Trying to Buy Airshow Tickets

Let me just tell you how fun it was to buy tickets to this airshow. The only option is to use a credit card, which we have two of. Since I didn’t forsee any trouble buying tickets, there were only three weeks left before the airshow when I started to try to get tickets. I went to buy them on the website, only to realize that the billing address on your credit card and shipping address had to match. No big deal, we have a US credit card, and a US billing address (even though our physical address is definitely British.) This usually doesn’t pose a problem, except that there were only three weeks left, and if I were to put in our US address, the tickets would be routed from England to New York City before then being mailed USPS back to our little PO box on base here in England. Not likely to happen in three weeks. I wasn’t taking any chances, anyways.

So I called the ticket hotline, thinking she’d be able to put it through somehow if I just explained the situation, and have the tickets shipped to our UK address. Nope. I was way off. I got a stern “No” from the lady, and when I asked if I had any other option (could I pick up the tickets? etc.) I was also told “No” and hung up on. Hmmm. So after calling two different banks, trying to get them to authorize it somehow, or change our address, (which was going to be a pain in the butt) the nice British lady at the bank said sometimes she turns her US P.O. Box into a British address by altering the city, state and post code to British ones instead. It works, she says. So I call the hotline back, and explain that the address is the same, but I wasn’t sure if it would go through, because it’s not written EXACTLY the same as our billing address.

Here’s what she says: “Oh, that’s ok. I can just put it through as long as the three little numbers on your credit card match the account. The address doesn’t really matter. I’ll just put this through and you’ll have your tickets in two days!”

Such is MY life.