Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Flying the Friendly Skies?

So this last weekend, Rachel Ammon and I flew down to Salt Lake City, UT to attend Rachel's grandparents 60th wedding anniversary/family reunion. It was going to be a whirlwind trip, with us leaving on Friday night and returning Sunday afternoon. Since I work for Fedex, I get pretty good discounts with most of the major airlines. I like Southwest airlines the best, because they don;t usually give you as much crap about stuff. And I like being able to choose my own seat. And I like that if you are boarding with young children you can board first, and not have to deal with fighting other people for seats and carry-on space. The only bad thing about my deals with the airlines is that I have to travel standby. Sometimes that means I wait for a while for a seat. But if the airplane is not totally sold out, then it's great. Round trip tickets for $70 plus all the govt fees and taxes. But that is a heck of a lot cheaper that driving, even if I do have to wait for a few extra hours in the airport. We didn't have any trouble getting on the flight down to SLC, we even got to sit right in front of the airplane and had a whole row to ourselves, which meant that Ammon could ride in his car seat and not in our laps. However, on the way out of SLC, we encountered a few problems. The lady at the customer service desk when we first got there was very nice and helpful. We didn't get on the first flight out and she was very nice when she explained to us our options. She went out of her way to help us, checking all the other flights for any possibilities. When it came time for the second flight Rachel got a spot on the plane, and so she took Ammon with her, but they only had the one seat available, so I had to stay for the next flight. I asked this nice lady about further options, and she told me that if I didn't make the next plane, that I should try to get to Phoenix or some other city, because there were more direct flights from there. So I waited. The next flight was about 3 hours away' so I decided to get some food and something to read to pass the time. When I got back, the nice lady was gone. There was a guy in her place, so i guess her shift must have been over. So I went up to talk to him about 45 min before the next flight left, and told him who I was and where I was going. He looked at me as if I were from another planet, and about halfway through my intro, he started shaking his head telling me that there was no way I was going anywhere, and that if I was going to get somewhere I was going to have to figure it out all by myself since he didn't have the time to help me. Ok, I thought to myself, this guy... not so nice. He then proceeded to tell me that he couldn't look up any other flights for me, but that I could get creative and start looking up other flights in their 100+ page printed flight schedule, and come back later and talk about whatever options I could find. But he also warned me not to get my hopes up, since he was sure I wasn't going anywhere in the first place. He was a jerk. That's what I get for waiting 8 hours in the airport, I get to deal with an unfriendly, unhelpful jerk. I was pretty upset about it, but we are really at the airlines mercy when it comes to stuff like that, so... it's not like I could go complain to his supervisor. So I went and got a flight schedule and started looking. About 30 min later, the flight that I had been waiting for was almost finished boarding, and I waited for an announcement over the intercom about standby passengers, whether or not they were going to accept any or not, but the call never came. Nothing about how the flight was full, but not to worry, your name was on the list for the next flight or anything. It was like that guy didn't even care that we were there. I was a paying customer, I just didn't pay as much as the other guys. But I was treated like a beggar. There was another flight about 30 min after that, and again no announcement for the standby passengers. So after this jerk walked off, another guy came to take his place, and I quickly went up to him to discuss my options. He was very nice, and told me that the rest of the flights out of SLC were already overbooked and that the only flight I had a chance of getting out on was a 9:30pm to Boise, ID. Then I would have to stay in the airport overnight and try to get the first flight out in the morning. But at least he tried to help me. At least he told me why I wasn't going to get to Seattle that day instead of just saying that I wasn't. So I decided to give up and just drive back with my inlaws the next day. Driving isn't so bad, but flying is better.
Sorry that this was such a long post, but I had to get that out of my system. I wish I could remember that jerks name so I could post it here...
Tomorrow I'll post about the Family Reunion itself.

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