Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
All original content by me is licensed under the CC BY-NC 3.0 License
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.
Confession: On being a creepy (but well-meaning!) passenger.
I went shopping for gifts at the duty free Galleria today and found myself sandwiched between two United captains at the queue. Right before we got to the counter, the only register broke and we were told to wait 5 min for the repairman. I offered the captain behind me to go before me since he was only carrying a bottle of scotch vs. my shopping basket full of stuff, and he needs to board first. He waved me off, saying they can’t leave without him anyway (true) and we made small talk about United as awkward people stuck in a queue do.
30 minutes blew by with no sign of the register being fixed. The captain behind me gave up, saying he’d come back for his scotch if he had the time. The captain in front of me stayed longer than the other guy, holding just one bottle of French red wine. A few minutes later, he gave a sigh and said quietly, “I guess I have to board,” put the wine back on the shelf, and walked away.
They fixed the machine a bit later and I had a crazy thought: I’m not baller enough to buy an aged single malt scotch but a bottle of red wine is no pro (even good wine in France is cheap!) - I grabbed the captain’s wine off the shelf and added it to my pile.
But when I walked out with my bags, I regretted it: I felt certifiably cray and stalkerish. What if he wasn’t actually on my flight? What if he took it the wrong way? Especially since I didn’t get his buddy’s scotch? (I even texted Ben a small freak out about what I’d just done.) I considered keeping it for myself to save myself the embarrassment.
But something about his dejection had struck me. He didn’t leave with his fellow crew member and he’s someone who can afford to buy a nicer bottle in the States, yet he had waited til the last second like me - And if he was like me, this was a gift for someone back home, for someone important enough to stay til the last second for. Then I remembered the wedding band on his finger, nestled on the neck of the bottle and the small talk about their 24 hour layover in Paris - Meaning, they had missed Valentine’s Day while on the job.
I know perfectly what it’s like to always be away from loved ones, to always do your best to pick up little local gifts just to try to let the people back home know that you miss them, are thinking about them, and still care. And what if this bottle of wine was that? It was a wild assumption (and basically a projection of my own situation) that I used to justify my actions to myself, but even if it was just for him, I hated to see his patience go unrewarded. Whatever the reason for that quiet sigh, I hoped a 9€ surprise might make it that least bit better.
I boarded and gave the bag to a flight attendant and simply told her that I saw him leave it behind at the duty free (as if he bought it and left it). She rolled her eyes at someone up front and said, “Tony left something behind” - I was lucky that it seemed to be a habitual problem for him and not a stalker move on my part.
A few minutes later, he found me and thanked me profusely with a really bewildered look (I don’t blame him) and offered to pay me (which I refused). I just said that I would have hated if that happened to me, that I knew what it was like. He went back to the cockpit and I felt relieved that my awkward ordeal was over XD.
Mid flight, he came back again and gave me an amenity kit from first class. I said no need (he has NO idea how many of these I have at home) but he insisted so I thanked him and accepted it. I guess it was the least he could do, and I’m kind of glad that it was important enough to him that he’d come back and offer me the nearest non-monetary thing he could, haha. Needless to say, I’ll keep this in my non-donation pile with the historical Concorde, Northwest, Continental, and Pan-Am kits.
Here’s to less sad sighs :)
Making the World's Largest Airline Fly
On July 1 the new United introduced its new coffee. Fliers on the “legacy United” fleet, accustomed to Starbucks, let out a collective yowl of protest. Pineau-Boddison had expected some resistance—Starbucks, after all, is a popular brand—but this was something else. Flight attendants reported a barrage of complaints. Pineau-Boddison received angry e-mails from customers, as did Smisek. The coffee, fliers complained, was watery.
The beverage committee launched an inquiry. The coffee itself, they discovered, was only part of the problem. […] The old United brew baskets, the committee discovered, sit a quarter of an inch lower than Continental’s, leaving a space for water to leak around the pillow pack. That fugitive water was diluting the coffee—in fact, the old United had installed the deeper brew baskets for that very purpose, after passengers complained that their Starbucks was too strong. And so, by the end of the year, the beverage committee found itself back where it had started, trying out new pillow packs.
That’s coffee. Not a matter of life or death, or even on-time arrival. It’s not a question that requires federal regulatory approval or a union vote. Nor is it an issue that has anything to do with the core service of an airline, which is flying people from one place to another.
This was a fun read.
I’m flattered that you’re asking me of all people for advice, haha :3
If you’re a young globetrotter, I would consider…
- Where do you fly? Who [airline + alliance] serves the best routes to your most frequently visited airports? Delta was best for me until United/Continental merged and I had more EWR and NRT flights.
- Points aside, what actual perks does the card offer? Delta offers up to 9 of your companions free checked bags - Good for families. United offers 2 free passes into their lounges - Good for people who have to use connections or travel in unpredictable winter weather. Click for a list of each of their perks.
- Visa or Amex? This is pretty important. I have a Plat Amex, but find that a lot of little boutiques and restaurants I usually venture to won’t take it - But they do take Visa. If you go to France, many vendors will take Amex, but can’t take a chip-and-PIN-less Visa card from the US. Try to remember your fave stores/restaurants and whether they take Amex/Visa or not. It’s useless to have a point card you can’t use.
