When I arrived at the Portland Airport almost a day and two flights ago, the ticket agent at the terminal could not find my flight from Narita to Bangkok. As I stood there wide eyed holding my body sized backpack and feeling my own breath stop in expectation, her fingers clicked and clicked the keybord while she shook her head and darted her eyes back and forth between her computer screen and the people around her with a multitude of puzzled expressions. Then, with a huge gasp, she discovered the problem... "Your travel agent did not account for the time change. You already missed your flight from Tokyo to Bangkok because they are a day ahead over there."
Luckily, it was my good fortune that the agenent was Japanese and held true to the customer service that her culture is known for, promising me: "Don't worry. Don't worry. It's not your fault. We'll take care of you." So with another deluge of clicking and a couple more shakes of her head she some how magically found me a place on today's flight from Tokyo to Bangkock and did not charge me for the mistake. Unfortunately, due to the error, I did end up being charged for my prepaid hotel in Bangkok and my flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. I will get some sleep tonight and try to face these issues with a clear head in the morning.
