Travelling with e-tickets....

.... can sometimes be a test for your nerves.
On Friday, we took off for our well deserved "parents-only" break to Crimea and left the happy kids behind in Kyiv with Vika.
At Borispol airport, we presented our passports as identification for our tickets. Peter had purchased them online (and over the phone) and our names were on a list that we had a glimpse at...... but a man who was constantly on two phones (sometimes in parallel) informed us, that our tickets had been cancelled that same morning. Cancelled?
Take off was scheduled for 13:20h and it was now 12:40h.
We did not even have the phone number of the booking agent, so Peter called his assistant for help. She was not in reach of any internet terminal and could not help. The well proven reception desk of his company's office in Vienna/Austria helped us out and soon after Peter was on the phone with the people that he had booked the tickets with.
They shared his amazement at the course of events and could not understand it either. They had neen informed via email in the morning, that our tickets had been annuled, but didn't know why.
So Peter hang up and hunted for 2 new tickets. He managed to get this organized. But the lady insisted on cash payment. The clock was ticking. The two ATMs in the departure hall did not work. In the meantime, Sylvie had been handed boarding passes. Peter and the ticket lady ran back to her booth, where she miraculously discovered a machine for processing credit cards...... but not on first attempts, of course!
In the end, we stood in line with the other passengers headed for Simferopol on Crimea. And we took off and landed safely :-)
Upon arrival, we were greeted by a cab driver with our name on a sign. We had asked the hotel to arrange this for us. He took us to the hotel for the agreed sum of 450 UAH, and the ride took 1:40h.