Res Ipsa Loquitur

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June 14, 2005

The Not-So-Friendly Skies

It's good to be home. Traveling cross-country with a 4 yr. old is....very stressful. The Tulsa-Dallas flight went well. Since it was WildChild's first flight, he got the obligatory set of wings to pin on his shirt before boarding. Later, we could hear WildChild, who was seated with my daughter a couple of rows up, yelling "Woo-hoo! Wheee!" when the plane was taking off. After landing, he got to go into the cockpit and meet the pilot. Needless to say, he rilly, rilly lurves to fly now.

The flight from Dallas to San Diego was a different story. Not for him, he slept most of the way. But we discovered when we checked in at the gate that AA in its infinite wisdom, had way oversold the flight. And that Mike & I were on standby.

They wanted us to fly to St. Louis, then to San Diego, arriving about 5 hours later than my daughter & WC. Yikes! I don't think so.

It took some polite persistance, but they finally understood that we were traveling with my daughter & WC. And that we couldn't be separated. (If not for that, we would've jumped on first-class seating & $300 in AA dollars they were offering) So then they started trying to get us seats.

No one would volunteer to be bumped.

We were inches away from a major panic when right before the plane was due to leave, one of the AA supervisors authorized 2 involuntary bumps so we could all get on the same flight. Whew. That was a little too close for comfort.

The AA staff was very nice to us during the whole ordeal, once they understood what was happening. But I have to wonder WTF their superiors were thinking when we were picked to get bumped. I mean Hello? What was my daughter supposed to do with WC in the San Diego airport for 4-6 hours while waiting on us to arrive? Duh.

The flights back were relatively uneventful, except for the Dallas-Tulsa leg, which I dubbed the "Rude Flight". First, the lady next to me started complaining about having to sit in coach because she "usually flew first class. There's more perks up there." Wow. That made me really want to have a conversation with her. Not. Then she smugly said that there were certain benefits to traveling with her husband.

Now I know how that game is played. I'm supposed to ask who her husband is, so she can 'impress' me with her specialness. Like I gave a rat's ass. Resisting the temptation to tell her that apparently today there weren't ANY benefits to traveling with her husband or she wouldn't be stuck back in coach with us peasants, I just rolled my eyes and turned to talk to Mike. I ignored her for the rest of the flight. People like that bore me. So you sleep with someone 'important'. Big deal. So do a lot of other hookers.

Then there was this one stewardess with an attitude. She'd skipped a row that was two rows in front of us during the beverage service. One of the passengers finally chased her down & requested something to drink. Ms. Attitude said "You said you didn't want anything." The passenger said "No, I didn't." Ms. Attitude "Yes you did. Now that you've changed your mind, WHAT do you want? Fine, I'll bring it to you in just a minute. I'm busy."

A few minutes later, we watched her serve the seats across the aisle from us, the row behind us and then trolley on her merry way, skipping us entirely. We started trying to get her attention. She ignored us. Finally, Mike said in a loud tone that I'm sure they heard up in the cockpit "EXCUSE ME? WE'D LIKE SOMETHING TO DRINK UP HERE."

Ms. Attitude whirled around, marched up to our row and, ignoring us completely, asked the lady seated next to me if she would like anything since "apparently it's really important to this gentleman that he get something."

And she kept making little snide, smart-ass remarks the whole time. "We serve 500 people a day, so I'm SURE you can UNDERSTAND if we miss 3 people." Umm, yeah. You made a mistake and IT'S ALL OUR FAULT. What. Ever.

It wasn't just us, either. My daughter said the same stewardness grabbed her half-finished drink out of her hand and threw it away on her first pass to pick up trash.

I think someone needs to find a new profession. I think I'll help her along with that as soon as I get time to write an e-mail.

Cuz there's definitely something about good customer service that she doesn't understand. Like how to do it.

Posted by Rita at June 14, 2005 06:09 AM

Comments

Posted by: Craig at June 14, 2005 07:44 AM

Posted by: Rita at June 14, 2005 05:56 PM

Posted by: Craig at June 15, 2005 12:26 PM