another day, another hurdle...

Hi, my name is Sunny, and I'm a compulsive planner. ("Hi Sunny")

When Wil and I first started talking about this trip, we didn't want to over-plan. Just book the big things -- like the flights to and from Europe, and the nights in the refuges during the trek portion. But the more we researched, the more we realized we needed to book some things in advance. Like when we discovered that, for some reasons, all the economy class flights between Morocco and Egypt were sold out during the 4-day stretch we wanted to travel.

Originally I that thought that we should take the train from Spain to the coast, take the ferry across the strait of Gibraltar, and arrive in Tangier. I don't know... the idea of the night train from Barcelona to Madrid seemed charming, romantic even -- as did a long train journey down through Spain, and a ferry ride across the strait. And then we started looking at costs -- both in time, and in money. I mean, what if the night train to Madrid was late, and we missed the day train down to Algeciras? I was already building in a day of padding in Barcelona in case we missed the 1:30 bus from Vielha. How much padding is too much padding?

So then Wil discovered a flight on a Moroccan budget airline (um, have more frightening words ever been typed?) called Jet4You. Not only was it a 90-minute, direct flight from Barcelona to Tangier, it was at a great time, departing Barcelona in the early evening, arriving in Tangier in the early evening, and it was dirt cheap... quite possibly cheaper than the two trains + ferry tickets. And it would save us 36 hours of travelling. They even had a slick website, where you could reserve a seat (for a fee), prepay for your bag, and order an e-ticket. The only problem was that their systems can't accept American-registered credit cards.

We even tried having Wil's dad make the booking for us -- over an hour this morning talking via Skype while Tony valiantly and patiently tried using his cards. Still, no dice.

Jet4You suggested using a travel agent; unfortunately we couldn't find a travel agent. I did some research and found a travel agency that's based in Oregon and specializes in Moroccan travel. I wrote them a friendly little note, asking if they were a booking agent. I received a curt reply: "We only book flights as part of a tour package." No salutation, no signoff, and certainly no apology. Not even any "would you like to learn about our fantastic tours?" sort of selling. Just a dismissal. Meow. I love good customer service!

Anyway, Wil did some research as well and discovered a site that would allow booking... for a hefty fee. There didn't seem to be any place to reserve a seat, or any way to prepay for bags. But we *think* it went through. (We've received confirmation from the site, but not from the airline... we shall see.) So now it's more expensive than the train... but it will still mean we save over a whole day. And on a trip like this, that's worth more than money.