Pucon

We have arrived at our hotel in Pucon, Chile. I will surely write with more detail later, but let me say that this has been a nightmare for Jessa and I. We've never heard of anything like this and in all our years of international travel, have never experienced something like this. I pride myself on bulletproof vacation planning, and this was nowhere near.

However, our boys have been studs through it all. They're completely chill, possibly because they don't understand enough English to understand what a scam operation the airlines are now running.

The basic issue is that the American Airlines agent in Miami A) did not use our record locator to see that we had already pre-paid for the children's flights; B) issued the children new, more expensive tickets that basically took them on a one way trip to Lima, Peru, with nowhere else to go. Because I dropped Jessa off at the ticket counter and returned the rental car, I wasn't present to remedy the situation and didn't observe the major problem on the tickets until we stood in Lima, Peru watching our plane leave with all our bags, bound for Pucon, Chile.

I have not slept in 39 hours and it may have been stupid to continue, but we made the decision together and here we are. Our final decision was to hunt down our bags, bring the kids with us, and what will be, will be.

I am eternally grateful to the family member who replaced the money in our checking account until we can get the Visa situation sorted out. You know who you are. Thank you.

Ben