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verbicideThis commences a series of posts about a weekend that certainly felt longer than the 48 hours that comprised it.
So remember how last week sucked? It was 14 hour days and a million shower-related errands. How I said if I was good, I was at least going to enjoy dinner on Friday night with Amy. Yeah. Apparently, I wasn't very good.
My cabbie picked me up on time. He was annoying and commenced speaking to me in Hindi/Urdu and I was irritated enough to feign complete ignorance and just zone out the window. I didn't want a chatty conversation and while I realize that my irritation is a bit irrational, I didn't much care.
Got to the airport around 3:30pm, made it through security pretty fast. Bought my nephews some quick presents from the gift shop and headed to my gate. The flight was delayed by an hour and a half.
1. Flight departing at 5:45 was delayed until 7:12 because the incoming flight was late. Annoying, but not inconceivable.
2. Flight further delayed until 8:30. Even more annoying, but not shocking. At this point I called Amy and told her not to wait for dinner.
3. Flight lands; plane has condensation on window. Entire window will have to be removed. They claimed this would take too long, so we would be given a different plane that was due to arrive at 9. Crowd begins to get irate.
4. Second plane lands at 9:15; we're told of the gate change and informed our old boarding passes will be fine. Crowd grumbles, but prepares.
5. Informed that mechanics are aboard new plane as there are unspecified mechanical errors. Crowd furious. Agents hand out Airline Care kits which include a phone card, $25 off next flight, and $5 food voucher. Color the crowd unimpressed.
6. Informed that another plane will be landing at 10:30 and we will have to use that as second plane has too many mechanical problems.
7. Crowd clamoring for supervisor. Told that supervisor is on way, but never does arrive. A lot of bitchy dismissive attitude from gate agents. Lots of phone calls. Lots of not updating crowd on what's going on. Agents vanish from counter for awhile.
8. Third plane rolls in. We're told boarding will start in half an hour, because mechanics have been called to replace a light bulb on the plane. Crowd a little scary now. Some people have left. We're also told that if we've checked luggage, it's going to Oakland, even if we are not planning on staying for the flight.
9. We're informed that there is yet another problem with this, the third plane, and we're to change gates and wait for the 11:15 flight on a fourth plane. We're told that some seat assignments have been changed, and random people are called to be reassigned seats. People go up and get new boarding passes.
10. At 11:30, the flight comes in. We're told by the rude gate agent that there's nothing wrong with this plane. Her irritation with the crowd's irritation and disbelief is surreal. She arrogantly tells us that there is nothing wrong with this plane. It's coming in empty and we will all be on it to fly to Oakland at 12:15. But first the pilot has to change out of his field clothes. The plane is coming in from the field and he needs to change and be re-screened. Whatever that means.
11. The most angry people have left by now. There is one guy with a video camera and another guy who's tipsy and they're being funny and sarcastic, but not threatening or hostile or offensive. In fact, their antics are keeping people laughing.
12. We see flight attendants march briskly down the ramp and we're told that we will begin boarding in 15 minutes.
13. One of the three flight attendants comes back out the gate and leaves the area to everyone's bemusement.
14. Bitchy gate agent, Anna, calls security; they arrive and look menacing.
15. Anna announces that one of the flight attendants has 'left the premises' and while they're very sorry, the FAA does not allow them to fly with only two attendants. We can fly 'later' (unspecified) or trade boarding pass in for flight to San Francisco where they will transport all our baggage to Oakland for us, and shuttle us to Oakland airport. They offer hotel voucher for anyone wanting to stay the night.
16. Flight for SF is boarding and our line of people is not moving. I ran over to the SF line and found that I could indeed transfer my flight there.
17. Flight for SF, with remaining few passengers of Oakland who didn't get a hotel, leaves at 1:30am.
18. Arrive SF at 3am, find that baggage is not being transferred nor is there a shuttle. We will have to claim our own bags and hustle them out to a cab for which they will provide a voucher. Agents in SF are actually pleasant. Reach Oakland at 3:30am. Full 12 hours from arriving at Sea-Tac.
Amy picked me up at 4am and kindly took me home to collapse.
I have to say that Alaska Airlines is completely full of shit. Their agents offered the most insincere apologies and it was very clear they were lying pretty much every step of the way. They've been in the news lately, under suit from Labor Union. I can understand that something went wrong and they had to inconvenience us. But what doesn't make any sense is how weirdly and creepily they kept lying. I'm sure the gate agents were harried and under orders to lie, but it was just unreal. They seemed to have no genuine remorse for fucking up the plans of 200 people and everyone keeps saying, "Yeah, but you got a free flight voucher, right?" Nope. They offered (around 11pm) dinner vouchers. But none of the food areas near us were open. Around that time, the bathrooms were also shut down.
I'm going to write a letter of complaint. I'm going to send it in to every news resource I find relevant. I didn't bitch at them at the time, because I genuinely feared retribution. The two funny guys from above? Yeah, they were denied flight at the very end. I'm sure it was a 'security risk' or something.
The airline industry has become fairly horrific. I know they've had some real problems post 9/11, but they're not handling it very well. I felt pretty trapped. I couldn't get my bag back. Complaining (as many, many people were doing) would have only netted me a rude response and more lies. People kept demanding to at least be told the truth. There was obviously some major fuckup impeding us from getting to Oakland, but I'm not sure why they thought lying to us in 30min increments with smarmy attitude and ...seriously, attitude over our disbelief that this time they were really going to get us on the plane, was going to get them.
This is not the first time Alaska Airlines has shown me that lying is how they handle problems. After 9/11 when I was detained on the basis of my middle-eastern last name, they kept lying and saying something was wrong with their computer. Something I initially believed, and just patiently waited as everyone around me checked in. Eventually, two FBI agents approached me and asked me a series of inane questions, which they seemed frankly embarrassed to do. If Alaska Airlines had just told me that I was going to be questioned as part of some routine thing (bullshit, but closer to the truth), it would have been uncomfortable, but 10000000000x better than being repeatedly lied to by 5 agents like I was some sort of dangerous criminal.
Anyhow. They are creepy and they SUCK. It completely wiped me out for the entirety of the weekend because there was no time (as I'll continue to post on about) for me to catch up on sleep.
And now I'm sick at home, wiped out from the weekend and writing all this out has totally enraged me again. Gah. It was fucking unbelievable. And it showed me that more than anything in the world, I really wanted to be there for Amy's shower. After months of planning and frustration with getting the details right, I didn't want to miss the chance to enjoy the party.
I called Alaska and the woman claimed I'd filled out a white-card about the flight for upper management. They did not hand out white cards, unless they did it after the SF flight left and they grabbed the people who wanted to stay in hotel rooms for the night. When I told the person on the phone that I hadn't, she recited back the address I'd allegedly put on it. Which was an address from 3 years ago. So yeah, I must have filled that out two nights ago. So she updated it, claiming that upper management is reviewing the flight and planning on handing out compensation accordingly. What. Ever.
I know Customer Service jobs suck, but every single gate agent I've dealt with in the past year has had major attitude up the wazoo. And I am not a demanding customer. I'm polite and generally friendly and hold my tongue even after waiting in line frustratedly for some agent to finish chitchatting with the other agent before giving me a bored wave over.
I don't know if there are advocate groups for travelers, but there should be. How badly they can get away with treating people is really disturbing.
So remember how last week sucked? It was 14 hour days and a million shower-related errands. How I said if I was good, I was at least going to enjoy dinner on Friday night with Amy. Yeah. Apparently, I wasn't very good.
My cabbie picked me up on time. He was annoying and commenced speaking to me in Hindi/Urdu and I was irritated enough to feign complete ignorance and just zone out the window. I didn't want a chatty conversation and while I realize that my irritation is a bit irrational, I didn't much care.
Got to the airport around 3:30pm, made it through security pretty fast. Bought my nephews some quick presents from the gift shop and headed to my gate. The flight was delayed by an hour and a half.
1. Flight departing at 5:45 was delayed until 7:12 because the incoming flight was late. Annoying, but not inconceivable.
2. Flight further delayed until 8:30. Even more annoying, but not shocking. At this point I called Amy and told her not to wait for dinner.
3. Flight lands; plane has condensation on window. Entire window will have to be removed. They claimed this would take too long, so we would be given a different plane that was due to arrive at 9. Crowd begins to get irate.
4. Second plane lands at 9:15; we're told of the gate change and informed our old boarding passes will be fine. Crowd grumbles, but prepares.
5. Informed that mechanics are aboard new plane as there are unspecified mechanical errors. Crowd furious. Agents hand out Airline Care kits which include a phone card, $25 off next flight, and $5 food voucher. Color the crowd unimpressed.
6. Informed that another plane will be landing at 10:30 and we will have to use that as second plane has too many mechanical problems.
7. Crowd clamoring for supervisor. Told that supervisor is on way, but never does arrive. A lot of bitchy dismissive attitude from gate agents. Lots of phone calls. Lots of not updating crowd on what's going on. Agents vanish from counter for awhile.
8. Third plane rolls in. We're told boarding will start in half an hour, because mechanics have been called to replace a light bulb on the plane. Crowd a little scary now. Some people have left. We're also told that if we've checked luggage, it's going to Oakland, even if we are not planning on staying for the flight.
9. We're informed that there is yet another problem with this, the third plane, and we're to change gates and wait for the 11:15 flight on a fourth plane. We're told that some seat assignments have been changed, and random people are called to be reassigned seats. People go up and get new boarding passes.
10. At 11:30, the flight comes in. We're told by the rude gate agent that there's nothing wrong with this plane. Her irritation with the crowd's irritation and disbelief is surreal. She arrogantly tells us that there is nothing wrong with this plane. It's coming in empty and we will all be on it to fly to Oakland at 12:15. But first the pilot has to change out of his field clothes. The plane is coming in from the field and he needs to change and be re-screened. Whatever that means.
11. The most angry people have left by now. There is one guy with a video camera and another guy who's tipsy and they're being funny and sarcastic, but not threatening or hostile or offensive. In fact, their antics are keeping people laughing.
12. We see flight attendants march briskly down the ramp and we're told that we will begin boarding in 15 minutes.
13. One of the three flight attendants comes back out the gate and leaves the area to everyone's bemusement.
14. Bitchy gate agent, Anna, calls security; they arrive and look menacing.
15. Anna announces that one of the flight attendants has 'left the premises' and while they're very sorry, the FAA does not allow them to fly with only two attendants. We can fly 'later' (unspecified) or trade boarding pass in for flight to San Francisco where they will transport all our baggage to Oakland for us, and shuttle us to Oakland airport. They offer hotel voucher for anyone wanting to stay the night.
16. Flight for SF is boarding and our line of people is not moving. I ran over to the SF line and found that I could indeed transfer my flight there.
17. Flight for SF, with remaining few passengers of Oakland who didn't get a hotel, leaves at 1:30am.
18. Arrive SF at 3am, find that baggage is not being transferred nor is there a shuttle. We will have to claim our own bags and hustle them out to a cab for which they will provide a voucher. Agents in SF are actually pleasant. Reach Oakland at 3:30am. Full 12 hours from arriving at Sea-Tac.
Amy picked me up at 4am and kindly took me home to collapse.
I have to say that Alaska Airlines is completely full of shit. Their agents offered the most insincere apologies and it was very clear they were lying pretty much every step of the way. They've been in the news lately, under suit from Labor Union. I can understand that something went wrong and they had to inconvenience us. But what doesn't make any sense is how weirdly and creepily they kept lying. I'm sure the gate agents were harried and under orders to lie, but it was just unreal. They seemed to have no genuine remorse for fucking up the plans of 200 people and everyone keeps saying, "Yeah, but you got a free flight voucher, right?" Nope. They offered (around 11pm) dinner vouchers. But none of the food areas near us were open. Around that time, the bathrooms were also shut down.
I'm going to write a letter of complaint. I'm going to send it in to every news resource I find relevant. I didn't bitch at them at the time, because I genuinely feared retribution. The two funny guys from above? Yeah, they were denied flight at the very end. I'm sure it was a 'security risk' or something.
The airline industry has become fairly horrific. I know they've had some real problems post 9/11, but they're not handling it very well. I felt pretty trapped. I couldn't get my bag back. Complaining (as many, many people were doing) would have only netted me a rude response and more lies. People kept demanding to at least be told the truth. There was obviously some major fuckup impeding us from getting to Oakland, but I'm not sure why they thought lying to us in 30min increments with smarmy attitude and ...seriously, attitude over our disbelief that this time they were really going to get us on the plane, was going to get them.
This is not the first time Alaska Airlines has shown me that lying is how they handle problems. After 9/11 when I was detained on the basis of my middle-eastern last name, they kept lying and saying something was wrong with their computer. Something I initially believed, and just patiently waited as everyone around me checked in. Eventually, two FBI agents approached me and asked me a series of inane questions, which they seemed frankly embarrassed to do. If Alaska Airlines had just told me that I was going to be questioned as part of some routine thing (bullshit, but closer to the truth), it would have been uncomfortable, but 10000000000x better than being repeatedly lied to by 5 agents like I was some sort of dangerous criminal.
Anyhow. They are creepy and they SUCK. It completely wiped me out for the entirety of the weekend because there was no time (as I'll continue to post on about) for me to catch up on sleep.
And now I'm sick at home, wiped out from the weekend and writing all this out has totally enraged me again. Gah. It was fucking unbelievable. And it showed me that more than anything in the world, I really wanted to be there for Amy's shower. After months of planning and frustration with getting the details right, I didn't want to miss the chance to enjoy the party.
I called Alaska and the woman claimed I'd filled out a white-card about the flight for upper management. They did not hand out white cards, unless they did it after the SF flight left and they grabbed the people who wanted to stay in hotel rooms for the night. When I told the person on the phone that I hadn't, she recited back the address I'd allegedly put on it. Which was an address from 3 years ago. So yeah, I must have filled that out two nights ago. So she updated it, claiming that upper management is reviewing the flight and planning on handing out compensation accordingly. What. Ever.
I know Customer Service jobs suck, but every single gate agent I've dealt with in the past year has had major attitude up the wazoo. And I am not a demanding customer. I'm polite and generally friendly and hold my tongue even after waiting in line frustratedly for some agent to finish chitchatting with the other agent before giving me a bored wave over.
I don't know if there are advocate groups for travelers, but there should be. How badly they can get away with treating people is really disturbing.
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-17 07:45 pm (UTC)It sucks that Alaska appears to be going down the tubes. I used to like them because they had good deals and generally good service. Flying is such a pain in the ass now. Bleah.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-17 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-17 08:16 pm (UTC)And yeah, I think the Union thing is really unhinging them. We, the miserable passengers, were chatting about that pretty openly.
I wish they'd just owned up to it and come up with a proper resolution. They ended up giving people hotel room vouchers anyway, why not just admit it at the get-go instead of having really furious people at the end?
It doesn't make any sense to me. I've been badly delayed on a flight before (8hrs) but they told us, we were mad, but we took our vouchers (hotel and dinner) and waited it out.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-17 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-17 07:56 pm (UTC)But I don't need a snotty gate agent giving me 'tude I don't deserve. They will definitely hear about all the details.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-17 07:58 pm (UTC)And people wonder why we have to prop up the airline industry with our tax dollars.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-17 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-17 08:02 pm (UTC)All the airlines over-extended themselves during the go-go 90s, and now they're shedding everything they can - including the very concept of unionized labor - in a race to the bottom.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-17 08:16 pm (UTC)My worst experience in the air, so far: in December, I was connecting from Seattle to Philadelphia via Newark. But the connecting flight never showed. The gate agent was at least decent enough to 'fess up that I would probably be waiting until morning and comped me a train ticket, instead (the airline had a deal with Amtrack along the northeast corridor--it lucky for me that this was feasible). Of course, when I went to fly *back* to Seattle, 4 days later, they'd sold my seat on the returning flight to someone else ... because ... I hadn't been on the connecting flight ... that they told me wouldn't show up ... Asinine as that was, they did have the courtesy to ultimately give me my seat and bump the other person to the next flight (after all, I paid first!).
Here again, though, what differed from your situation was that the gate agents actually helped, straightening out situations created by others ...
no subject
Date: 2005-05-17 11:27 pm (UTC)It's definitely the worst I've ever experienced, too. And to echo your comments, it's easy enough to understand that some mechanical/scheduling error has happened, it's harder to swallow the lack of genuine concern from the gate agents.
Although, it's much easier to handle one displaced passenger than 200, it should really be part of their training to handle it appropriately.