With two sisters coming from the US for Christmas, and three leaving after, and major winter storms enroute, I have never heard wilder, more impossible tales of travelling. I am one who loves the open road, and thinks happiness is found in a backpack, ticket and passport, heading for the far horizon. But after their stories of being stranded, misled by representatives, and other injustices, even I, the globe-trotter, quailed at the thought of buying another plane ticket. What kept me from despair at planning another trip was that they had some incredible angel stories too.

But all that was before the craziest story ever: Hannah and Esther were ready to board the plane at Dublin, when Hannah was told that her ticket was invalid.

Void.

No permission to board. No explanation. The. ticket. was. void.

The ticket had been paid, and a routine notice sent two days before. But on the day, the ticket was invalid, and no one can tell us why.

The angels were still on duty. One let Hannah board the first leg of her journey without a pass. The girls heard him on the speaker phone, telling the stewardess to let Hannah onto the plane after the luggage crew was told to get her bags off the plane. Who was he? How did he know to call at that moment? Who else but an angel had the power to make that command to the stewardess?

In Manchester, they had enough time to call dad who was able to buy a new US Airways ticket so that Hannah didn’t have to be stranded with an invalid ticket.

Orbitz, the company that sold the original ticket, has given no satisfaction, no refund, no explanation.

Which is why I studiously avoided them last week and got a ticket on the Delta website.