Alright guys..
If you're reading this then you already know I never made it to the party in Pittsburgh on July 12th. I'm really sorry about not being able to make it but spritis of change, you and myself have been unbelievable victims of misfortune.
I DID NOT miss this booking due to fatigue, or sickness, I'm sitting at home in perfect health.
The problem only came to light around the 9th of July when my agent in New York noticed the flights were going to PHILADELPHIA and not Pittsburgh. How this happened none of us are quite sure as the flights were booked online some time ago and everything appeared to be in order (obviously not). The only feasible conclusion is that when the flights were booked online, the wrong airport code was entered. The travel agent refused to acknowledge this may have happened. I had no business going to Philly, so this is where the problems began.
I spent about 5 hours last week on the phone to Delta airlines and the travel company trying to come to some kind of agreement. I could change my tickets for the incredibly cheap price of $3500 dollars or buy new tickets and lose the old ones (again at great personal cost). After a lot of calls, I managed to get flights to New York, however connections to PIT were terrible. I had either a 1 hour connection with Delta (impossible) or 7 hours sitting in JFK (both ways).
We managed to find new flights with another airline which meant more money, another 6 hour layover in JFK and me pretty much having to come directly from the airport to the party.
I was looking at spending the whole weekend sitting in planes / airports / hotels and this is probably where I mentioned 'fatigue' - who wouldn't be?! The last thing I want to do is turn up to a party, pissed off, tired and try to give a good performance. I want to give 110%, not some half arsed show where people would be left disappointed.
The bottom line is, flights were to the wrong destination, the prices were getting beyond a joke, and I had to make a decision as to whether or not to come. In all fairness to Rose from Spirits of Change, I felt the costs were spiralling out of control and way beyond her budget. If Delta had been more accomodating, I would have been there, no question.
I had to make the decision at the very last minute not to come. It wasn't an easy one as I'm not in the habit of missing events (in any country) - in fact I've bent over backwards on many occasions to try and keep everyone happy.
I'm gutted I never made it to Pittsburgh as I've never been before - in fact I was in Spain only 3 weeks ago talking to a lot of people who were going and how much we were looking forward to it.
I really hope something can be worked out in the future and again I can only apologise for not being able to make it. It's been one of the most bizarre, frustrating weeks I've ever had to deal with and already I'm getting negative comments & emails. Not nice.
Rose did everything she did to get me there, I feel I did my part trying to get there (I had to cancel the tickets at my expense and this was after changing the flights to NY flights at my expense - don't ask why Delta wouldn't change everything to Pittsburgh flights at a reasonable cost, they wouldn't explain themselves).
So there it is, the truth, rather than give you some bullshit about missing flights or feeling sick.
I hope the party was good regardless and hope I can make it up to you in the future.
Thanks
Scott