Friday, October 23rd 2009

During a plane trip last month I encountered a most unexpected, annoying and consequently enlightening travel experience. We’ve all had our time in travel hell, but in this particular time I was lucky enough to come out of it learning a valuable lesson and getting to my destination relatively close to the originally promised time. Like the experienced traveler I am, as soon as I arrived at the airport I checked the departure screen for my flight and discovered it had been canceled. The screen also revealed that there were no other flights to Palm Springs near my original departure time or any other for that matter. It didn’t take me long to get to the ticket counter and find other people on my flight already harassing the agents there. The reason for the cancellation was not divulged, but the airline offered to pay for hotel rooms for us all since the next flight would be on the following day. Oh, hell no! Besides having to pick PD up on time, the thought of a night at the airport Ramada was too horrible even to consider.

It seemed logical to me that if they were willing to pay for a hotel perhaps they would pay for a rental car in LA instead. That way I could at least drive to Palm Springs and spend the night in my own bed. When I asked the useless woman behind the ticket counter if they would take care of the car in lieu of the hotel she shrugged her shoulders, paused for a moment and said I would have to ask customer service. Taking a deep breath I abstained from saying what I was thinking as she pointed to an unmarked black phone hanging on the wall behind me. I thanked her for her half assed attempt at a resolution and picked up the phone. After explaining, again, what I was trying to do the representative told me that I needed to ask the agent at the desk. When I told him that I was just there, in fact I was looking right at her, he stood his ground and told me in the same tone that only she could help me. When I relayed this information to the unhelpful girl I was met with the same vacant look and told to go another service desk in another part of the airport. As I walked down the moving walkway I hoped that my bag will make it to LA because my keys to everything were in my checked baggage. There was nothing to do about that now, so I marched onward.

At the new service desk I encountered a small team of present, helpful, lucid English speaking people. After I explained my situation and request I was told that they did not do that sort of thing and then I was asked if I wanted to be put on the next flight to PS. I was a bit confused but still managed to utter a “Yes, please!” As I was getting my mind back I was given my bag ticket and told that I might want to hurry since I had to exit the terminal, re-enter the terminal and go through security again. I expressed a heartfelt gratitude and before I took off like Mercury I asked why the dolts at the other counter hadn’t offered this option to me or the other passengers. “They suck over there” said the leader of the group, who were all college kids. She explained that because United was partnered with several airlines my ticket was transferable between them – something I could have learned much, much earlier had the first agent been worth her weight in fiberglass insulation. The lesson learned is that knowing which airlines your carrier is partnered with can save your bacon. The minor lesson is to always carry my keys because the next time I might not be so lucky.