Travels to South Africa (Part 2)

Finally I reached the counter, where my limited German was helping me to figure out that the flight was full and there were no seats available. I finally began talking with one worker who passed me on to another. She informed me the flight was overbooked and full now.

She asked if I would be willing to volunteer to take another flight. I told her it would be very good for me to be on that flight. She said that everyone that was going to be on the flight was on it, literally. The people were actually sitting in the seats.

Being the understanding, kind person I am, I confirmed this fact through some questions, then said to her "so, the volunteer is not exactly optional?" "Correct." We both laughted because what else can you do? She said they could put me on 1 of 2 flights the next day and would pay for my hotel and food. A voucher was also offered. Obviously, they wanted to sweeten the pot so that I would take the offer and volunteer, which of course I had no choice but to do anyway.

We talked through the options, but she sensed my disappointment and frustration. This caused her to shift to another gear. She found a flight that left in 30 minutes, went through Cape Town, then arrived in Jo'burg at 2:40 PM. My original flight was supposed to arrive at 9:55 AM, so this was not too bad. There would be an issue with my bag, which was that it would not arrive until a time to be named later.

Much to my amazement, she put the whole thing together, explained some details, then said that I had no time to make it to the other gate and I needed to run. Much to my amazement, she then gave me the voucher anyway! Thank the Lord for her, because she made it happen!

I grabbed my carry-on and started running across the airport to my new gate. I arrived at the gate, realizing I did not need to rush a whole lot. I think the flight was running late.