Like so many other chumps, I recently decided that now feels like a reasonable time to take an international trip. I haven’t left the country in five years, and given that COVID restrictions have eased and millions of other people are doing it, why not get out of my inferno of an apartment? Why not go somewhere I have never been, where it is also hot but very beautiful and where my partner will be? Why not go to Greece??
Booking the tickets, I felt excited at the prospect of spending two weeks swimming in the Aegean. I also felt agitated and overwhelmed, looking at all the bonus crap the airline wanted me to buy. Has it always been this way? I could pay to check a bag, or I could pay to carry one into the main cabin. I could roll the dice and let the airline choose my economy seat, or pay $75 to request a seat assignment in a regular, non-exit row. Did I want to purchase insurance ($100-plus) to guard myself against freak cancellations? I did not. I settled on a return flight through Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, a one-hour layover that I thought allowed me ample time to change planes.
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