Day 104 - Double or nothing

First "hick-up" in my travel planning. Got up at 6AM this morning to get to the local Buenos Aires airport for my flight to El Calafate, Patagonia on time, only to find out that my ticket has not been paid yet, therefore I have two options: (1) Take the next flight to El Calafate, not a direct one, so it takes twice as long; or (2) Take the original flight tomorrow.

I was pissed - how could my ticket not be paid for yet? I had a confirmation printed out, as always, just in case. Upon scrutinizing the numerous pages of the print-out, the airport clerk proved to me that it was, in fact, my fault. Although I still beg to differ: after all, when you receive an email with the subject "Your flight confirmation", the first 3 lines of which (in bold) read "Your flight has been confirmed. Your purchase has been confirmed. Your seat has been confirmed", do you really bother to check page 55 of the said email, where in the smallest letters possible it says that you are supposed to "Pay for the ticket within the next 24 hours" (without any instructions on how exactly that must be done - and in any case, why can't they just take the money out of my Amex when the number is clearly provided, and why do they say "puchase is confirmed" if there has been no purchase???). (*^&%(*^%

Oh well, in any "double or nothing" case, I'm the "double" person, so obviously, I decide to go today. And - as always, it's all for the best - if I flew directly to El Calafate, I would have never been able to get a bird's-eye view of the snow-mountains of Patagonia that the landing in Ushuaia provided!