Thread by @ssteingraber1

So I’ve been living a different experience this week from other parents hunkered down with their kids. I haven’t been able to talk about it until today. This is a story that features my daughter Faith, the nation state of Chile, and @Chase Bank. It goes out to @rebecca_altman.

Re: @Chase: I have one credit card—same one since 1989 and I pay off the full balance every month like a Girl Scout. It’s a Chase card, and I’ve been holding onto it until Earth Day when I would replace it and cut it up as part of #stopthemoneypipeline

google.com/amp/s/www.roll…

Re: my daughter: Until yesterday Faith, 21, anthropology major at @smithcollege and fiercely independent, was abroad studying social justice movements in Chile. Like every other college kid she started hearing rumors last week that she would need to come home

It was heartbreaking and confusing to her bc 1) she was happy there; 2) no signs of #coronavirus in Valparaiso where she was living w a host family; 3) Chile is the midst of a political uprising and it seemed to her likely that COVID19 was an excuse to crack down on dissent.

That was last week. Which as we know was an infinity ago. By Friday she accepted she had to come home but asked me not to take any action re: changing the date on her return ticket bc she first wanted to talk to her program director on Monday. I made a parental decision to say ok

I got a frantic WhatsApp message from Faith on Monday. Every other kid in the program had had their parents already find a flight to get them home, and Chile had just announced the border was closing on Wednesday and LatAm flights were already being grounded.

There was no way to change the date on her return flight on-line and she couldn’t get through to airline by phone and she could try to go in person to the airline office but there were often violent protests in the streets and she had already been exposed to tear gas twice.

I couldn’t get through to LatAm either. What about just buying a one way ticket? Faith reported that, based on the website, seats were mostly sold out for Monday and Tuesday and the price of a one-way ticket to JFK was now...$6000.

I made calls and sent emails asking for help from the study abroad program. Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t hearing anything back. Of course they were frantically trying to get kids home from all over the world. Finally I got through to a live person at their travel agency.

A patient kind and loving person.

The person Mr Rogers was referring to when he said “when in a crisis look for the helpers.”

All seats on all the Mon/Tues flights were indeed sold out. Yes all kinds of flights were being grounded but there were 5 seats left on a direct flight to JFK leaving at 11 pm on Weds. night. The price: $2800. Which exceeded the amount she was authorized by the program to spend.

She said she would call for an override. But I knew everything there was rolling over to voicemail and I felt it was likely the delay would lose Faith the seat. I offered to put it on my card and seek reimbursement later. Sure! she said. We can do that. Sounds smart.

Except for one problem. I didn’t have $2800 left on my credit card to pay for ticket. I’d had extra expenses this month and hadn’t paid off my card yet. Bill isn’t due til next week.

Good Helper Person from travel agency hung on with me while I called Chase.

When I finally got through I explained my desperate situation and asked for a temporary increase to my credit limit to buy the ticket. Barring that could I make a payment by phone from my credit union checking account and have it post immediately to open up more space on my card?

The answer to both questions: NO.

I got back on the phone with Travel Agent Good Person. I told her the bad news. Would she hang on w me while I made another call? YES

But who was I going to ccall? Who both loved me and had high limit and low balance on a credit card?

I thought of someone and three-wayed them

It worked. I chose the right person—who, merged into the call with the travel agent, understood the problem in real time and, no questions asked, provided a credit card number.

So as of last night Faith is home now—texting and self-isolating in her childhood bedroom for the next 14 days—and so is her brother and I’m now like all the other parents who are wondering how we are going to do this without killing each other.

Abiding gratitude to very best travel agent ever—I will track you down once I recover—and to the credit card holder (you know who you are) and to the driver of the Cornell campus to campus bus who actually called me to say he couldn’t find Faith at the W 44th St bus stop...

...and didn’t want to leave for Ithaca without her. (Having left Chile, she didn’t have a working cell phone to navigate from JFK to Midtown bus stop.) I gave him a description and he walked up and down 44th until he found her. He had only two passengers yesterday. Thank you.

And as for Chase Bank. No participant in the #stopthemoneypipeline campaign will be happier than I to cut up your fucking credit card. FIN