Friday morning I rocked up to the United international check-in counter for my flight back home and while standing in line, took a look at my itinerary.

“I’m schedule to leave the 18th?” A burst of fear gripped me as I scanned the lobby for a calendar. “But today’s the 19th, isn’t it?”

Sure enough, I’d missed my flight by 24 hours. Crap. I was utterly certain that I was leaving on Friday, not on Thursday. What a screw-up! What to do? My e-ticket was non-refundable, non-transferrable, non-changeable, and non-flexible to the maximum stiffness.

However, the counter agent I talked with, Mr. Julio Mejia, was quite flexible indeed and got me on the Friday flight with no fuss and a minimum of additional outlay. (A one-way ticket to Tokyo purchased on the day would have cost me several thousand dollars, so I appreciated his efforts to save me some money.)

Now here I am, home safe and sound with an bonus day of Chicago holiday well spent with an architectural tour of “Downtown Deco” and a fine dinner in Greektown.