A Note to Ashley & Toby

I know yesterday was a very rough day for both of you, and it comes at my fault. I want to apologize here for causing you both undue stress, for making your lives difficult, and for not being able to provide you the world-class service that I strive to offer in every single conversation and interaction with you and everyone else that I work with.

But before I do that, I’m sure you’re wondering what happened with Ashley’s flights. Well, after talking with both of you over the weekend and hearing what I interpreted as certainties that Ashley wouldn’t be able to make her original flight to Brisbane, I canceled them.

It seems irrational, but in fact it was the best move to make; though the prices of future flights in June had jumped — making re-scheduling Ashley’s flight to Brisbane to a later date nearly as expensive as purchasing a new flight, which we discussed at length— there was a chance that new availability would open up at a lower price, meaning that there was a chance we could’ve changed Ashley’s flight for a price closer to $200, as we had done twice before on previous flights, instead of ~$650, which was the currently available rate at the time. The only way to have a shot at accessing a ~$200 rescheduled flight, though, was to delay the original one to a later date, and hope availability would open up in the interim. So, hoping to find a diamond in the rough that would save you ~$450, that’s what I did.

In retrospect, it becomes remarkably clear that I should’ve informed both of you of the canceled flight, but at the time, when we were considering pushing back the original flight at least a week or more, there appeared to me to be zero chance that Ashley would be ready to board her plane. Clearly, I was wrong, and that’s the mistake that caused this entire situation to go awry.

As for how you got all the way to Singapore, Ashley, I have no idea! Once this is all over, I’m certain we’ll all laugh and scratch our heads about how that happened, since I can assure you that you should not have been allowed to leave Toronto. Perhaps this is one of those inexplicable cases where the universe is conspiring in your favour? At the very least, if you do have to spend a night in any airport in the world (I believe you are sleeping on an airport bench as I type this), it is only fitting that it would be Singapore Changi, rated the world’s best airport for the past three years. I hope your stay there wasn’t too uncomfortable.

As I understand things, you have paid for a flight from Singapore to Bali, another from Brisbane to Port Macquarie, and have also endured the cost of switching the flight from Brisbane to Port Macquarie. You’ve both sent me some figures — some of which I think are estimated, others of which are exact — in our Facebook message, but I’m hoping over the next few days you can determine the exact costs you’ve paid for these flights and send them to me. I will be reimbursing you for those costs, so please also let me know if I should send all of the money to one of you or if I should split it somehow. I will reimburse you by way of refunding your prior payments to me, which is the most economical way of doing it.

Once you’ve reached this point of the message, I really hope all of your worries have been washed away. Still, it makes me extremely disappointed to have this entire situation happen to you, particularly because I think of you not as business clients but as friends. I always do my absolute best to treat both clients and friends with the utmost respect and integrity, and though I failed in getting you from A to B in a reasonable manner, which is the essence of my business, I believe I have succeeded in maintaining the practice of operating with respect and integrity, which is the essence of my self. At this point, I’m mainly just happy that each of you are safe, (hopefully) happy, and that, very soon, you will be together.

Please accept my apology — I hope I will still have the pleasure of flying you to your next destination on this exciting journey called life.

Jordan