Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
All original content by me is licensed under the CC BY-NC 3.0 License
That thing on the left is United’s new(?) businessfirst airbag, but I’m pretty sure I can still conveniently bash myself against any number of things not on my left side…
Anyway, I’m on my way to Germany. I’ve missed being in Europe far too much.
Buckled in. The new Global First seats on my 777 had this (fairly tight) shoulder strap for take off and landing, a first for me. These booths make BusinessFirst seem like E+…unreal.
This ticket also got me access to the Global First lounge at ORD, which was magical. Private marble shower rooms with warmed towels and some peppermint herb product after a long flight feel amazing. Took a good long shower, blew out my hair, changed clothes. Makes a HUGE difference.
Good morning EWR.
Fun fact: I refer to United planes with the old paint job as “tulip butts” in my head.
The kindness of strangers. (I have an interview tomorrow! Woo)
Today was an awful day at EWR, with Terminal C’s domestic/international check-in counter understaffed. Add in the large number of non-English speaking travelers and the still glitchy system and it was a fxcking nightmare, even for a Platinum member.
I have two interviews in San Francisco and I booked the tickets a week and a half ago while still in Paris, around the time when they were switching systems. My reservation was confirmed and I had seats, but no one was able to print my tickets as the reservation’s details wouldn’t show up in the new system. Two out of the three agents available toiled on my ticket, trying everything including issuing a new seat, but they could only get one leg of my itinerary. They apologized profusely, told me to fly to Chicago and try to get on the flight to SF without a ticket (HAHAHA).
So I’m late to security with only 40 minutes to go til take off, and me panicking on the phone with my travel agent trying to get a ticket by any means possible. Even the first class line is long as hell, but since it’s not less than 30 min to flight time, I can’t skip the line, AND I still have to find a way to print my next ticket. A random man hears me talking to my agent and he says “come with me, I’ll take you to Global Services” and we skip the line completely.
As I go through the metal detector, my travel agent is able to issue a new reservation. The man then takes me to a reserved, empty customer service desk as though we’re traveling together, and the agent is able to print my new ticket. I thank the man profusely, and though in the back of my jaded head I was terrified of him expecting a phone number or something in return, he just says, “it’s no problem, take care” with a smile and I run to my gate
I’m amazed and thankful. I hope I get to pay it forward someday.
