allowance is cut in half
so an extra $450 bucks in luggage fees is added.
So in 15 minutes time, we had to scramble quite a bit and pay more... we thought.
WELL of course our tensions were raised for a bit, and we had to spend a lot of money in a very short time... and of course we're thinking 'man this is wasted money'.
But then we considered it.
We knew something might happen, the possibility with Papua New Guinea is that you have to expect the unexpected... ANYTHING can happen.
So we became suddenly so thankful that we had the wherewithall to bear it. We aren't over stressed. We aren't short on time, we aren't at our limit... we are packed, the documents are signed, sealed and delivered, we're simply prepared and calm...
and thanks to financial partners like you, we had the money to deal with it and the time and encouragement to know that people have our backs. So it was not at all sudden panic.
But here's the coolest part... ready?
If you tally up all the 'extra fees', and costs, etc... because we acted quick we got a much much better rate, AND the new rate was lower than the original flight.
So while we do have to take an extra plane, which is what we were trying to avoid, and spend an extra day travelling which is also what we were trying to avoid,
WE STILL arrive back in PNG, on time, before school starts, and ... ready for it?...
even with all the changes, the total cost to travel the same distance... is STILL the same price (if not a tad bit cheaper)!!!
AMAZING?
have you ever been able to totally scramble and move your family of four in an emergency internationally and NOT have to pay hundreds of extra dollars?
we didn't!!!
it's remarkable to me.
BUT it does mean a bit of extra travel weariness on us.... it's the same path we would have taken before, on a bigger airplane, for the same price, only arriving a day later without changing our departure day... so an extra day in transit is our biggest loss. Not bad?! An extra day in sunny Australia? Could be worse.. right?
it's actually good news.
PLEASE pray for safe travels, and no more hidden surprises.
PLEASE pray for family health as we travel, my kids are both miserable with a cold.
thank you for your prayers.
