...and if you have to book an airline ticket soon, keep this in mind

My 83 year-old mother has been in town for about a week over the Christmas holiday, but on Thursday it was time to take her to the airport for her flight back to Los Angeles. She was on a United flight that was scheduled to leave at 8:35am, but in typical fashion we arrived at the airport well-before 6am to ensure all would go OK. I dropped her off on the departure level of and made sure she made it the 50 or so yards over to a chair by the window. I then rushed back to the car, drove around and re-entered the terminal eventually parking in the hourly area. I grabbed her bag and when up to the ticketing area where mom was comfortably seated. I used my preferred status to go into the shorter Premium level ticketing line and walked up to the counter and paid $25.00 for her bag while retrieving her boarding pass. We alerted the ticketing agent that my mother needed a wheelchair, and within five or so minutes they came for her.  After I gave her a hug and said goodbye, they whisked her away to the security line.

I arrived at my office in downtown DC about 6:45am or so, and while sitting there sifting through holiday related mail and such, I received an email from United saying the flight had been delayed due to mechanical problems and was now scheduled to take off 2 1/2 hours later at 11am. My mom amazingly navigated her old-school cell phone and called me noting her flight had been delayed. She seemed fine though, and being the trooper she is stated that she’d be OK. About 10:45 United sent an email saying the flight was delayed another ½ hour and would now take off at 11:30. Shortly before 11:30, they sent another email saying the flight was pushed back another half hour to 12:00 noon. Sometime after noon, as I sat and enjoyed lunch with my boss at a downtown restaurant, United sent another email saying the flight was delayed another hour to 1pm. Not long before 1pm, they sent another message saying the flight was now delayed until 6pm, this time due to “Aircraft Change.”

By now my elderly mom had been sitting in the at the gate in a wheelchair for over 7 hours. She called again (two cell calls in a day is equivalent to a trip to the moon for her) in good spirits a little after 1pm, saying she was planning to wait it out. I offered to come get her, but I guess when you’ve lived through a Depression and a world war, airport delays don’t seem like that big of a deal. My boss being the mensch that she is suggested I go to the airport to see what I could do, so I schlepped the 30 plus miles back out to Dulles about 1:30 and arrived there shortly after 2pm.

The unfriendly ticket supervisor, who appeared to have done most of her undergraduate customer service training at McDonalds or some other high-caloric establishment, reluctantly provided me a security entrance pass so I could go see if my mother might need anything after her now eight hour airport stay. I found her in the gate area slumped in a chair with her head down sleeping, sitting along-side some other older passengers who seemed among the few to be waiting out what would be a scheduled 10 hour delay in the gate area. I fetched a cart driver and had him drive my mom and I over to the Red Carpet lounge on the other end of the D Terminal. It was a treat for my mom to enter the secret world of airport lounges, and as we sat kibitzing over complimentary screw-top wine and individually wrapped processed cheeses, I couldn’t get over the fact that she was in such good spirits. I asked her about it, and she simply replied “what are you going to do?...some things you just have to deal with and it’s not going to get any better by getting mad.” Well, that could be true, but when the next email arrived about 5pm stating the flight had been delayed again (now due to crew) until 6:45pm, my blood started to boil.

Shortly before 6pm we received another email saying the flight had been delayed until 7:30pm (again due to crew)…so I walked up to the ticket agent in the lounge and calmly explained that my mom had been there for 12 hours and that she was fading. I politely asked if we could re-book to a different day, and was matter-of-factly told that they could not rebook without a fee unless the delay was weather related. Determine to prove my mom’s theory about not getting mad wrong, I hit the ticket agent in the face with my clinched fist. I’d never hit anybody that hard before…especially directly in the face. When my fist sank deeply into his facial flesh…there  was a certain momentary satisfaction that is hard to…OK wait…that’s not really what happened…that’s only what I wanted to do. Instead, I politely re-explained that my 83 year-old mother had been sitting in the terminal for over 12 hours, and that it would be nice if United could find their way to booking on another day. I then suggested that even if they could not, it would be smart for the agent to pretend that he gave a rat’s ass and at least go through the charade of looking as if he was searching for availability before apologetically telling me he’d tried valiantly, but that it just wasn’t possible.

A nearby agent overheard the conversation and graciously offered to help. She politely and professionally rebooked my mom for Saturday, called to have her bag retrieved, and arranged for a wheelchair porter to take my mom back to baggage claim to get her bag. When we arrived in the United baggage claim area, there was no bag, but after the rigmarole to end all rigmaroles, the bag amazingly showed. An hour later we were back in DC sitting fireside, recounting the drama over a glass of corked wine as additional emails from United kept coming, announcing the flight was delayed until 8pm and then again ‘til 8:15pm, and then 8:30pm. Shortly after 8:30pm, United sent out an email notifying us that the 8:30am flight, now delayed a full 12 hours, had been canceled. In some ways it was validation that we’d made the right call, and I went to bed feeling good about the decision to rebook to Saturday.

At 4am on Friday I awoke to let the cat out and start my workout. When checking my emails I noticed an early morning email from United stating my mom had been re-booked on a 7am Friday flight…not the Saturday flight we had arranged in the lounge (and I had a ticketed receipt for). I could tell you about my next call to the airline, but that wouldn’t really serve any purpose. What’s the point of all this? Well, unlike most of the drivel that appears here the point to me seems to be to fly U.S. Airways or some other competent carrier. However what is amazing to me is that for the most part the United employees seemed to be trying, but the company just couldn’t seem to get it right. Seems to me when you’ve been in business as long as United, you should just be better at this whole flying game. I mean, I’ve been playing golf for over 40 years. I still shoot far from par…but I’ve gotten better and no longer shoot in the 120s. If I did, I’d just quit. To me, United just seems like they’re not getting any better, and for the sake of the airline industry, I really wish the company would try.

What’s the real point of all this? Hug your mother…however taxing on your nerves. The people that matter to you won’t be around forever (nor will you), so take some time this weekend and devote it to the people and pets that matter the most in your life. Have a good weekend…and start is with a little good music.

 

Happy New Year

 

BTW...Sorry for all the mispellings and typos. Didn't have time to proof this even once today. Spent the morning on the phone with the airline.