Monday, May 24, 2010

Travelling Testimony

Let me close this story out, before the month runs out… regarding my trip to L.A.

If you’ve been keeping up with the previous episodes about the bumped flights and lost luggage, you’ll see why I decided to take an earlier return flight to Chicago, than planned. My return flight was scheduled for 10:55pm Sunday to connect in Detroit and arrive in Chicago at 8:00am Monday morning… and I had a class to teach at 9:00am. [sidebar – if I don’t teach the class, I don’t get paid. The money I get for teaching the class pays for things like airline tickets and conference registrations… I digress]

I called on Saturday night to find out that there is an additional $50 fee for booking an earlier flight, yet they cannot guarantee your seat until you’re live at the airport. They gave me the potential flights that were unfilled, yet also stated that being there 2 hours early would be a good move. Sooooo, I made that good move on Sunday morning. Got to the airport. Went to the ticket machine and booked myself standby on a new flight.

Oops, the computer said to see the Reservation Agent for my ticket. The Agent said there’s no longer such a thing as ‘standby.’ I agreed. WE looked at what the computer spit out. I calmly agreed with him and wondered aloud about my options. His computer would not give him the help he needed to resolve this conflict. He stopped and asked 3 co-workers. They were stumped as well. He went back to talk to a person in a red jacket (I think they are the captains), and came back… the computer still wouldn’t cooperate. Another co-worker mildly suggested he give up. I calmly enjoyed his tenacity….

Bottom line: he spent 45 minutes with me… booked me on a flight… waived the $50 switch fee AND the $25 luggage fee based on “… what happened on [my] incoming flight…”

Point: when you are calm enough to respect people, they FIND a way to help you… and a means to justify their help.

I wished him and the others well, and gave each of them a different Passing Thoughts acronym.

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The Master of Listening

The Master of Listening
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