Interlude: Practical Matters

Going over a couple of practical things:  shortly before boarding at JFK, I attempted to put my active SIM card from the Italian provider TIM into my iPhone, but botched it and the tray got jammed.  On arrival at Rome FCO, I stopped at the TIM counter and the man said it was jammed so badly that I would need to  go to the Apple Store in Rome.  We proceeded to pick up the rental car with me wondering if I would really need to take some Soriano time to go to Rome for the Apple store, or go during our planned time in Rome a week later, or find an electronics store, perhaps the one in Umbertide.  In the center of the small town Soriano I happened to see a store for smartphone repairs.

I'd seen it on the way to lunch, and went back in the afternoon.   The man there was able to get the SIM in correctly, but warned that the battery was bursting and needed to be replaced.  He could get it the next day.  I went the next day, before going to Bomarzo, and the courier hadn't come.  I went back in the afternoon and the battery still hadn't been delivered, but he said to give him a few minutes and he could find one.  While we stopped at the bar next door, he got a new battery and the phone was no longer swelling, but I'm not sure if the instructions for charging a new battery are going well.

Another matter was booking our return flight.  When we changed our dates on short notice, I initially booked an inconvenient return on British Airways via London with high carrier surcharges.  I really wanted to change it, and checked regularly to see if space on SAAver awards for two had opened up with a return in the same date range we wanted.  During our connection at JFK, I saw availability returning through there and called about it.  The agent said we couldn't confirm it before our outbound was completed (a reason to book these awards as one-ways in the future) and she wan't finding availability for two anyway.  From Soriano I called again, seeing similar availability, and got a similar response: I was running into "phantom" availability showing on the AA site.  Once we were in Umbertide, I saw new availability via Charlotte and called AA's Italian number.  The first agent said it could be confirmed but I would have a fee for redepositing the miles and starting a new award, which I knew was not the case for a trip between the same two cities, but I figured it would be sorted out.  While I was hold, this call was cut off.  I made another call and got the same.  When I started the third call, I got an alert that my TIM account was out of calling time.  Not being a talker, and knowing that they don't charge for incoming calls, I hadn't paid much attention to the fact that my good plan was just for data and texts, not voice calls, and my voice plan was wiped out during the time I had on hold.  I made the next call via Skype, with a cost but a lower one, with the longest time on hold but it was finally resolved,  I didn't have a charge for redepositing the miles, and I would get a refund of British Airways' surcharges.  It's inconvenient to have to take such a long Rome-Charlotte flight before getting to Boston, but it's the best option we were getting in the current situation.