This was the first day that I became totally frustrated. Before this, I was only mostly frustrated. I know you probably think that can't be possible. I didn't think I could be more frustrated, but I got there. Each day from Day 3 on until I had coffee with the Atlas rep, John, in Dubai the evening Mark was flown home, was a lesson in how frustrated I could be and still hold it together without going postal!
The morning started with no real plan because we were still waiting on the French insurance agency to do their job. (Insert crazy evil laugh!!! Doing their job! What a joke!) The calls started coming in right away from the insurance agent. I will not relate each one, but here is a brief review:
First story: They will fly Mark into Dayton on a private jet. I will get to fly along and hopefully Mom will too. Great, didn't ask for that, but I am not going to turn that one down. Stupid was not born yesterday!
Second story: They would fly him into Dayton on a commercial flight and I could be on same plane. Not sure how things changed, but whatever it takes to get home is good with me.
Third story: There are no commercial flights going into Dayton from Dubai. WTH?? How do they think I got there! (See Day 1, Part 1 for my reaction to that one.)
Fourth story: (Tired yet!?) The airlines will not transfer his remains to another airplane. Again, WHAT!?! Call to the wonderful, Cathy Dorsey, who worked for the airlines to confirm that they do this all the time! Call to funeral director (woke him up in the middle of the night forgetting about time change) to confirm this. I knew this was garbage, but fatigue and frustration had me questioning everything.
Fifth story: It has to be a direct flight to the US. So the closest they could get would be Washington DC or Atlanta. (Both are a 10 hour drive from our home!) Then it would be my responsibility to pay the funeral director to get him to Dayton!
Sixth story: It has to be direct, but they think they can get as close as Chicago. Well, that's a little better since it's only a 5 hour drive! But the transportation cost will be huge. And, the insurance company is supposed to pay for bringing him all the way home, but that's not what they are saying. FYI: Transport costs would be more than $2500 from Chicago. That is on top of the funeral costs!
Seventh story: (Are you getting tired of this yet!?!?!) They would get us on the BA flight into Chicago, you know the one from the picture on the first post which showed there was no flight! That's the one! That's the place they were still at when I got him on the flight home.
Understand that I got all of these 'stories' within about a 3 day period. I didn't get the 7th story until after I took matters into my own hands. Actually, I took control after the 5th story, I just didn't tell them. It's not like I owed them anything, because God knows they didn't do anything for me except put up roadblocks. I guess what they don't know, won't hurt them was my philosophy at that point.
Meanwhile, I learn that Mark's residence visa must be canceled. And when that happens, his bank account at the Emirates Bank will be frozen! Big Thank You to Mr. Jessim and the crew at Mid*ex for getting that info to me before it happened! (More on frozen bank accounts later....) So, I call Beth at 2:30 AM and talk her through transferring the remaining balance out of his account. That's right AM!!! And I am talking her through a bank website that is in half english and half arabic from the other side of the world.
Meanwhile, Mark's employer started off in a smaller emirate and therefore, his residence visa was issued through that emirate. To cancel the visa, I had to send Nassir (company employee/driver/runner) with some money (of course) to Ras Al Khamiah to get this finished. It took an entire day!!! I was ever so patiently waiting because I had to have Mark's passport to go to the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi the next day to get the paperwork from them that would allow me to take Mark back to the US. And still I have no confirmed travel plans thanks to the idiot insurance company. The embassy also needs the travel plans to issue the paperwork. To add further complications, a huge formula 1 race was set to begin in Abu Dhabi that weekend and the city would be virtually closed on Friday. So, if I didn't get this paperwork by Thursday, I would have to wait until Monday!! There was no way I wanted that to happen, so I was a bit of a mess waiting for Nassir to return with the passport and the insurance company to pull their heads out of their butts. He got back to the apartment complex at about 9PM. I almost kissed him when he knocked on my door with that passport!