One Woman's Quest for Olympic Tickets: An Epic Fail

This is the story of a fan.  A fan that had dreams.  Dreams that were recently shattered by the forces that control the 2012 Olympic ticketing process.  The fan is me.  The story is mine.  The pain is real.

I mean, I had it all worked out .  It was going to be awesome. I have spent YEARS racking up travel points on my Visa card.  It's, like, my job.  I mean, Visa is an official sponsor of the Olympic Games so it's actually charity, right?  Those Stuart Weitzman shoes I purchased but never wore- because I never go anywhere requiring anything other than flip flops in the summer and UGGS in the winter-that was charity.  That bounce house I bought for my daughters?  You thought that was so they would have something fun and constructive to do?  Ha!  Do you know how much that thing cost?  Used the Visa!  More charity!  I racked up so many points I had me and hubby flying for free (blackouts not withstanding) business class to London.  It was a total win-win both for myself and the USOC.

Place to stay?  Done!  My brother-from-another-mother (henceforth, known as BFAM) is British.  He has a place in Surrey.  Sure, it might have been difficult to get in and out of the city of London but that's okay!  I would have queued and waited like generations of Brits have done for chocolate, meat, nylon stockings and decent television programming.  I was looking forward to it;  like my own small little nod to British culture.  Those people line up for everything.....good lord.

So now all I needed were my tickets, right?  I set up my account with CoSport.  The date finally came when I was able to apply for tickets.  I applied for just about every swimming prelim and final but because of the exchange rate I had to keep it on the low-end.  I checked my boxes (or "ticked" as the Brits would say) and hit the return button.  This was it.  Okay, obviously I wouldn't get tickets to everything I wanted.  But I was going to get tickets to something.  What would it be?  The women's 200 breast final?  That would be so exciting to watch Soni get a gold medal.  Maybe the men's 200IM? Maybe one of the relays?  So exciting!  Go Team USA!  My BFAM also applied for tickets on his end over in the UK.   

There were rumblings about sites crashing all over the world.  The British press was especially vocal about how "many people were going to be disappointed."  But I had applications on 2 continents!  Statistically, I was sooooo ahead of the game. Then the email came from CoSport.  It went something like this, I think.  "Dear Swim Fan:  We're so sorry.  You got jack @*&#.  We are reserving almost half the seats in the aquatic centre for VIPs so we're down to about 8,500 tickets for you peasants and we're so sorry you are not one of them.   You have nothing.  You are nothing. We will release unsold tickets at a later date to fantastic events like the prelims of the Toliet Paper Toss in Hyde Park if you're interested." Love, Sir Sebastian Coe.

My BFAM did get tickets... I think for the gymnastics with the twirly things.  He's the only person on the planet that I'm aware of that got anything.  A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G.  So as I continue working through my Kubler-Ross stages of grieving I continue my charity work through my Visa usage.  My latest donation to the Olympic cause will probably occur next week in Coach at the outlet mall because I'm selfless like that and I'll do anything to support Team USA....Olympic tickets or not.