So I mentioned that I had taken a trip over the weekend for work, and how fun it was. Now I’ll do my best to explain it with a little more humor than I was feeling during my trip.
I was lucky enough to get H booked on my flight to Chicago out of Tulsa. We woke up early Saturday morning and drove to Tulsa for our 11 AM flight. The plan was to arrive in Chicago, pick up the car, and head to work with the two other ladies from the office that I was traveling with. I was slightly worried that getting through security with the count was going to be a headache, but actually, the airport was empty, the ticket counter agents were extremely helpful, security was very nice, and everything went extraordinarily smooth. This was going to be a pretty good trip.
I had just counted 8 eggs that were going to hatch.
They called our plane to board about 10:30 or so and we headed down the ramp. The little guy was getting a little fussy, but nothing out of the ordinary. We thought we would just feed him as we took off and it would kill two birds with one stone, take care of the air pressure pains in his ears and get him fed all at once.
About 11 AM when we hadn’t moved and the wee man was getting a little more fussy, the captain came over the speaker and said that he was waiting on some paperwork.
11:30 rolls around and the jet fumes are becoming REALLY pleasant, we finally give up and feed the kid hoping to placate him for a little while. The captain announces there’s a problem with the plane, they aren’t going to fix it, they’re just going to fly to Chicago and fix it there, now they just need the paper work. Thank Goodness, I don’t really care if the plane works, just duct tape the sucker and let’s get this puppy 2 miles in the air!
12:00, “Well folks, we actually tried to fix the plane because this is a major repair hub here in Tulsa and Bubba is a genius when it comes to things no one else can gifure out, but guess what, it didn’t work. So we’re just going to go ahead and fly to Chicago and see if we can bum a wing from United. Now we just need to finish a little paperwork.” Well if he didn’t say that, it was pretty close. I swear half the cost of a plane ticket must go to funding their supply of paper.
12:15 We’re away from the gate and on our way. HOORAY!
12:16 We’re at a dead stop 12 feet from the gate.
12:30 We’re back at the gate. “Believe it or not folks, something else broke. You know, you buy a plane off the side of the road and although the guy SWEARS it runs fine, I guess you just can’t trust anyone nowadays. I think we can fix this sucker this time. Sit tight and we’ll go get some more duct tape.”
1:00 “Allright, Everybody off. We ran out of duct tape and Bubba just doesn’t think the scotch tape’s gonna hold. Ya’ll go sit in the terminal and if you want a rag soaked with Jet fuel to take a few whiffs of, we’ll be handing those out at the door.”
They went and bought a new plane at Big Hearted Eddie’s used plane lot next door, and after boarding that plane and waiting another hour to take off, we finally got to Chicago about 7:00 PM.
I worked a couple of days with the normal drama while H visited family and dealt with drama of her own sort.
My flight back was scheduled at 4:00 and H’s was scheduled at 8:00. I knew my flight was going to be overbooked because our team booked the last 3 seats weeks ago. I tried to call the night before and volunteer to be switched to the 8:00 flight if they needed me to. They said sure, just give us $150 and we’ll do it, so I went ahead and stayed with my 4:00 flight. As soon as I got to the gate, the agent announced “We need 3 people to volunteer to take the 8:00 flight and we’ll pay you $250” so I walked up and was the first to volunteer.
The two ladies I was traveling with didn’t get seat assignments, so they had to wait until the last minute. Meanwhile I phoned for someone to come pick me up because I was now flying with H and the count. They let one of the ladies have a seat assignment, but didn’t give one to the other – but since they were riding together in Tulsa, that wouldn’t work. The one that had a seat said, I can’t go without her, so American said “Get on the plane NOW or we’ll give your seat away.” She said, “how can I get on if I don’t have a ride when I get there?”
With all of the tact of Donald Trump firing someone, American said “You’re not going now,” and gave her seat to someone else … the lady she was traveling with. So now guess who’s not getting on the plane.
After much drama and a ridiculous amount of ignorant, frustrating, stupid conversations for my level headed travelers to an obviously over-worked, under educated, non listening gate agent, they finally called both of them up, gave them a ticket, and told them get on a plane … then looked at me and told me to do the same thing.
I was floored. Not only was I not planning on getting on that plane, I had a ride coming, I could have really helped my wife, I wasn’t packed or ready, what the Heck?
Only later did I find out that the plane was over-sold by 3 seats. Although I volunteered first, three ladies traveling together volunteered after me, but they all had to travel together, so they changed my little number from 1 to 4, and stuck me on the plane. I have summed it up rather nicely here, I can tell you that the reactions that took place are definitely NOT suitable for printing. To say that American Airlines stinks, doesn’t begin to adequately explain all of the bad business decisions that the company made.
Now when H arrived to take her plane back to Tulsa, the gate agents were about as accommodating as a prison guard.
Apparently the Big Heated Eddie plane didn’t last very long because they had to again switch H’s plane and stick her on another one. She arrived in Tulsa a couple of hours later and we were all in a terrific happy mood … but at least we were home.
So, to summarize our story – Fly Delta.
I was lucky enough to get H booked on my flight to Chicago out of Tulsa. We woke up early Saturday morning and drove to Tulsa for our 11 AM flight. The plan was to arrive in Chicago, pick up the car, and head to work with the two other ladies from the office that I was traveling with. I was slightly worried that getting through security with the count was going to be a headache, but actually, the airport was empty, the ticket counter agents were extremely helpful, security was very nice, and everything went extraordinarily smooth. This was going to be a pretty good trip.
I had just counted 8 eggs that were going to hatch.
They called our plane to board about 10:30 or so and we headed down the ramp. The little guy was getting a little fussy, but nothing out of the ordinary. We thought we would just feed him as we took off and it would kill two birds with one stone, take care of the air pressure pains in his ears and get him fed all at once.
About 11 AM when we hadn’t moved and the wee man was getting a little more fussy, the captain came over the speaker and said that he was waiting on some paperwork.
11:30 rolls around and the jet fumes are becoming REALLY pleasant, we finally give up and feed the kid hoping to placate him for a little while. The captain announces there’s a problem with the plane, they aren’t going to fix it, they’re just going to fly to Chicago and fix it there, now they just need the paper work. Thank Goodness, I don’t really care if the plane works, just duct tape the sucker and let’s get this puppy 2 miles in the air!
12:00, “Well folks, we actually tried to fix the plane because this is a major repair hub here in Tulsa and Bubba is a genius when it comes to things no one else can gifure out, but guess what, it didn’t work. So we’re just going to go ahead and fly to Chicago and see if we can bum a wing from United. Now we just need to finish a little paperwork.” Well if he didn’t say that, it was pretty close. I swear half the cost of a plane ticket must go to funding their supply of paper.
12:15 We’re away from the gate and on our way. HOORAY!
12:16 We’re at a dead stop 12 feet from the gate.
12:30 We’re back at the gate. “Believe it or not folks, something else broke. You know, you buy a plane off the side of the road and although the guy SWEARS it runs fine, I guess you just can’t trust anyone nowadays. I think we can fix this sucker this time. Sit tight and we’ll go get some more duct tape.”
1:00 “Allright, Everybody off. We ran out of duct tape and Bubba just doesn’t think the scotch tape’s gonna hold. Ya’ll go sit in the terminal and if you want a rag soaked with Jet fuel to take a few whiffs of, we’ll be handing those out at the door.”
They went and bought a new plane at Big Hearted Eddie’s used plane lot next door, and after boarding that plane and waiting another hour to take off, we finally got to Chicago about 7:00 PM.
I worked a couple of days with the normal drama while H visited family and dealt with drama of her own sort.
My flight back was scheduled at 4:00 and H’s was scheduled at 8:00. I knew my flight was going to be overbooked because our team booked the last 3 seats weeks ago. I tried to call the night before and volunteer to be switched to the 8:00 flight if they needed me to. They said sure, just give us $150 and we’ll do it, so I went ahead and stayed with my 4:00 flight. As soon as I got to the gate, the agent announced “We need 3 people to volunteer to take the 8:00 flight and we’ll pay you $250” so I walked up and was the first to volunteer.
The two ladies I was traveling with didn’t get seat assignments, so they had to wait until the last minute. Meanwhile I phoned for someone to come pick me up because I was now flying with H and the count. They let one of the ladies have a seat assignment, but didn’t give one to the other – but since they were riding together in Tulsa, that wouldn’t work. The one that had a seat said, I can’t go without her, so American said “Get on the plane NOW or we’ll give your seat away.” She said, “how can I get on if I don’t have a ride when I get there?”
With all of the tact of Donald Trump firing someone, American said “You’re not going now,” and gave her seat to someone else … the lady she was traveling with. So now guess who’s not getting on the plane.
After much drama and a ridiculous amount of ignorant, frustrating, stupid conversations for my level headed travelers to an obviously over-worked, under educated, non listening gate agent, they finally called both of them up, gave them a ticket, and told them get on a plane … then looked at me and told me to do the same thing.
I was floored. Not only was I not planning on getting on that plane, I had a ride coming, I could have really helped my wife, I wasn’t packed or ready, what the Heck?
Only later did I find out that the plane was over-sold by 3 seats. Although I volunteered first, three ladies traveling together volunteered after me, but they all had to travel together, so they changed my little number from 1 to 4, and stuck me on the plane. I have summed it up rather nicely here, I can tell you that the reactions that took place are definitely NOT suitable for printing. To say that American Airlines stinks, doesn’t begin to adequately explain all of the bad business decisions that the company made.
Now when H arrived to take her plane back to Tulsa, the gate agents were about as accommodating as a prison guard.
Apparently the Big Heated Eddie plane didn’t last very long because they had to again switch H’s plane and stick her on another one. She arrived in Tulsa a couple of hours later and we were all in a terrific happy mood … but at least we were home.
So, to summarize our story – Fly Delta.
Delta Delta Delta!!!
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