Of being a costy passanger

As the frequent readers may recollect, I visited San Francisco with my family in November. The flight to US was a bit problematic as we didn’t have a baby bassinet seat. Coming back, Lufthansa broke our stroller.

This week, we finally got even. First, United send us a standard apolegic letter (a real letter, mind you!) with $200 travel voucher. There are only three minor details that I’m not satisfied. First, the voucher is good for United, United Express and Ted flights only. As United is not flying from Finland, there are only slim chances that the voucher would be used anytime soon. The second issue is related to the first; the voucher must be used before November 26, 2007. So I need to go to the States less than in a year. And the third: the voucher cannot be redeemed in the Internet. Yes, you read right. To get $200 redemption, I need to call sales agent. And I thought this was 2006, not 1999. Well, it seems that USA is not on the leading edge with everything…

Today, we got our stroller back from the shop. In fact, we got a brand spanking new stroller, as the old one could not be repaired without delays and the broken part might have torn the hood’s canvas… The retail price of the new stroller is 279€.

In total, our trip costed about 430€ extra for the carriers. Considering that we had very cheap tickets — booked well in advance — used three lounges extensively, had more checked-in weight than passangers usually, and caused a lot of extra work for their personnel, we probably caused losses. For some odd reason, I feel satisfied.