The trip to my fourth Olympics has been a rocky road. There's communication issues regarding money transfers, confusion about what kind of flights we need to take and how to get COVID testing agencies approved by the Chinese government and just a general lack of resources to get the necessary things done.
There was a bit of good news in my e-mail inbox when I woke up this morning. As I wrote yesterday, I spent a good chunk of the day dealing with Olympic issues, including looking up the flight schedules for the different airlines that are able to provide the approved flights into Beijing for Olympic staff, volunteers and media members. I heard back from a woman at Air France, who told me that she would be in touch with her team, which would in turn be in touch with me once they figured out a possible flight situation.
And sure enough, when I woke up this morning, there was an e-mail from one of those team members, offering a couple of different flight options on the days that I need to get to Beijing. These flights will have me flying from Boston to Paris and then on to Beijing on the dedicated Olympic flights. That was the good news.
The bad news came when I looked at the cost of the flight, which was double what I had paid for my previous flight. Obviously, on shorter notice and with longer flights, I anticipated a higher price, but I wasn't expecting it to be quite so high. But it is what it is.
I confirmed my information with the Air France people and they sent me a link to pay. However, I have now tried three times to make the payment and each time it has come back as "unsuccessful." It just seems like everything that could possibly go haywire for this trip, has done just that.
The nice woman I spoke to at On-Site Medical Services in Manchester yesterday gave me an e-mail address to get the proper paperwork but I have yet to hear back from them so that I can get the site approved for the COVID testing by the Chinese government. The good news is that the list of approved COVID test providers has continued to grow, so they are approving places. Hopefully I can get mine approved as well.
On a related note, the Main Media Center opened in Beijing today. It will be great if I get a chance to see it. Yesterday the chances I gave of me actually getting there and seeing an Olympic event were 15-20 percent. Today, it's closer to 30 percent. But, that may change.
Beijing is ready for the Olympics, but getting there is proving to be an issue. Photo from Olympics.com.
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