Starting out with a bang… (Day 1 of 21 days in Peru)
It seems funny that for a place that is only 1-time zone behind the East Coast and 2,753 miles by air, it would not take nearly 24 hours of travel. Alas, it did. Even without counting my 5 hours awake at home getting the last-minute things done, I was officially traveling from 3 pm June 29th to 3 pm June 30th. It actually would have been close to 32 hours had my ticket not gotten changed in Lima unexpectedly, but grateful for not having a 13-hour layover and arriving at 10 pm in Iquitos.
I was at GSP and checking in by 4 pm (the airport is about an hour from home). I have always loved Delta Air Lines and have never been disappointed by their service or flights. It is my most preferred airline. But for the past month, since adding the Machu Picchu leg to my Peruvian adventure, I have been trying to get 1 segment of my round-trip ticket removed. Yet each time I tried, it was either not possible or would change my ticket, my cost over $1k. So I was facing having to literally fly from Lima to Iquitos (after buying a one-way ticket for around $153) on the 19th to just turn around and fly back to Lima 3 hours later because my ticket from Cusco (closest airport to Machu Picchu). However, the last representative I spoke with (before traveling started) recommended waiting until I was “stranded in Lima” on July 15th and see if they could just cancel the start of my return home flight. I was willing to take the gamble in hopes of saving the time and money of the additional flight. I would worry about around July 15th. I even used Orbitz to book me a reserve now pay later hotel in both areas.
My good fortune came when I checked in for my flight. Over the past month, LATAM (the local in-country airline) kept changing/canceling/moving my return flight from Iquitos to Lima on July 18th. In the end, they accidentally and unbeknownst to me, booked me on 2 flights on the same day at different times. Delta caught it. Delta asked me to choose which flight I wanted to keep. I told him neither. Explained the situation and showed him evidence that I had another ticket, putting me into Lima well in advance of my July 19th Lima flight home. So he happily deleted BOTH flights and changed my tickets to a multi-city at no additional charge. This MADE my day. It left me in Lima on the 15th evening after a week in Machu Picchu. Giving me 4 days to explore Lima. Just what I had wanted when I first planned my trip. It was cost-prohibited, and the system won’t sell me the multi-city ticket due to the international flights. Now, I had what I wanted. I already have my 4 days in Lima planned, booked with activities, hopefully, a dive in there, and a great 5-star hotel resort to recharge at before heading stateside. More to come on the Lima adventure in 17 days.
