SATA Flight Insurance Questions

I'm traveling & I have questions about what *exactly* insurance would buy me. Note that an Insurance page does not become an option until you have selected the payment option & there is no FAQ available for it.

Also note that if you are looking for Sao Miguel or Faial, you MUST search for "Ponta Delgada" or "Horta" respectively. Cities, not islands.  A complication for the innocent traveler.

The closest thing is their "Changes and Refunds" page, which does not indicate the time limit, just that you can't change or get a refund online.  I just spent 10 minutes on hold trying to call someone. And this was after visiting the office in Santa Maria and seeing a line of 5 people for 1 service agent. 

The nature of my question:
I am attempting to arrive at Sao Miguel on a boat at 6:30am.  I would like to then board a plane at 8:55am to Funchal, Madeira.

IF everything goes according to schedule, I know I can easily be at the airport 2 hours ahead of departure time.

IF things screw up, and I am too late for the plane, I have NO IDEA what will happen. Right now, I have an opportunity to buy a ticket for the 8:55am or for one that leaves the NEXT DAY.  The one the next day costs 30 Euros more and I will have to sleep in a hotel, which will also cost me from 50 to 100 Euros.

If I take my chances and buy the one for 8:55am, can I buy insurance to take the next plane?

If I play it safe and buy the one for the next day, can I still go to the office & try to get on the earlier flight if I make it on time? (I've done this in the US)

If I use Paypal, does it mean that I have some kind of insurance on my ticket? "allows the buyer to be reimbursed in case the item purchased online doesn't arrive" (does that EVEN apply here?).  See note below about how wonderful it is to use Paypal, but it offers nothing in the way of actually answering my question.

Paypal

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Another strong point is its buyer protection program that allows the buyer to be reimbursed in case the item purchased online doesn’t arrive.
Many reasons to use PayPal as a payment method for your online bookings.

RIAC & AtlanticoLine Boat Planning Annoyances

I LOVE boats.  My great-grandfather was a whaler (or so I'm told).  I am planning to travel to Madeira, and would prefer to travel by boat.  Apparently, you have to go from Lisbon and it is VERY expensive. Even if I can't do that, I'd still like to visit Faial by boat, where my Mom & her family grew up.  I visit AtlanticoLine, the only boat option.

There is a special offer. The Blue Sea Pass, 3 islands Roundtrip for just 108 Euros.

"GREAT!" I think to myself, I'm going to spend time on the water & understand what it is like to approach the islands like the ancient sailors did.

I'll go from Santa Maria (where I am now) to Sao Miguel (it's a different boat) to Faial.  And when I come back, I'll stop at Sao Miguel (to take the plane to Madeira, the only direct option) and come back to Santa Maria.

Frankly, I've done the boat trip before, even done a cruise of the islands, booked a room onboard & everything.  I am already aware that the boat doesn't travel everyday & that there are stops that last for hours on some islands.  It is not the easiest means of travel or the most flexible.  I am aware that one leg of the journey will be 13 hours. And coming back will be 23 hours. (LONG stops included)

(You are welcome to stop reading here.  The rest of this post is a detailed rant about just how difficult it was to buy the ticket.  I LOVE the islands, why doesn't the RIAC/Atlantico Line Office want to take my money??)

Apparently, the online system makes it too difficult to purchase this package.  I can purchase ONLY a round trip deal for 2 different dates.  If you are visiting 3 islands, does it not make sense to also include a way to indicate the arrival/departure dates for the 3rd island where you WANT to stay?

The online system also returns results in a confusing order. I ask for August 10th and get results listed as
14-8
10-8
12-8

Why would the date I request be the first result anyway?  Wouldn't I rather travel later? (the website seems to think so)

So I went to the RIAC office itself.  And just spent an HOUR trying to figure out how to buy a ticket for what I actually want. The Very Patient Woman behind the counter put my entire schedule into the system.

My proposed travel itinerary for 3 islands:

Santa Maria>Sao Miguel>Faial>Sao Miguel>Santa Maria

The Very Patient Woman helped me to figure out THEIR required itinerary for me to pay 108 Euros for the "3 Island Special":

Santa Maria>Terceira>Faial>Sao Miguel>Santa Maria

How many islands do you see above? 4, count 'em, FOUR!!!!

The annoying part, it is EXACTLY THE SAME BOAT trip. The schedule includes a stop in Terceira for 12 hours. 2pm until 2am, no matter where you want to go, you have to get off & spend money in Terceira.

Unfortunately, even with this modified version, the computer system didn't allow the purchase.  The "Purchase" button that SHE was seeing was grayed out.  She called twice & seemed embarrassed, but asked that we come back tomorrow, while she tried to "massage the system" (it sounds better in Portuguese).

At the end of the hour-long visit, I still didn't have my tickets.  I was also annoyed that the AC didn't work.  Frankly, I was frustrated enough NOT to visit any other islands. Or if I did, it would be by airplane.

==

Afternoon Update: Price on SATA:146 Euros, Sao Miguel to Faial, with a stop in Terceira!

2nd Day Update: They called, told me (in English) that everything had been figured out and I could go back to purchase the tickets. We spent another hour in the office, looking at a grayed out button.

3rd Day Update: They called me again, at 11:45, when they close for lunch at 12.  I returned later that day. I gave up fighting. I paid my money.  I got my ticket. I went to the beach.

I plan to write a letter & call to complain.  After my trip is over.  I don't want anything else to go wrong!!

SATA Only Wants Married Women to Travel

"Mrs. Rose"

This is how SATA identifies me.

Even though I am not married. The only other option is "Mr"

The choices they could offer could have more diversity.  I know all sorts of sites that include options for identities including Transgender, CisGender, Pan-Sexual and even non-human designations.

Registering for my ticket, online, it is the main thing I remember.  And that makes me angry, outright, furious and annoyed.  It is WRONG.

It especially makes me uncomfortable to think that in some kind of emergency, they will contact my family (A MINHA MAE!!/MY MOTHER!) and tell them that a "Mrs. Tammy Rose" is missing.

"Mrs?" they will think.
"Did she get married and not tell me?"
"Where is her husband?"

The options in Portuguese just don't translate.  "Senhor" and "Senhora".  Apparently, the people who run the site have ignored "Senhorita", even the ones in Portuguese.  (Do young Portuguese women NOT order their tickets online?)  I suspect that it is only a holdover and that not enough women have complained enough.

Or that everyone just laughs about it.  And I am just being a sensitive American.

"Queijeira"= When Someone You Love, Loves Cheese

Apparently, my aunt had a secret nickname as a child.  "Queijeira".

It roughly means "she who loves cheese".

I won't reveal which of the sisters it was, in a family of 8 kids; I was surprised that only one held the title, and that it was not my mother.  Nor will I reveal which of the brothers in the family hated cheese.  Learning about his hatred for cheese scandalizes me, even as a grownup.  (To be fair, he doesn't like milk either, so I suspect it is a dairy intolerance/hatred).

For those who don't know, cheese=Queijo=the national Portuguese comfort food & delicacy. It is pronounced like the American word "cage" (the final "o" is usually swallowed), and as a child, I imagined it was a way that grownups described the way the cheese naturally appeared.  It was formed in a "cage" of wax, a protective coating.  I knew it came in a wheel, it had its own crust on it, like a well baked loaf of bread.  My mother would buy it a wedge at a time, and we would savor it from the thin pliable edge to the crumbly hard base.

American cheese did not have to be contained properly; it came in it's own naturally growing prepackaged containers.  Plastic sheets of Kraft Singles or shredded bags for pizza, or weird foil wrapping like Velveeta, the "cheez" I had growing up in Massachusetts was another substance than what my Mom treasured.  It could also NEVER be used to cross the cultural lines.  I have NEVER seen a grilled cheese sandwich (or pizza) made with Queijo Sao Jorge, or served on Wonder Bread. It took me years before I was able to accept that they were even part of the same food group; I had always taken for granted that American food was processed, made by machines and not hands.  Like red "cherry" flavoring, the frozen ice was its own fake imitation of a fruit that maybe was the same color.

There are more stories about cheese & the national obsession with it, than any other Portuguese food I can think of.  Most breakfasts consist of a simple papsico (bun) and manteiga (butter) and Queijo (preferably Queijo Sao Jorge).  And if you want to stop for a snack during the day, you can buy the same sandwich at a cafe.  Your mother will send it to school with you in your lunchbag and none of the other kids will want to trade with you, because the cheese is so piquant.  To this day, my mother still has Queijo Sao Jorge for breakfast and after every lunch & dinner as dessert.

Every time I go through customs in Boston after flying SATA, all the Customs Officers scratch their heads and ask why all the little old Portuguese ladies all have cheese in their purses.  I shrugged and held my own cheese filled bag a little closer. You can buy Queijo Sao jorge in Cambridge.  But it does not taste AS good.  The ladies are all connoisseurs, Queijeiras all.

So when my mother began telling me about the Cheese Wars that her brother and sister had, I couldn't stop laughing.  She admitted that her brother hated cheese so much that when they were kids in Faial, he would sniff the table knife to make sure it hadn't been recently tainted by cheese.  When her sister would come home from buying cheese for Vovo, half of it would already be gone.  That's how she got her nickname, Queijeira.

Once, while her Queijo-hating brother was asleep, she snuck a piece of cheese into his mouth.  He chased her around the house.  To this day, he can't stand it.  Poor Tio!!  He was no match for the family Queijeira!!

The Countdown Begins: I leave in 21 days for Sao Miguel!

My cousin visited from Santa Maria a month ago.  I realized that it was time for me to visit, again.  I have family all over the place & I try to go every 4 years.  I got my ticket on SATA, after much internal debate. But deep down, I knew I'd be going.

I'm excited to tell everyone that I'll be gone for the summer.  I say that I'm going to Portugal, then correct myself for them.

"Actually, it's the Azores," I say, "a bunch of islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean,"

Most people react well to "Portugal"; they generally have a sense of where it is ("Europe, right?" Yes, Europe) and what language they speak ("Spanish, right?" No, not Spanish.  You're close, though!)

I say, "most people" when I mean, "most Americans".  And even then, there is a giant difference between where I live now, New York and where I grew up, Waltham (outside Boston).  People in New York may not know about the Azores, have never had heard the word, but they won't admit it. We are all immigrants on the island of Manhattan.  Outside Boston, there is a chance that someone *knows* someone who is from there, or has visited, or both.  It works for New Bedford, Fall River and Providence.  And certain parts of California.  I've heard that there are so many Azorean immigrants to California that they have completely taken over the dairy industry.  If you get your milk from a West Coast cow, chances are pretty high that is speaks Portuguese.

That was a joke.

Most people have NO CLUE about the Azores.  And maybe it's better to keep it that way.  I feel slightly as if I'm betraying the selfish part of me, the future me who wants to keep it all a secret.  It's like I have inherited a Van Gogh painting, something breathtaking, and I keep it locked away in my basement. I want to keep the endless beaches and scenery all to myself.  But sharing is what makes anything worthwhile, right? I want to encourage people to come, but I don't want it spoiled, okay?

To all the future tourists who come to visit, especially because of any of my writings, be warned.  This is not just another vacation. These islands are pristine and unspoiled by uber-tourism.  These mountains and views are treasured & holy.  My family lives there, and has lived there for centuries.  Be respectful.

You are coming to my home.