The "Melia Visitor #28056: Part I - The Upgrade" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Traveling to the Bahamas with friends Jere and Just Sue.  Flying on American Airlines flight #4707 which is a smaller jet than what we usually take when visiting islands in the Caribbean.  Two seats on either side of the aisle instead of three as well as only 20 rows of seats instead of close to double that. 

"Selfie" of Carol and LDub.

Left the airport in Philadelphia about 10:30 am and arrived less than three hours later in Nassau.  Lines at Immigration were terrible with passengers from at least four planes lined up in front of half a dozen agents checking passports.  Found our ride to the Melia Resort and in no time were checking in at the main desk.  When we made our original reservations, Jere and Just Sue came to Lancaster from their home in State College, Pennsylvania so the four of us could visit Karen, our personal travel agent at Liberty Travel.  We have taken close to 30 trips and Karen has helped us with everyone of them, so we now call her our personal agent.  She made a few suggestions and finally made arrangements at the Melia for us.  All four were under my name to ensure we would sit together on the plane and have rooms together at the resort.  Well, plans do not always work out as planned.  The line at the Melia was short, but with just two clerks we had to wait close to 15 minutes to be helped.  When an agent opened, I told Just Sue to go ahead of me and I would take the other clerk.  She was almost finished when I was able to talk to the other clerk. Sue did manage to tell me that they had given her an upgrade as she passed me in line.  When I began to check in I signed all the necessary paperwork and then the clerk asked if I would like an upgrade for my room.  Sure!  Cost was $35 a night!  That would be close to a $400 additional fee which I wasn't prepared to pay.  

The Melia Nassau Beach Resort.

Just then Carol arrived by my side.  She had been waiting with Jere and our luggage and had a chance to talk to Sue about her upgrade.  Carol asked how come the people who we were traveling with, and who were all on one reservation with us, got a free upgrade.  Total confusion!!  We asked her to check with the other clerk, which she did, and in no time we had our free upgrade just as our friends had received.  Thank you!  Only problem was the two upgrades were on different floors of the nine floor resort and close to 100 yards apart.  We all figured it was no big deal, but we did find we all had to wear a bracelet for the next two weeks so the staff could tell if we actually got free food and services. We finally began to search for our rooms.  Our view had changed from a garden and street view to a beach and water view.  Finally all was well with the rooms for our two week vacation.  We all hopped on the elevator and pushed the buttons to floors 2 and 3.  For some reason, the elevator immediately opened onto the same floor from which we had just entered.  

Resort bracelets that we are required to wear.

Tried again with the same results.  Then we realized that the lobby where we registered was actually the 3rd floor. Jere and Sue exited the elevator with their luggage while Carol and I closed the door and dropped a floor to find our room.  Door finally opened and Carol and I got off with our luggage.  All was now well as we began the task of unpacking and learning about the air conditioning, safe, TV channels, small refrigerator and WiFi.  Check back tomorrow to see what happened a few minutes later.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.