The first flight I was watching people board was one of those "What the hell" moments. There was a family of five. Mother, Father and three children. They apparently decided they don't have to follow the same rules as everyone else. They purchased three tickets thinking two of the children could sit on their laps and not have to pay for a ticket. Well, that didn't work out too well for them. Only one of the children was under the age of two so they were short one child's ticket. The mother INSISTED that they had flown that way before and that they never had a problem before. That didn't go over too well with the staff. They nicely informed them that they would have to buy another ticket or they weren't going to be allowed on the plane. After attempting five different credit cards the mother had, they finally had another ticket on the plane. THEN the mother realized that the ticket wasn't sitting next to them so she threw a temper tantrum and said "My child IS NOT sitting alone on a plane." This was my facepalm moment. Hellllllo, one of you sits with the kids, the other sits somewhere else. They had to explain this to her three times before I could see the very dim light bulb go off over her head.
The same flight should have been my first flight but I am flying standby. The flight was already overbooked and there were nineteen people on the standby list. Now I know I'm not the most intelligent person in the world but I do have some common sense. Apparently I was one of the only one that was waiting on standby that had ANY common sense. Once the flight was full and these other people were told there was no more seats available some complained, some just went with the flow,some panicked because they were going to miss a connecting flight, but my favorite were airport employees that were waiting to get on the plane.
One of the was IN UNIFORM and started giving the gate staff a hard time about not being allowed on the plane. The other wasn't in uniform and if she hadn't been so loud no one would have known that she was an employee. However with every word she spoke she got louder and louder until I'm pretty sure most of the terminal could hear her. She apparently thought she was more important than anyone else that wanted to get on that plane and that they should break the rules for her and allow her something that she "always got to do". When she didn't get her own way she asked if she could get documentation to show that she wasn't allowed on the plane so she wouldn't get in trouble for not making it to work on time.
I'm sorry but if you know you have to be to work at a certain day and time and were not guaranteed a seat on a plane wouldn't you maybe, possibly leave a day earlier? Just sayin' is all. They told her that they would give her something saying the flight was full but she still wasn't happy. She asked AGAIN if there was anyway to get on the plane. When she was informed yet again NO. She stomped away from the gate without getting her 'documentation'. Maybe she will get fired for being late for work because of stupidity and not be able to fly standby again. When she has to pay full price for airfare she'll realize how good she had it.
While waiting for the next flight, (which I didn't get on either obviously as I'm blogging from the airport), the same man walked past me five times in less than ten minutes. Each time he was studying his boarding pass and looking at that gate numbers. Now if all the gates were full, I would understand him being confused and possibly lost. However there were only people at two gates in the whole terminal. How could you possibly be THAT lost?
After not getting on the second flight either I had time to relax. I'm sitting in a corner away from EVERYONE else minding my own business reading. A woman goes out of her way to come and speak to me. While that wouldn't always be a bad thing because I like meeting new people, but she didn't speak English! I'm in the United States and I have to say I don't think there is anything about me that would make someone think that I am from another country. But apparently to this woman, I spoke her language. I have NO idea what language she was speak, much less what she wanted. When I informed her I only speak English my jaw almost dropped to the floor when she threw her hands in the air, said something that I'm pretty sure was "fuck you then" (I can't be sure as I still have no idea what language she said it in) and stomped off away from me, mumbling to herself. It is not my fault that I don't speak your language.
Finally made it on a flight that was delayed two hours. Listened to a man on the plane complain the whole two hour flight how he already missed his connection and the airline "had better do something" for him. Um dude, they probably could have if you just asked. They reassigned at least thirty other people to other flights on other airlines. I'm pretty sure they could have probably helped you too if you had just asked. Instead you sit on a plane and complain WAY too loudly, for WAY too long. Now I'm in the second airport with a three hour layover. The flight is showing full right now with eight people on standby. Hopefully someone doesn't show up and I can get on the plane. If not I'll have to wait another two hours and hope for the best. If that flight is full too, I have no idea what I'll do. I really don't want to spend the night in an airport but I guess that's the risk you take when you're flying standby.
So far I haven't seen anything too strange here but the day is still young so you never know. For those of you that are really bored and made it all the way through my rant on airport travelers, thank you for joining me on my journey to crazy land. Wish me luck to get on my next flight and make it home sometime tonight.
Finally made it on a flight that was delayed two hours. Listened to a man on the plane complain the whole two hour flight how he already missed his connection and the airline "had better do something" for him. Um dude, they probably could have if you just asked. They reassigned at least thirty other people to other flights on other airlines. I'm pretty sure they could have probably helped you too if you had just asked. Instead you sit on a plane and complain WAY too loudly, for WAY too long. Now I'm in the second airport with a three hour layover. The flight is showing full right now with eight people on standby. Hopefully someone doesn't show up and I can get on the plane. If not I'll have to wait another two hours and hope for the best. If that flight is full too, I have no idea what I'll do. I really don't want to spend the night in an airport but I guess that's the risk you take when you're flying standby.
So far I haven't seen anything too strange here but the day is still young so you never know. For those of you that are really bored and made it all the way through my rant on airport travelers, thank you for joining me on my journey to crazy land. Wish me luck to get on my next flight and make it home sometime tonight.
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