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We traveled for the winter holiday season. Albuquerque was very cold, but we had a fun vacation. Because I didn't feel like driving for 24+ hours, we flew. In spite of the hectic nature of holiday travel, things actually went really smoothly. Flights were a little behind, but not enough to disrupt most passengers' connecting flights. Other passengers even gave me more sympathetic looks than annoyed or angry looks when Baby Shirts decided to cry for 15 minutes straight on one leg of the trip.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself surrounded by what I thought were good airline customers and crew.
Except one lady.
I was in line at the gate agent counter in the airport, waiting to try to get some more details about the delay, just so I'd know what to expect. A woman pushed her way to the front of the line (several people ahead of me) and started berating the gate agent. I couldn't catch everything (the gate area was noisy and crowded, and she managed to be mad without being loud), but I heard enough.
Stuff like:
"It's not my fault! I got here right when the ticket said to be here!"
"Well, bring it BACK!"
"No, I most certainly will NOT wait for the next flight!"
"How dare you give my seat to someone else?!"
"I don't care! Bring it BACK!"
My imagination filled in the blanks. Here's what I figure happened. She thought the time on the ticket was the "get-to-the-airport" time, not the takeoff time (or tried to use that as an excuse to cover up a mistake that made her late). Her seat was given to a standby passenger because she wasn't there at final boarding call. She didn't like that. She demanded that the gate agent somehow make the plane turn around and come back so she could kick off the standby passenger and take her seat, nevermind that the plane was probably more than halfway to its destination by then.
Wish I could have heard the whole conversation. That gate agent handled it extremely well.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself surrounded by what I thought were good airline customers and crew.
Except one lady.
I was in line at the gate agent counter in the airport, waiting to try to get some more details about the delay, just so I'd know what to expect. A woman pushed her way to the front of the line (several people ahead of me) and started berating the gate agent. I couldn't catch everything (the gate area was noisy and crowded, and she managed to be mad without being loud), but I heard enough.
Stuff like:
"It's not my fault! I got here right when the ticket said to be here!"
"Well, bring it BACK!"
"No, I most certainly will NOT wait for the next flight!"
"How dare you give my seat to someone else?!"
"I don't care! Bring it BACK!"
My imagination filled in the blanks. Here's what I figure happened. She thought the time on the ticket was the "get-to-the-airport" time, not the takeoff time (or tried to use that as an excuse to cover up a mistake that made her late). Her seat was given to a standby passenger because she wasn't there at final boarding call. She didn't like that. She demanded that the gate agent somehow make the plane turn around and come back so she could kick off the standby passenger and take her seat, nevermind that the plane was probably more than halfway to its destination by then.
Wish I could have heard the whole conversation. That gate agent handled it extremely well.
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