Merry christmas everybody!!

Laging behind on the posts again, but I am sure you alll have been sucked into this Christmas thing again, just like us. We arrived in Jamaica on Sunday and immediately got started with getting everything sorted for the festivities.

But that doesn't mean we haven't had time for adventures, and anyone who has ever felt ripped off by airlines in the past may just get a kick out of the story of how we left Houston, twice, to get to Jamaica.


The story starts on Saturday when we got up at the crack of dawn, actually dawn broke while we were driving to the airport, at 7 am to catch our 9.00 flight to Dallas, where we would change to a flight to Miami to then catch the 3rd flight of the day to Montego Bay.

We got to Dallas and were waiting for our flight when they announced that the flight was overbooked and they would need 6 people to give up thir seats, for a compensation of US$150. No takers, since a lot of people were traveling that day, there were actually another 46(!) people on standby. The offer rose to $200 and $250 and Still no takers. So we thought that if they could get us to Montego Bay some other way, we'll be happy to take them up on it, since we didnt really mind not going to Miami. They couldn't, and the offer duly went up to $300...

Thats when I had an epiphany.

Due to a miscommunication between me and my brothers they had given us two tickets to a basketball game in Houston as a wedding present... 12 hours after we left (well, I might have given them the wrong date, but never mind...). So, I asked them if they could get us back to Houston, in time for the game, and then to Jamaica on Sunday, but surely that would be a longshot.

But lo and behold -they could do it, though it took a fair while to cancel and rebook the tickets, and they had to put us in business class between Miami and Montego Bay. So we called Suzanna in Houston and told her we were on our way back, and quite happily boarded our flight.

So to summarise,

• we got American Airlines to fly us back to Houston so we could catch our basketball game
• We were upgraded to business class to Montego Bay
• And they gave us $600 for the inconvenience.

Got to love that deal!!
Once we got to Houston, we were picked up again by Neil and Suzanna, and headed back to their flat to get some dinner, play a little with young Matthew and rest a bit before the big game. Neil dropped us off and we managed to negotiate all the obstacles on the way to our seats (read the security guard that would not let me in because of my 'professional' camera) and sat down to watch the spectacle, and only half of it was played out on the court. It was almost as interesting watching the audience as the game it self, people were drinking enormous amount of beer and eating tons of corn-dogs, burgers and popcorn. And the few people who did not have a team jersey at the start of the game had one at the end. I am convinced the GDP of a small country was spent there that night, but it was a great night out.

The next morning we once again left Suzanna and Neil behind, promising we'd be back soon (but not today, we were quick to add) and now we're settling in for christmas, and we're sure you're doing the same.

So from us all to you all a very merry Christmas.