Flight Delays (Part 2)

Microtel

So this is really a personal rant on an individual, but after my flight got canceled I got the pleasure of being shafted with a stay at a local hotel, Microtel. I was actually astonished when I arrived and there was a like 10 deep at the reception desk. I instantly diagnosed the problem, the “receptionist” that was “dealing” with the customers was completely incompetent, I think a 10 year old could have done a better job. So with 10 people waiting she decided to answer the phone that was ringing, not once, but 5 TIMES!, no exaggeration. She kept answer the phone one after another, did she multi task? OF COURSE NOT. She answered the phone, one after another, not even taking customers in between

Midnight delays, and flight cancelations..

I learned a couple things from my recent travel nightmare with US Airways:
When your flight gets delayed, check where it is coming from, if the flight has arrived check whether, or do your best to find out what is wrong with the plan. If it hasn’t arrived then start calculating when it’s going to get there. So if it is coming from Boston, they might not say it, but you aren’t leaving until about 30 minutes after it arrives(cleaned and loaded). During my experience they didn’t tell us the flight hasn’t left yet, they kept us in the dark, so do some research on your own… you got the time.

If you get stranded without a flight, like I did on Thursday, grab a hotel. Now my first time doing this I got majorly screwed. The airlines offered me a “voucher” for a cheap say at a hotel. I took them up on it and ended up staying at a roach motel (Microtel brand) in Charlotte.
When you get the voucher call the number, they will give you a hotel deal, if it sounds like a piece of crap, aka Microtel, ask to talk to a customer representative. They will transfer you to someone who will list off all the options, and then you can make a better choice.

I found this out after I arrived at my hotel. And BTW the deal they got me, $45 per night was only $5 cheaper than the rate of the hotel. So be careful, the deal might not be as good as you might think.
Let it be known!

If a company is doing bad business. LET THEM KNOW! I have said before that when you fly you just have to know you are at the mercy of corporate America. The only thing we can do is inform the public, us, that we had a bad experience. If enough people complain, and share their experiences, we will be able to delineate the good from the bad carriers.
Jet Blue Plug.
I used to be a firm believer in US Airways, but now they have dropped down to my AirTran category, and they are average. Fly JET BLUE! No I don’t get a kick form saying that but if you want Direct TV, Direct Flight, and XM radio, consider flying BLUE.

Take care.

Flight Delays (Part 1)

I don’t think I should be writing this article after traveling Sunday with a 6 hour delay, and returning Thursday with a 2 hour delay which forced an overnight stay in a roach hotel.

Flying is awesome, I LOVE flying; I love getting places quickly, and simply love the view from high in a plan.

But with flying comes annoyances and here goes my first!

Case Study

Last Sunday July 27^th I got the pleasure of a 6 hour delay flight to FL.  Instead of telling me that we could not leave until the plane that is taxiing us arrives (from Boston) they casually keep pushing back the departure time. 

After an important message staying the fact that the flight from Boston had departed, an overly frazzled man walks to the counter and states that “he is going to take a different flight home.” 

The lady jokingly laughs and says “oh this poor man missed the last announcement, let him take his flight”. 

Well for some reason or another he was very unhappy with this poor ladies attitude, asked for her name she replied “Angela.” 

“Well Angela”, he says “I am going to go file a complaint, Angela, what’s your last name!” (At this point he is screaming) she of course refuses to give it to him and concedes and walks away. 

Me bored at this point, rolls over and goes to sleep.  Only to be awakened by this poor dude yelling in the middle of the air port.  “YOUR GOING DOWN ANGELA, NO ONE TREATS ME LIKE THAT,”… blah blah blah threat threat threat,  ..

“I am going to call the police!” Angelia says.

And here comes the money shot… “YOU call the police. I want you to call the police!” angry man says. 

Well I guess Angela got the last laugh because she called the police, and they came.  Oh did they come all 5 of them came and took Mr. Anxiety away.  10 minutes later Mr. Angry is now Mr Calm and is apologizing to Angela.

 The End

What I don’t like, people who are strung out on stress because they are on Vacation.  It’s like as soon as they know they are on vacation, instead of relaxing they get a nervous tick.  It’s time to start worrying, plan and do as much as possible, and also do your best to get worked up on all worked up all kinds of little things like cold food, traffic, delays, etc.   

This guy supposedly was a “frequent” flyer, I am assuming he didn’t learn those tactics during his tenure flying.  Did he seriously think his rant was going to do something? Or did he flip?  Completely go bonkers and had to unleash his uncontrollable rant that had been secretly building for some time now.

I can’t answer that, because I only know the angry man for about 15 minutes, during 10 of which he was yelling.   I will say when traveling you just need to roll with the punches.  Honestly you have no say what is going on.  The airline industry is going to do whatever they have to do in order to make money, and they don’t care who they step on in the way

 

 

Part2