[Above: Leaving Wellington, New Zealand.Getting on our first plane home.]
Moving your family overseas is no small feat. Perhaps our move was a little simpler because we decided to sell pretty much everything we had acquired while in New Zealand. In the end, we shipped 17 boxes of books, photos, and personal items. For our journey back to the United States we had 8 large bags, a double stroller, a car seat, and 6 carry-ons to shuffle through 4 airports. With all of this luggage, we were prepared to be paying ‘out the nose’ for additional baggage fees, but we had no other way to get the rest of our things home. Well, once again, God had to prove to us that He is bigger than airline regulations and fees. So our story starts with leaving Wellington. Being a domestic flight in NZ, the clerk at the ticket counter informed us that they have a 1-bag policy for all their customers. We told her we understood why they had the policy in place and told her we were missionaries moving back to the USA. We kindly told her we were willing to do whatever it takes to get our bags home and asked her what our options were. She replied saying that she really didn’t know what to tell us because 1-bag is the limit. But then she said, “You’ve been so nice and understanding with me, let me go back and talk to my supervisor.” She returned and stood next to us in front of the counter, leaned over to us and in a half whisper said, “I’ve gotten the okay and I’m going to waive your bags through at no charge.” Jill almost immediately started to cry tears of joy and hugged her. She was a little shocked, but we think it made her day. It definitely made ours!
Our flight from Wellington ended up arriving late into Auckland and gave us only 1 hour and 45 minutes to get our luggage, transfer terminals, and check in for our international flight. We hurriedly made it to the ticket counter only to discover our flight had already left. Apparently, there had been a time change on the itinerary that we had never been informed of and our printed itinerary had the wrong time listed. We were shocked and beginning to feel slightly panicked (especially traveling with two kids under 5)! They sent us to customer service where we were greeted by this really nice older gentlemen who very quickly got us onto the next Air New Zealand flight leaving for the United States and he waived all of our extra baggage fees because of the mistake the airline had made with our flight itinerary. We were so thrilled as it actually gave our family a moment to pause, eat, and rest before our long flight. Plus, we had great seats on a better airline!
On the last leg of our journey, we had to fly domestically once again from LA to Denver. As we heaved our bags onto luggage carts and made our way through the line to the ticket counter, we finally thought that for sure we’d be swallowing the cost of our extra baggage. Just then, I noticed an add for the airline that read, “Your first bag flies for $20 and your second bag for only $1.” Coincidentally, they were running a limited time promotion that just so happened to be running during the month we decided to move home. So in the end, God made a way for all our luggage to travel from New Zealand to the United States for only $80! Thanks Lord!
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