The tale of a shameless no-show
Eek! Long time no blog. I'm sorry for the unannounced absence; we ended up going out of town on a last-minute work thing for the husb. We spent a day and a half in a small city outside Nashville and then drove to Atlanta to see some family and friends. It was a nice trip... for the most part. The lowlight was showing up at the airport nearly two hours before our flight home and not being able to check in. We got in the massive ticketing line and called the 800 number, and the person there told us we were listed as no-shows--but of course, we were still an hour and a half from our flight time.
Then we proceeded to wait in line for an hour and a half, ignored by the roving woman who decided to help everyone around us but decided we were for some reason below her notice, while the line behind us grew and grew and the staff at the counter shrank and shrank, until, at one point, there were two people back there at eight stations (many of which still said they were open).
When we got to the front of the line, we had missed our flight, and the woman looked at us as if we had just fallen off the back of the chicken truck and said, "Well, you ARE no-shows. You should have checked in a long time ago."
You THINK?
Then she said, "We're supposed to charge $50 a person if you miss your flight and have to be rebooked." And despite seeing the line behind us, she had a hard time believing that we had actually been at the airport for quite some time. Which, to me, means that they're going to have to start giving you a little receipt that says "REJECTED AT 9:35 AM" or something. It's been a long time since someone just assumed I was a liar and basically called me that to my face, and let me tell you, it's pretty insulting.
(But you still have to be nice, or they'll book you a "seat" in the cargo hold of a flight that leaves next Tuesday.)
At that point, I almost lost my sense of inner poise, but we were put on the stand-by list for two later flights and sent on our way. We decided to hang in the Crown Room (thank you, corporate credit card) and on going inside that lovely location were met by a ticket counter staffed by five bored but extremely courteous women. I don't know about you, but I'm thinking that when someone "disappears" from the main ticket counter, *poof!* she sneaks up to the Crown Room and tries to look like she's working.
It was pretty awful. I haven't ever been in an airport line situation before where they didn't walk the line and call out people who might miss their flights. The girl in front of us missed hers, and had to go to an ATM and get cash to pay for something or other, since the credit card system wasn't working. Then she ran to her gate and the woman she was with was like, "Oh, I forgot to give her the change!"
Anyway, that's that. That's my punishment for being away from the blog for so long, I guess.
Thank you for all the compliments on the new look! And thanks also to those of you who are clicking the pre-order link and signing up to be notified when the book is available for pre-order.
The high point of the travel (not the trip, because the trip had a lot of its own merits) was the fact that used my Amazon Kindle so much. And that means I'm finally ready to write the review I've been promising for, oh, four months. I'll post it tomorrow.
I hope everybody is happy and healthy. I'm going to visit some blogs now!
Then we proceeded to wait in line for an hour and a half, ignored by the roving woman who decided to help everyone around us but decided we were for some reason below her notice, while the line behind us grew and grew and the staff at the counter shrank and shrank, until, at one point, there were two people back there at eight stations (many of which still said they were open).
When we got to the front of the line, we had missed our flight, and the woman looked at us as if we had just fallen off the back of the chicken truck and said, "Well, you ARE no-shows. You should have checked in a long time ago."
You THINK?
Then she said, "We're supposed to charge $50 a person if you miss your flight and have to be rebooked." And despite seeing the line behind us, she had a hard time believing that we had actually been at the airport for quite some time. Which, to me, means that they're going to have to start giving you a little receipt that says "REJECTED AT 9:35 AM" or something. It's been a long time since someone just assumed I was a liar and basically called me that to my face, and let me tell you, it's pretty insulting.
(But you still have to be nice, or they'll book you a "seat" in the cargo hold of a flight that leaves next Tuesday.)
At that point, I almost lost my sense of inner poise, but we were put on the stand-by list for two later flights and sent on our way. We decided to hang in the Crown Room (thank you, corporate credit card) and on going inside that lovely location were met by a ticket counter staffed by five bored but extremely courteous women. I don't know about you, but I'm thinking that when someone "disappears" from the main ticket counter, *poof!* she sneaks up to the Crown Room and tries to look like she's working.
It was pretty awful. I haven't ever been in an airport line situation before where they didn't walk the line and call out people who might miss their flights. The girl in front of us missed hers, and had to go to an ATM and get cash to pay for something or other, since the credit card system wasn't working. Then she ran to her gate and the woman she was with was like, "Oh, I forgot to give her the change!"
Anyway, that's that. That's my punishment for being away from the blog for so long, I guess.
Thank you for all the compliments on the new look! And thanks also to those of you who are clicking the pre-order link and signing up to be notified when the book is available for pre-order.
The high point of the travel (not the trip, because the trip had a lot of its own merits) was the fact that used my Amazon Kindle so much. And that means I'm finally ready to write the review I've been promising for, oh, four months. I'll post it tomorrow.
I hope everybody is happy and healthy. I'm going to visit some blogs now!
Labels: stuff i dislike, travel
posted by Katie Alender at
6:59 AM
Blog RSS feed
9 Comments:
Holy smokes! That sounds about on par with our latest line-waiting day. And as if you were the only people that day who missed a flight because of the long line. I mean, what do you think would be the woman's first clue that you weren't lying? The fact that 112 other people probably arrived at her counter having missed their flight, too? What a numbskull.
Um, dare I ask...which airline? I'm flying a ton this summer and am already worried...
Travel woes, UGHGHGHGH!
I feel like that kind of thing happens all the time. But at least you had the Amazon Kindle to make you happy. I've heard good things about that little doohickey.
Thanks for stopping by my blog! Your book looks fantastic, good luck.
Good lord; we had a terrible experience in Philadelphia, but nothing like this.
Good thing you missed the Bonnaroo traffic south of Nashville.
I'm eager to hear how you like Kindle, because I'm kind of skeptical about all of that myself!
Katie-
Was this airport by any chance somewhere in Baghdad?? What TERRIBLE customer service! Looks like the word "apathy" summarizes the inherent problem that plagued your trip back home.
It's nice to have you back!
Say, on the pre-order link, do I just enter my email and then send? Let me know, please.
Anyway, hope you are feeling rested and alleviated from the boiling point that you were nearly driven to by those nuts.
A belly rub for my pal Winston.
I found myself really getting worked up over this, Katie -- fuming and worrying that you didn't get your money back. Tell me you did!
In situations like this, I mentally compose a carefully-worded letter that describes the situation as succinctly and unemotionally as possible (yes, it's pure torture, but I push myself). On my first trip to the U.K. ages ago, I actually wrote and SENT the letter (that's how badly I was treated). I got a great response to it, richly satisfying.
I'm not buying a Kindle, but I can see how one would come in handy when you're traveling.
Gah. This is why I hate flying now. It is like they want to torture you into never using their service again. I am seriously considering becoming a hermit.
I will see your "missed my flight because I was waiting in line AT THE AIRPORT" story and call with a "my plane is here--I can actually see it out the window--but I will sit in the airport for another THREE HOURS while the airline staff tries to scrounge up a crew that hasn't gone over its flight time limits."
Seriously, though, that *sucks*. I'm not a huge flyer, but it seems like flying is becoming more and more of a pain in the butt. Prety soon, it won't be worth it.
Wow. Just reading that got my heart rate up. I can't begin to imagine how upset you must have been to actually have to be in that situation.
As for the Kindle, I can't wait to read your review. It's the first time I've actually started to think that it might be nice to have an e-book reader. That sort of purchase is still a long way off,though.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home