I’m beginning to have my doubts about Iberia Airlines. Their system recovered overnight from the attempts I made yesterday to book flights; when I looked today, the fare and seats I wanted were available again.

I proceeded through the booking process, entered my credit card data, and pressed “Purchase”. A screen popped up: “We are processing your payment. Please wait.”

10 minutes later, the site said I’d been idle too long and threw me out – when I went back, the seats and fare I wanted were locked up again.

A few hours later, today’s failed purchase had cleared. I tried again using a different browser with an empty cache. It made no difference – the process still froze after I entered my payment details.

I called Iberia for help; after 10 minutes of “our agents are busy”, their system hung up on me. I sent a DM to their Twitter account asking for help; it’s been seven hours with no reply.

But their Twitter account came to the rescue – by accident. I looked at some of their replies to other complaints; one reply asked “have you tried clearing your cache or using our app?” Clearing the cache hadn’t worked for me, so I downloaded their app and was able to actually book our tickets, pick our seats, and make the purchase with only the usual amount of hassle.

We’re set! Finally. I hope.

It has been a day of circular progress.

I tried to clean out my Traeger grill – 90 minutes later, I had a non-functioning igniter, but in the process I discovered the fire pot was nearly worn through (it’s five years old and sees rough service, so I’m not disappointed), and it’s easier to replace both of them at the same time than to do it separately.

Then I found out that I could have gotten a lower fare on our trip to Africa if I’d scheduled us to leave a day earlier – but the savings would mostly vanish if I tried to change the ticket now (allowing for the extra day of travel and the cancellation charge on our not-quite-fully-refundable tickets). I’m going to call BA tomorrow and see if they can help, but I’m not optimistic.

Finally, I tried booking our flights from Porto to Madrid; the price of the flight I wanted went up $15 when I backtracked to check an alternative time, and the seats I chose are blocked. I think I’ll wait until tomorrow.

I feel like Billy in the Family Circus!