I decided to drown my sorrows in a glass of complimentary
house wine and figured I’d kill some time by eavesdropping on a few of the
conversations taking place around me. If I was fortunate, I may even be lucky
enough to drop in on a discussion between folks lamenting even uglier travel
woes. If I was real lucky, their experiences might be so bad it would make me
feel better about my own airport predicament.
Mercifully, it wasn’t too long before I noticed a
clean-cut and well-dressed cat having a rather controlled chat on his cell
phone. He looked like the classic business traveler at the end of a long
day…blue suit, kind of a coral tie with a loosened Windsor just below the
undone top button of his wrinkled white dress shirt. He was sort of slouched in
the faux leather blue chair by the window overlooking the D Concourse and all
the departing flights he wasn’t on. He just kind of looked like a combination
of defeated and sad.
He was talking calmly about his travel travails and told
the listener on the other end of arriving late in Charlotte (after sitting on
the tarmac for an hour somewhere else) and then having to run across the entire
airport only to have the gate agent close the door and refuse him entry just as
he arrived (his version). He mentioned that he was stuck in Charlotte for the
night with no change of clothes (really…who would notice in Charlotte?) because
it was supposed to be just a day trip. He also shared that he was entitled to a
“distressed” hotel rate (is there another kind in Charlotte?) but that he
thought it was wise to come into the club to chill a bit before having to deal
again with anybody else from U.S. Airways.
He seemed remarkably relaxed given the circumstances, and
though he used words like “frustrated,” he never uttered even one expletive. He
told the person on the end that he was about to kill the guy at the U.S.
Airways Guest Services desk and said he figured it was best to just walk away
before he did anything he’d likely regretted. He revealed that he was going to
have a beer, a cup or roasted chicken-noodle soup and some baked Tostitos
before having another go with the US Airways folks. Before wrapping up
the call, he stated that as it stood now, the airline didn’t have another plane
out for him until about 7:15pm the next evening…but he was determined to see if
he could do better now that he was more relaxed.
I can’t tell you how this fellow’s story ended…for all I
know he could still be stuck in Charlotte in the same clothes (and again…with a
full-compliment of teeth, he was going to stand out in North Carolina either
way). But I have a feeling he fared better after he cooled off a bit and made
his case again with the airline. It made me wonder why more people (I) don’t
follow that sage advice more often…and just walk away from a deteriorating
situation before it gets any worse.
I’m increasingly amazed these days in airports watching
all the rightly irritated passengers that are byproducts of a de-evolving air
travel industry verbally berating the few airline personnel that are probably
among the only folks in the world that can help them at that specific time of
need. Their (my) strategy is to often imply the airline employee they’re
dealing with is a moron. I’m sure it happens, but somehow I’ve never witnessed
anyone that’s just been insulted respond with something like “you know…you’re
absolutely right…my way is dumb and I’m essentially
incompetent…so let me
do all I can to make you happy.”
What’s the point of this convoluted story? Well…seems to
me there’s about three things so here they are:
1) No matter how wrapped up you are in your own problems,
there’s always somebody (it’s always a lot of folks…really) with a much bigger
cross to bear.
2) There’s a lot to be said for walking away from a
deteriorating situation. Chances are you’ll have it go much better if you’re
calm.
3) When you are dealing with folks, the old Dale Carnegie
golden-rule tenet of “treating others the way you want to be treated” usually
produces far greater results in these situations than telling the people that
they’re useless imbeciles…or my favorite…that they’re a waste of human flesh. I
routinely deploy that line (with conviction…because I believe it) but I almost
never get my way. However despite the obvious track record of keeping one’s
emotions/temper in check and using tact, this practice somehow eludes many
people (me) in these situations…and the penalty for that can often be an awful
lot of unwanted nights (are there another kind?) in places like Charlotte.
3b) Even if you’re just going to Charlotte for a day
trip, bring a change of overalls.
By the way…if you’re from Charlotte, please don’t be offended. Just
trying to have a little fun here and I actually love the city and especially
the airport. Just the rocking chairs in the common area between concourses makes
it special and in all honesty, you see some of the best dressed local folks and business banking people around.
I was listening to 100.7FM KHAY Country while driving
eastbound in my American made Jeep rental car on Highway 126 from the
golden beaches of Ventura, California over to Interstate 5 this past Sunday,
and somewhere around Lake Piru, CA (not far from the area where they filmed the
TV seires Baa, Baa Black Sheep…click here for more info), the song below started to blare. There’s
something about the beat of this rocking number that is just catchy, and though the
tune by Old Crow Medicine Show has made the Friday Song offering before, this
version is by Darius Rucker of Hootie and Blowfish fame and at least to me, it
may even be a little better. Enjoy…
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