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The_Jazz · 09-04-2006, 08:26 AM

I'm another frequent traveler, so I've got my share of stories, but I think this is the best one.

Traveling from Charleston, WV back to Chicago. It's not a big airport and there's weather and in Chicago. The flight is delayed but they tell us that there's a very firm rescheduled time. Fine. I can deal with that. The time comes and goes, and there's no gate agent anywhere to be seen. Ok, we're probably on a ground hold in Chicago, but it would be nice to know that for sure, but whatever. Another hour goes by (we're now 3 hours past the scheduled takeoff time) and no gate agent has appeared nor has an announcement been made. There's only one gate for this airline in the terminal, so I can't find anyone else to ask unless I go through security (which has now shut down for the night). I start checking my watch and getting impatient. After another 1/2 hour I call the airline's high-level frequent flyer number (sometimes it's nice to keep all your trips with one airline) to find out what's going on. The woman who answers the phone apologizes immediately and puts me on hold to find out what's going on. She's back within about 3 minutes and is almost incredulous. Apparently, she called the front desk and they hung up on her. She starts laughing and gets her supervisor to start tracking people down and figures out that the pilots have been ready to go for 45 minutes and have been radioing the tower to get a gate agent out to load the plane. She ends up having to get security to reopen and then makes an announcement that she's the only one there and that she doesn't appreciate people calling the national office to get her in trouble. The flight attendant was standing by the door and said something I'll never forget. "If you actually did you job, no one would be mad and you could have gone home. But you apparently sat on your butt up front and assumed that everything was ok, so now everyone knows that you're going to get fired soon." That shut her up very quickly, and I got a letter from the airline about a week later apologizing for the delay. It was a form letter, but it was the first one of those I'd ever gotten.

So a mixed bag - one employee that couldn't be bothered to do her job and about a half dozen that were completely embarrassed by her lack of ability to perform the most basic of tasks assigned to her.

09-04-2006, 08:26 AM	#5 (permalink)
The_Jazz Asshole Administrator Location: Chicago	I'm another frequent traveler, so I've got my share of stories, but I think this is the best one. Traveling from Charleston, WV back to Chicago. It's not a big airport and there's weather and in Chicago. The flight is delayed but they tell us that there's a very firm rescheduled time. Fine. I can deal with that. The time comes and goes, and there's no gate agent anywhere to be seen. Ok, we're probably on a ground hold in Chicago, but it would be nice to know that for sure, but whatever. Another hour goes by (we're now 3 hours past the scheduled takeoff time) and no gate agent has appeared nor has an announcement been made. There's only one gate for this airline in the terminal, so I can't find anyone else to ask unless I go through security (which has now shut down for the night). I start checking my watch and getting impatient. After another 1/2 hour I call the airline's high-level frequent flyer number (sometimes it's nice to keep all your trips with one airline) to find out what's going on. The woman who answers the phone apologizes immediately and puts me on hold to find out what's going on. She's back within about 3 minutes and is almost incredulous. Apparently, she called the front desk and they hung up on her. She starts laughing and gets her supervisor to start tracking people down and figures out that the pilots have been ready to go for 45 minutes and have been radioing the tower to get a gate agent out to load the plane. She ends up having to get security to reopen and then makes an announcement that she's the only one there and that she doesn't appreciate people calling the national office to get her in trouble. The flight attendant was standing by the door and said something I'll never forget. "If you actually did you job, no one would be mad and you could have gone home. But you apparently sat on your butt up front and assumed that everything was ok, so now everyone knows that you're going to get fired soon." That shut her up very quickly, and I got a letter from the airline about a week later apologizing for the delay. It was a form letter, but it was the first one of those I'd ever gotten. So a mixed bag - one employee that couldn't be bothered to do her job and about a half dozen that were completely embarrassed by her lack of ability to perform the most basic of tasks assigned to her. __________________ "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin "There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush "We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo