KnitKnacks
Curios from the cluttered mind...
Only a 40 minutes drive from Rockville to DCA this time..only a little traffic tie up.
USAIR agent at Reagan National: " Hello folks...and where are you off to today?"
Greg: " Good Evening...we are headed for Burlington VT on flight #4091, thank you."
USAIR agent...fumble fumble...type type type..."hhhmmm"... type type type...fumble fumble...
Greg and Fran...Oblivious of fumbling and Typing...Agent looks up but no eye contact
Fran: "yes we knew we are 5 hours early...only took us 40 minutes instead of 2.5 hours on I-495"
USAir Agent...sighing...not making eye contact...almost wincing...: "It seems you have no reservations on this flight...they were cancel for non payment. You have "so many hours/days" to keep them before payment is required."
Greg's giving Fran the hairy eyeball...Fran is frantically ripping laptop out of computer bag...booting up to show .pdf file of confirmed reservation..... ( smart Fran)
USAir agent makes phone call...he can't help us even with confirmation #..."yes we can acommodate you on this flight; there is room, however, walk up price is $909...a piece. (something like that...Fran isn't listening beyond $900 a piece)"
Greg (calm because Fran had confirmation receipt and knew it could be straightened out) : "Yes I understand" handing over credit card...Agent is flummoxed we haven't gone over the counter at him.
Security Gate people are conducting a special shoe inspection..."All footwear must be removed" Fran, juggling purse, laptop, computer bag and now sneakers which don't usually count anyway, is livid. TSA person likes Fran's new socks from Old Navy...Fran smiles. Smart TSA lady. Greg incurrs wrath of TSA agent when he puts shoes in same bin with laptop...an annoucement is made to make sure laptops are in separate gray bins with nothing on top of them. ( Greg's shoes were next to laptop.) tsk tsk...
Greg and Fran proceed to USAir club; laptops are inspected for confirmation/ cancellation emails regarding original reservations ..nothing.
Greg spends about an hour on the phone with Mike from Gold Preferred member services and Mike speaks with Heather from Sabre travel site. Greg is cheerful and Mike and Heather understand Greg is however, not happy about paying $1800+ for $600 tickets. Sabre woman finally finds our reservation...and Mike tries to explain to Greg how the system works..."there this thing called a queue that the reservation goes into for processing...it fell out of the queue and was never made."
Greg:"Ooooookkkkkkkkkkkk......."
Apparently there is no love lost between USAir agents and Sabre..however; Greg explains he understands that but the system none the less has a USAir logo on it.
One hour later...Greg and Fran have original price reservations and now need to go get new bording passes....after having already cleared security. No we aren't going out there again. USAir club woman just prints new bording passes. We don't discuss how we are where we are with no bording passes.
Fran is thrilled at the real possibility of having to change the back end of these tickets in the near future.
Meanwhile, the lawn had been mowed twice by Manual Labor..young man next door...the cats had been fed and were fat and happy to see us...home is good and I was amazed there is little traffic here...;-D
Posted by frani at June 7, 2003 03:53 PMBUMMER
Posted by: Roger at June 7, 2003 11:55 PMYou make traveling sound like such fun. It makes me ready to start my treks with enthusiasm and excitement. Ok - it doesn't. It makes me want to curl up in bed with a good book and read about traveling. : )
Posted by: Tonya at June 8, 2003 01:42 AMEveryone should experience the thrill, Tonya! Just think, if all of our travel was uneventful, then I'd have nothing to talk about! Ok...less to talk about...I've proven I can talk about nothing a lot.
Posted by: frani at June 8, 2003 08:12 AMwell goodness, TG you're home.
Speaking of VT...saw a bumper sticker the other day that said "take back Vermont". What does that mean?
Cori.."Take Back Vermont" bumper stickers et al started to appear during the election season 2-3 years ago. Some folks, a little right of center (ok, a LOT right of center), didn't like the Civil Union law (same sex marriages)as well as their perception of a more liberal agenda coming out of Montpelier. Anyway, they sought a repeal ( take back) of the Civil Union law and Act 60 which is the state wide property tax for education law.
Posted by: frani at June 9, 2003 07:29 AMFran, thanks for explaining, I wondered if it had something to do with that. ;-)
Posted by: cori at June 9, 2003 03:07 PM