User Comments

1. 

   3/31/09

   Epicharis

   Terminal 5
   
   news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7314816.stm

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2. 

   3/31/09

   JamCan

   I pretty much meant personal stories.

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   1. 

      3/31/09

      Epicharis

      yeah I know
3. 

   3/31/09

   annz

   We were flying from Minneapolis to Indianapolis through Chicago in December, this was probably 10 years ago now. In Chicago, we are supposed to change planes but see this huge line in front of our airline's (ATA) counter. Turns out ATA's fuel trucks froze. No other airline had this problem. It being Chicago, you'd think they would be ready for cold weather, but no. No ATA flights leaving that day. We wait in line and eventually get booked on a Southwest flight and figure all is good. We're given tickets, and a confirmation number and are told we're booked in Southwest's system.
   
   So off we go to the gate for our new Southwest flight. We go to the counter at the gate and are told that they're not letting people from other flights on their plane. I try to tell her that we're in the system. The agent had already put us on the plane, there was no deciding whether or not to let us on, we'd already been booked. She wouldn't listen. I held up our tickets over the counter and pointed to our reservation number. She hit my hand and told me not to get in her space. But she finally looked up the number. And looked really surprised to see us in her computer. And so she called her headquarters to ask what that meant. And was told on the phone that it meant we had reservations on that flight and could fly with them. I have never been so angry at someone. I am not violent, but I really wanted to hit her.

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   1. 

      3/31/09

      JamCan

      OMG are you serious she hit your hand???????????? I woulda ended up in jail if someone did that to me! LOL.
   2. 

      3/31/09

      annz

      yeah, I'm really normally very calm and passive and avoid conflict, but the whole situation just made me so angry. I was shaking and I kept hoping she'd come over and say something else to me so I could hit her. Not like me at all. That was probably the worst part of it.
4. 

   3/31/09

   melindaville

   I was flying back to San Francisco from graduate school (in Pennsylvania) in 1999. I had a layover in Minneapolis and the weather was horrible and as a result, many flights, including my own were canceled or delayed.
   
   Since the flight I was on was canceled, we were all told to go to the customer service center. The line was looooong and everyone was upset--it was Christmas, people wanted to get home, everyone was irritable. People were just screaming at the poor woman behind the counter (like it is HER fault that the weather is lousy).
   
   When I got up to her, she looked at me (at first) like she was going to snap off my head. Since I am a firm believer in killing people with kindness to disarm them--and since I really did feel bad for the way people were treating her, I was EXTREMELY NICE to her. I was sympathetic about the misery she was getting from everyone and told her 'just do the best you can for me--that's all anyone can do!"
   
   At first, she had told me it would be at least 24 hours before she could get me a flight but after I was so nice to her, she found me a flight that was leaving in only a few hours. They didn't have any coach seats available but she put me in first class. She told me that she gave me the seat because I was the first person who acted decently to her all day.
   
   It was the first time I ever rode in first class and boy did I enjoy it!
   
   Just goes to show-you really can get more flies with honey than vinegar!

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5. 

   3/31/09

   Xight

   I remember flying United airlines from Chicago to Hawaii on a free mileaage ticket. It was in late Decemeber, and the weather was like 10 degrees f.
   
   I'm sitting here at the counter and the people at united couldn't figure out how to let me on the plane with my free ticket. I sat there in dismay while watching my flight take off as they tried to sort this out. How hard can it be? I have a reservation, a ticket, and its free. Let me on the plane and sort this training stuff out with your managers later or something. They made me run back and forth between the long security lines like 3 times from the airplane gate -> front desk etc etc etc. If you ever been to Ohare airport in chicago, you'll know its a HUGE airport. United was one of the gates on the far concourse.
   
   Afterwards, I finally got my ticket, and they redid it for the next day. I had to grab a taxi back to the place I was staying, and it wasn't reimbursed. I hate flying united, their counter people have IQs of potatoes.

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