12 July wasn't the day, but here we are. An update to my 'adventure' in getting to Melbourne

It turns out, July 12 was not the day. 

It’s the morning of 16 July, and I am typing this from the beautiful home of a friend in Melbourne.  As many people were in the previous blog post, Sunday, 12 July was the day that I was flying from Cleveland, Ohio to Dallas to Sydney and then onto Melbourne.  Well, that did not exactly happen.

It turns out that 12 July was the second most helpless day I’ve experienced in my 63 years.  I arrived at the airport in Cleveland 3 1/2 hours before my flight.  My mom had dropped me off at the airport, as my wife and son were off visiting our daughter out of state.  I headed to the American Airlines ticket gate to check in to drop off my suitcases and that is where the fun began. 🤬

Hannah, the friendly American Airlines ticket agent took my passport, and looked up my flights.  She had a puzzled look on her face.  She said that my flights were not in the system.  Now a little backstory, I purchased these tickets in November of last year, and upgraded the seats to business class in March.  

I am typically one of those people who becomes concerned that the worst case scenario is going to happen more often than we would like to think, and at this point, that begins to creep into the back of my mind.  Not a good thing, just reality.  It’s generally the way I’m wired.

 I said to her, “how can that be? Just yesterday I received the third email in a week asking if I wanted to bid to upgrade my business class seats to first class.”  She had very limited information and access to the specific files from Qantas.  She was, however, able to see that I had supposedly requested a refund for my flights in April.  I assured her that was not the case, and reminded her of the email I had received the day before.  

At this point, she was still trying to be helpful, but as she told me, she was unable to get into their system at all, and then I would need to call Qantas directly. So I pulled my two suitcases out of line, found as quiet a location, I could find where everyone was checking in, and called the Qantas 800 number.  They told me that in fact I had requested to have my flights canceled because they had issued a refund, which I reiterated I did not do.  I spent close to an hour on the phone with them and they were adamant that I had asked for my money back.  

When we purchased the tickets, we put them on a car that my mom uses because she earned a number of points for them.  So I called my wife and let her know what’s happening, but she’s of course traveling out of state.  I wanted to telephone my mom to let her know, so she could look at the statements, because had a refund been issued, she would have known.  She is so meticulous that I would’ve known about it the day that it happened.  Unfortunately, I knew she was still on her drive home from the airport, which is an hour away from where we live. 

At this point in time, I am officially in panic mode.  I’m standing in the airport lobby, suitcases in hand, ready to head out on a trip that I have been planning somewhat for four years but with earnest for the last year, and it’s slipping through my fingers like a handful of sand at the beach.  I’m having a breakdown with hundreds, not thousands of people milling past me, and there’s not a damn thing that they, or I can do about it.  

I got a phone call from my sister who is in charge of a huge organization, and I completely lost my composure.  I did not yell and scream at her, but I told her I’m ready to go home.  I was adamant.  I just wanted to go home.  Home was safe.  The trip was just not meant to be.  I told her that I’m just not supposed to do “fun things.”  I can be back to work on Tuesday, and start getting ready for the school year a bit more quickly.   

I’m ready to get on a shuttle and go to the car rental agency near the airport and rent a car and drive home and just say the hell with the trip. It was not meant to be.  I’m not ashamed to say it, because it happened, but it was a full-blown panic attack.  The AFL is continually challenged about the necessity to have a men’s mental health round.  I wholeheartedly agree with that.  There was a time when I was younger that I was on antidepressants for a while, and if the AFL could somehow use an AI model to capture the images of me that were on CCTV at the airport and here the things that I was saying at the airport, they could’ve crafted it into a logo that they could’ve painted on the ground at every stadium for men’s mental health round.  Not something I’m necessarily proud of, but I don’t want to be someone that is going to mislead you.  I was absolutely spiraling.  

The state that I was in at that airport was the second most helpless day I have had in my life.  I will tell you about the one at the top of the list, and that it occurred almost 30 years earlier.  My wife and I had married in December 1995, we went on our honeymoon in August 1996.  My wife had spent a year at university in Stirling, in Scotland.  We had traveled to England and we’re going to drive up to Scotland.  At this point in time, we were expecting our son who will be 30 next year.  We were staying with neighbors that lived next to my sister and her husband when he was in the United States Air Force, and my wife felt ill, and was taken by ambulance to a local hospital.  So shortly after she left by ambulance, I hopped into our rental car, knowing full well that she was going to be doing the bulk of our driving, because she had been much more accustomed to the UK having lived there previously.  So here I was navigating two lane roads on the opposite side of the road in the rain at night from a small village with handwritten directions to the hospital not knowing where the hell I’m going, and not knowing whether or not my wife, and our soon to be child was going to survive.  That was the most helpless day of my life, and will stay firmly entrenched there.  Sunday 12 July 2026. It’s pretty much locked in the number two spot.  And God I hope there is no more competition.

So…back to the airport.  I’ve spoken to my wife. I’ve spoken to my mom and I’m still at the point where I’m ready to just get in the car and come home, because this isn’t going to get fixed.  It took another hour and 20 minutes, and my wife had finally spoken to a senior supervisor with Qantas, and they acknowledged that there had been a clerical error of some sort. What had been refunded was an overpayment of $200 not the $8000 it was paid for the ticket, but somebody saw a refund and just eliminated the flights.

My wife and I discussed the options, and she said let’s get it to Dallas, so we can start trying to rebuild this from there and you can get on the flight tonight. Hopefully they will have it fixed by then. Unfortunately, when Qantas dropped the other flights for the entire itinerary, it also dropped the American Airlines flight from Cleveland to Dallas.  Therefore, I had to spend $800 to purchase a second seat on the flight. I already had a seat on, just to get to Dallas. 

Ticket in hand and I get on the plane and we’re about 20 minutes away from taxi away from the gate, and there are thunderstorms in Dallas.  So, we are delayed. They tell us it’ll be about 25 minutes before we can takeoff, and shortly thereafter they get on the PA system on the aircraft and tell us that we’re going to be leaving the aircraft because it will be at least another 90 minutes before we depart.

Ultimately, we get to Dallas, but at approximately 11:45 PM, and my flight to Sydney, which it  turns out I still did not have rectified left without me.  So while I was at the airport collecting my luggage, I asked my wife if she could get me a hotel room and she booked one online, sent me the information and I arrived at the hotel at approximately 1 AM.

I was a little peckish at this point in time, so $12 for two sparkling waters, a Snickers bar and some cheese crackers and I was off to my room for a shower and a few hours of sleep.  

At 5 AM that morning, my itinerary for flight flights on Monday evening now showed up on my phone on the Qantas app. So I selected my seats for my flight from Dallas to Sydney, my seat from Sydney to Melbourne and then my flight from Melbourne back to Dallas on 12 August.  I had breakfast at the hotel in the morning, and was back at the terminal at DFW by 11 AM.

I knew I was going to be waiting at the airport for a while, as Qantas only has two flights a day out of Dallas. One that goes directly to Melbourne and one that leaves at 10:55 in the evening going to Sydney. That was the flight that I was on, and I was perfectly content to sit there and read and bide my time, until I could check in.  The Qantas agents did not set up shop until 4:30 in the afternoon in preparation for their flights.  I was in line at 4:15 and was joined by a gentleman from Sydney that I had met by the name of Walter.  Walter and I had a fantastic conversation, discussing whether or not GWS was going to be a long-term viable club in New South Wales or not.  Seemed like a gem of a man that I would’ve enjoyed chatting with for an entire flight.  Walter was on the Sydney flight, and I hope you had a great flight, mate.

The agents showed up at 4:30, and got things set up.  They called me up to the ticketing area, and the agent, Aziz, was extraordinarily helpful. He pulled up my information and could see my flights were there. He saw my assigned seats on the flights I was in the system. I have tickets to go to Australia. Things are looking up, even though I’m going to arrive a day later than I had hoped. 

Not so fast.  This trip couldn’t go without one more hitch could it?  That’s right, what can go wrong will continue to go wrong on the journey to get to Australia and that journey continued in Dallas.  He made a couple of phone calls, and said I see your tickets here but they have not assigned you actual ticket numbers so I have no way of printing out your boarding pass to get you on this flight.  At this point in time, I’m looking to my left and there are the American Airlines ticket agents, and I’m contemplating buying a ticket to head back to Cleveland. This trip is just not supposed to happen.  Now before I go any further, Aziz was just as top-notch an agent in my opinion as was Hannah back in Cleveland. They both did their level best with the information that they were allowed to have access to and absolutely busted their asses to try to help me out, but to no avail.  He was on the phone with a third-party rebooker who was supposed to put my tickets back in place. This rebook was telling him that he or she could not do it because there was this problem with the refund. So Aziz calls over his supervisor, who gets involved and he was extraordinarily helpful as well.  

While all of this is going on, I’m talking to Aziz about the 1960s television show The Twilight Zone, which is absolutely one of my favorite programs. I was describing how it was an earlier version of the show Black Mirror on Netflix.  Ironically fitting because this adventure, if we still want to call it that, was right out of an episode of one of those shows.  I made a recommendation of one episode, and wrote down the title of it on a luggage tag and handed it to him.  His supervisor had left and was off, trying to talk to people in Sydney directly at Qantas.  At this point in time, I have been at the ticket gate for two hours, but time at this point doesn’t seem to matter because I had already been in the airport for five hours at that point in time.  

As this was going on, a young woman and her three children came up to the other agent next to me and I glanced over at them, just for a moment. I noticed the logo on one of the children’s backpack, and I realized that I knew who these people were. I didn’t say anything at that time, but we’ll get back to them in just a moment.

The supervisor does come back, and tell me that they can reinstate the tickets for the Monday evening flight, but I needed to pay back the $200 that they refunded.  Little did I know, but certainly found out after the fact, my wife had spoken to a senior level supervisor with Qantas, and she was assured that I would not have to pay that money back, so at this point in time I’m out an extra thousand dollars to pay for a ticket that I had to purchase twice and for money that should’ve been refunded but now the computer system wanted it back.

This is where it got better. The turning point in our story if you will.  The supervisor asks me would you rather go directly to Melbourne?  I looked at him and I believe my direct quote was, ‘are you shitting me?’  he said, no there’s a business class seat on that flight and I can print out your ticket for that flight and we can get you on your way.  It was leaving three hours earlier, then the flight to Sydney, which would then require an additional flight to Melbourne after that. I said absolutely, and he printed the ticket.

I shook Izzy’s hand and clasped it with my other one, and I told him how much I appreciated his work and his efforts for me. And I truly did.  I then asked his supervisor if it would be OK if I gave him a hug.  He said if you want to, and I gave him a bear hug and burst into tears.  I’m welling up again as I’m writing this, because this was the turning point where I was finally gonna get to go on this trip that I have been working towards for the last four years. I thought I was going to lose it, and it turns out that it actually was going to happen.

I tucked the ticket, the boarding pass and my baggage claim tickets into my passport, wallet, and zippered that into my pocket.  I hurried away and headed towards the TSA area and was through the TSA in about 10 minutes.  It gave me about 90 minutes before the flight was going to take off, so I headed to gate D6 in terminal D to find a place to sit down.

The young mother and her three children receded along the back wall away from everyone else, and after having purchased a ham sandwich and a Diet Coke, I went over to her for just a moment, and I said, excuse me ma’am, if I could just bother you for just a moment, I am a huge fan of Australian rules football and I’m on my first trip to Australia to watch games live and I’m gonna get to my first game on Thursday evening with my beloved Geelong Cats and your husband’s club. Could you please pass along to your husband, my deep appreciation and thanks for his work with Fox Footy, in helping me to fall head over heels in love with this wonderful game. She smiled, said thank you very much. She asked me my name, not sure if she was going to be seeking out SECURITY or not, but I tipped my cap to her. I wish them a good flight. All together, no more than 2 minutes.  I mentioned doing a podcast, but I didn’t want to be any more of a bother.  I went upon my way, and that was how I met the family of Saints legend Nick Riewoldt.  

The flight was a joy.  It did take us about 45 minutes before we were able to takeoff because that was a very busy night in Dallas and I had to do a little bit of research quickly because initially I was going to be flying on an A380, but this was a Boeing 787 so I looked up the floor plant so I had a bit of an idea of what things were aware so I knew where the bathrooms were, and discovered there wasn’t a small lounge area like there was on the other plane. I found my seat. I got comfortable and I was ready to go.

The service on the flight was tremendous, the food was wonderful, and the people were just tremendously friendly.  As a soon to be senior citizen, the compression socks came in very handy on this flight, yet I did get up and move around quite a bit, making many trips to the restroom to allow me to stretch my legs and try to keep the blood flowing during the course of the flight.

I was able to get about six hours of sleep during the 16 1/2 hour flight, but I also watched three films during the flight.  The first was the.Adam Goodes, doco, ‘The Last Quarter.  I found it to be very interesting. I took a nap for a couple of hours, I woke up again and I watched the Erick Bana film, ‘The Dry’.  I enjoyed that one as well because it was a very interesting look at what life is like in a rural area in Australia when they’re dealing with severe drought.  Another couple of hours sleep, and I finally watched Inglorious Basterds.  Very entertaining, and Christopher Walz was terrifying.

Touched down in Melbourne, it actually felt pretty good.  Not much in the way of jet lag, and I must’ve been in the restroom when they handed out the immigration paperwork so I had to quickly fill that out on the way to immigration. But between immigration and picking up my luggage and getting through customs, a total of 15 minutes tops.  But that’s where the story gets even more interesting.  As I was standing at the luggage carousel, I glanced to the left, and quickly at the woman standing next of me, and let’s be honest, people don’t generally stand next to me on purpose. This is not a song that Sting would’ve sung during his time with ‘the Police.’  😀  I recognized her again.  I said ma’am, I want to thank you for all of the wonderful entertainment that you’ve provided us over the years. It is an honor to meet you.  She said, thank you, and at that point, my suitcases came off the carousel and I proceeded to immigration.

I was waiting at a series of seats near the exit, and contacted a friend of mine who was going to be dropping off the key to the location where I am staying.  Thanks so much for your help, Freemo!   While I’m waiting there I watched this individual that I spoke to for a moment. Come out of immigration and customs and get stopped by a few younger people, and they asked for photographs. She was very obliging and smiled and took the photographs. As she walked past me as she was leaving the airport, I said ma’am I hope you have a wonderful visit to Melbourne and I want to mention one thing to you before you leave, ‘eleven was simply a misunderstood child.’  Linda Hamilton laughed out loud, and blew me a kiss and headed out the door.  That’s how I met Dr. Kay, or if you prefer, Sarah Connor from the Terminator… and that was my arrival in Melbourne.  

A great mate, Troy Thompson picked me up at the airport and dropped me off at the apartment where I am staying.  Again, the generosity of everyone who has just been so kind and welcoming here is never gonna be forgotten. Everyone has been so tremendously kind and the gratitude that I have for them it’s going to be eternally unwavering.  

After I got settled in, I did go out for about a 9 km walk around the neighborhood where I am staying for the next month to get myself acclimated. I’m not sure if it’s strange or not, but I did say hello to about 20 dogs, as people were walking by because I am definitely a dog person, I don’t know if they thought it was strange or not but that’s OK if they do.

I headed to the Flinders station to get a MYKI card, and I’m not sure it is going to work.  I tried to register it online, but the number on the back wasn’t recognized.  We shall see.  I did walk through the Alexandra Garden and along the tan for a while as well. I took quite a few photographs and I will be sharing some of those with friends back home as we go along.

So if you see me wandering about in Melbourne or in Geelong, don’t hesitate to come up and say hi, I am very friendly despite the breakdown that I had in Cleveland. I was not in a good space mentally, because I didn’t think this was going to happen. And to be completely honest, during this time that I was walking around in Melbourne, without really touching on the CBD itself, I was waiting for the alarm clock to go off. I was convinced that this was still nothing but a dream, and I had obviously passed out at the airport in Cleveland and had never found my way here.

Turns out, that’s not the case and I don’t know if anyone has been so excited to be somewhere like I am at this moment in time. To all of you who have had encouraging words, I thank you. If you have ever listened to my podcast before, I close out every single episode, asking you, the listener, that if you need to talk to somebody to reach out to them to check up on your friends to make sure that they are OK. I am so thankful to my wife, my mom, my sister, for helping talk me back off the edge.  I got really close to doing something extraordinarily stupid that I was gonna regret for the rest of my life and I am so thankful that they got me back into a place where I was able to refocus my thoughts and still see the end goal, which is being here where I am right now getting ready to head to the train to go see my first game ever. I can’t thank the three of them enough and I cannot thank all of you enough for being so kind and considerate and generous and just awesome people.

Thanks!

Craig

Ayankonthefooty.com

As I say during each episode, if you need to talk to someone, don't hesitate reach out.  I did, and it helped prevent me from doing something incredibly stupid.