Good News / Bad News - W.T.F PART II

We last saw our erstwhile D.C. Bound band of Merry Spring Breakers, and Chucky bounding off to the DOLLAR-RENT-A-CAR counter to retrieve the GREAT buy booked via AAA.

As they board the shuttle bus, the boys are a-buz about the cool car Papa got for the trip to D.C.  and as they arrived at Rental Car Heaven, they were breathless with anticipation.

Straight through the doors:

   “Oh Look Papa, DOLLAR on the left.”

 So off they trot, right out into the parking lot following the dollar signs and right to the office… Nobody home.

  “Sir… I'm over here.” Says the Nice "Get The Car Guy.  “Got your contract?”

Uh….opppps.

Seems like Chucky missed the counter INSIDE and was at the “get The Car office”.

  “No problem Sir, what did you reserve, I’ll find one and have it here when you get back.”

So Chucky leaves the troop there and races inside to the CORRECT counter to get the paperwork.

Now here’s where it gets a bit tense.

  “Hi, I have a reservation for a standard car, here’s my Confirmation#,” says the chipper Chucky.

  “Uh Sir,  I'm sorry but our systems have been down for 3 days and we are not honoring any reservations made in the last 36 hours, AND we have no cars.”

W.T.F?  NoCars?!? Now what to do!!!!

We'll save you the ensuing dialogue that covered the reservation being guaranteed by AAA [who will get the full brunt of Chucky’s wrath when they get back home] and the fact that reservations made through a 3^rd party [AAA] was not even in their system [which didn’t even matter at this point]

Now the not so chipper Chucky was about the reach across the counter and give the lovely DOLLAR-RENT-A-CAR agent the full force of a Chucky Not-A-Happy-Camper performance, when she finally convinced him it was futile but she heard that maybe AVIS or THRIFTY still had cars.

Now remember, when we checked Saturday, all Avis locations in a 20 mile radius were sold out but WTF , let’s try it out.

Now at the Avis Counter, Chucky relates the recent and previous happenings both with DOLLAR, and AVIS, the cancellation, Saturday and re-booking through AAA etc, etc, etc.

Now totally in his calm, determined and believe it or not Cordial posture, Chucky actually gets the AVIS Guy to Find a car, albeit $223.00 more than his original booking [hey, he’s from the hotel biz and understands rate management and surge pricing – he may not be happy about it but he needs damn car!]  So much for a GREAT DEAL via AAA!

Once all the paperwork is done, he calls DL to see how close they are to the AVIS pick up spot only to find that:

1.  The Nice DOLLAR ”get the car guy”, already had them loaded into a jeep, just waiting on the paper work.

2.  The AVIS pickup was on the 2^nd floor.

Soooooo, they now have to un-load and trapes back into the Rental counter area and head upstairs to the AVIS pickup area, as the Nice AVIS guy leads the way.

They wind up in a Hyundai Santa Fe [close to the one rented Saturday] with a return to Dulles International [the return flights haven’t been changed…yet]. And they're off to find the McGlynn’s in Clifton.

With ROADAH [Google Maps Navigation Lady] leading the way, and a call to Danny who is at his son’s baseball practice, we are on the way.

Of course inputting the proper address would help as we pull into the driveway and a nice man [Not Danny] says:

  “Can I help you?’

  “McGlynn Residence?  Asks DL.

  “Not unless they moved in while I was at the store.”  Says the nice man.

A quick check of Chucky’s contact list finds the right address and we pull into Danny and Angie’s driveway at last.

Again this has been a marathon post but necessary.

The D.C. Adventure really starts tomorrow as we begin the exploration of our Nations Capitol with two VERY EXCITED boys, one not so stressed Papa and a still groggy Abuela.

Oooohhhhh, can’t wait.

 

Ciao 4 Now

Uncle Chuck & The anxious to get on with it,

Dragon Lady