Cancún, Can't-cún.

H1N1. Swine Flu. Oinky Influenza. Holiday Ruiner. All descriptions of the latest global pandemic sweeping the world country by country, fatally taking control of the people it passes by. Swine Flu is also the cause of our now cancelled Mexican fiesta that Adrian and I were going on in one weeks time.

Originating from Mexico, to date there have been over 150 deaths as a direct result of Swine Flu in Mexico alone. Our plan was to fly into Cancún, on the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula for a week of sun, beach, guacamole and margaritas. We were staying in some gorgeous resorts that made even us jealous, one over on Isla Mujeres (a 30min boat ride off the coast), and another back in the Hotel Zone in Cancún itself. But we are not. We had bought, in a rare occurence for us, full-fare American Airlines tickets from New York to Mexico, for a hassle and stress free holiday. By having commercial tickets we weren't at the mercy of Standby Listings, meaning we were guaranteed to get there, we were guaranteed to get back - a recipe for a relaxing holiday. Who was to think though that these commercial tickets were then the cause of so much stress!?

American Airlines posted a Travel Notice on their website, offering those passengers travelling to Mexico between 25APR-06MAY the opportunity to change their dates, their destinations, or offer refunds to even the non-refundable ticket holders. Excellent. Except, Adrian and I were booked to travel on 09MAY. Numerous phonecalls to American Airlines ensued, with the response coming back that, evidently Swine Flu will be cured by the time you travel, so therefore you travel or you forfeit your ticket. Helpful.

Resigning to the fact that we were now out of pocket by US$450 for a holiday we weren't going on, we needed to relook at our plans, find somewhere that wouldnt cost a lot to get to, that still satisfied our beachy needs! Upon speaking to our good friends at JetBlue in America, we discovered an extraordinary staff travel benefit with them that is a closely guarded secret and we are now off to Nassau, in The Bahamas!

A few days after all of this has occured, the corn-field-folk running American Airlines have decided that they can't predict when Swine Flu will be over (funnily enough), and have now extended their deadline by a week and a half, meaning our tickets are included in the daterange of possibilties. Luckily, I had a New York trip for work as this news was released, and so I nipped into their ticketing office on Lexington Ave, and was greeted by your stereotypical airline employee of America. Gladys was approximately 74. She had bleached blonde hair, glasses bigger than the circumference of her face, and she had attitude. Her name badge had been extended several times over to include all the languages that she spoke, but interestingly enough, she refused to speak any of them properly with any of the customers she handled before me! As if she stole the stickers of the flags of the languages she claimed to speak, in order to avoid being retrenched over the years, she stuck them onto her badge and has been sitting in that same chair since 1942 dishing out the same surly responses to anyone who walked through the front door. Gladys. A true ambassador.

Anyway, at the end of the day, we can breath easy now, knowing that our tickets are not going wasted. While it was costly and not ideal to change them to Nassau (which we didnt really need anyway, as we can kindly fly with JetBlue for the smell of an oily rag, literally), we managed to get a refund on the Cancún tickets in the form of a Travel Voucher to use the money again over the next year. We will go to Mexico. We will enjoy those gorgeous resorts. We will just have to wait until the piggy-flu is resolved (which, according to American Airlines latest prediction will be 16MAY!)