Bank Card Declined

[Gotago]

I think it was back in March 2020 just before mandatory restrictions kicked in we found ourselves in the proverbial. The wife and I for one reason or another had a pretty lousy trip to Zanzibar. So, we decided halfway through our holiday to upgrade our flight home to business class.
The hotel we stayed at consisted of individual villas dotted here and there set in an idyllic location and thankfully it was run by a very understanding and helpful manager. Okay so I told the bank where we were going and needless to say my card was declined when I tried to pay for the flight upgrade . What made matters worse was according to the airline I had to cancel my original return tickets before they could issue new ones. At that point I was confident the transaction would go through without a hitch. I must have spent half a day in the managers office making numerous calls to my bank and the UK fraud department trying to prove who I was. Finally I was told payment had gone though successfully and we were good to go. On our return and after two hours Queuing at Zanzibar's stifling airport we checked in our bags, handed over our passports and then we were promptly arrested by airport security. Again I had to prove who I said I was by making a one dollar transaction using my card. When we finally boarded our plane and collapsed into our seats I tell you champagne has never tasted so good. I can't help thinking if we had been back packing we could still be stuck in Zanzibar today, maybe not such a bad thing, I can think of worse places.