As the Radar Turns

I have a blog about a fake airline I don't work for. Why? Because I'm a bucketmouth, I don't know when to shut up, and who doesn't like a good airline horror story?

Here's one of them: Anyone else got any to share? A laugh could do us good!

As you all know, I don't work for an airline, but I love modeling the uniform that I'm not paid to wear. With that out of the way, we'll get the party started.

A few nights ago, I was working the late flight to MCO. Our plane was delayed inbound from Punta Cana. It was going to be about an hour late. We were using a 757, though, and they tend to make up time in the air. The inbound plane had already made up a good half hour - 45 minutes and would possibly gain another 15 as long as we got it back out at the newly scheduled departure time of 11:00.


I got the usual barrage of core questions,

(Are we ontime? Are we boarding? Is the plane here? Is this flight actually gonna go? Can I get a free upgrade, I'm on my honeymoon )

... and the conversations I had with all the passengers went something like this: (keep in mind , I've probably made a million announcements explaining the situation complete with arrival time)

I'm pretty patient, but all of the questions can usually be answered by taking a look around and using common sense. With the exception of the upgrade for various reasons.

I hang up the microphone after another announcement chock full o good info. Pax walks over, looking pissed off and confused.

P: Excuse me?
SNN: Hi!
P: Are we boarding yet?
SNN: No, we're delayed
P: Oh, is the plane here?
SNN: (stepford stare) (looks behind self) No, it isn't. It's almost here though.
P: Where is it?
SNN: It came from Punta Cana, it's in range, we'll board it as soon as we get it deplaned and serviced
P: So, it's broken?
SNN: No, it's on its way
P: Where in the air is it?
SNN: (blank stare) I don't know, exactly, it'll be on the ground shortly
P: How do you know
SNN: The pilot just called in range
P: Well can't you just ask him
SNN: Yeah, no. It just goes in the computer
P: So, we're delayed then?
SNN: Yes.
P: What time is it leaving.
SNN: (looks behind self at sign that says 11) That would be 11.
P: Is it ACTUALLY gonna LEAVE?
SNN: As far as I know.
P: You know, I hate your airline. This happens all the time. Every time. You know, my kids have been waiting to go to Disneyworld for their whole lives. This is very upsetting to them.
SNN: I'm sorry sir.

Pax walks away. I'm pretty sure Mickey the Mouse does not stay up until 11pm, and certainly not midnight, which is the new arrival time. Pax speaks with presumed wife.

New Pax walks up. Flight attendant walks up at same time, just to shoot the breeze while we wait.

New Pax:
Excuse me.

SNN: Hi!

NP: Yes, my son has a Fatal Nut.....(puts one finger up to signal either "one second" or the number one) and then looks at the floor in deep thought and wanders off....

I look at my gate agent coworker, who looks as confused as me. What is this Fatal Nut? Is it contagious? She shrugs. I look at the flight attendant. He's got a smirk as if he knows what Fatal Nut is. We go into the jetway to discuss it. We decide either she's crazy, or she got a call on her bluetooth. And she is trying to tell us that her son will die if we serve him peanuts. We all have a laugh at the various possibilities of the legendary Fatal Nut disease. And we go back outside.

Passenger #1 asks if the plane is here yet.

A quick glance at the window says nope.

He advises me that his kids are getting very upset. I look over at the little girls, about 4 and 6 who are coloring on the floor. We look back at him. He's looking like the only one losing his temper.

He begins to ask for upgrades due to inconvenience. We point out that the whole plane that has been inconvenienced will not fit in the cabin. He asks for a seat for himself. What an ahole! We offer it to him for $100 dollars. He is offended. He slaps the counter. He wants my supervisor.

Supervisor is dealing with 400 misconnects in customs. No can do.

He wants free headsets. No movie on this flight. Free drinks? No alcohol in coach this late.

He's pissed and he's slapping the counter now, and pacing back and forth, and telling me how useless the airline is. Meanwhile, the Fatal Nut lady is insisting to my coworker that her son will die unless we make sure no passengers have peanut related food onboard.

Coworker is advising her that at some point in this airplane's life, there were peanuts served and residual oil may remain. Also, this is an Orlando bound plane and we can't remove the inevitable peanut butter crackers, sandwiches, celery sticks..etc from the snacky bags. She's mad now too.

Disney Dad is pacing and loudly proclaiming our incompetence and we are upsetting his daughters. I walk over to his daughters.

Hi!! Are you gonna go to DISNEYWORLD???
Daughters; YES!!
Mom smiles, looks tired
Are you gonna see MICKEY?
Yes! and CINDERELLA!!! AND ARIEL AND SNOW WHITE! the girls are hopping up and down , competing for attention. Dad is wandering back over.
I asked them if they were gonna have breakfast with Cinderella. their eyes get wide.
YEAH!!
I told him how they can have pancakes with Cinderella, and Snow White, and even ARIEL too!
They get all excited and hop up and down.
Mom smiles, looks worn out.
I ask them if they've ever been to Disneyworld and if they'd planned their character breakfast. They say yeah, they just don't know what day they're doing it on.
I tell them it's super cool and to have a good time. Dad is still annoyed, but quiet. Mom thanks me, and the girls are hopping up and down.

As the plane comes in and deplanes, and we keep getting the same questions over and over again about boarding, I have a renewed energy in what I'm doing.

The Fatal Nut lady decides to risk her son's life by boarding the flight amidst the peanut threat, the girls think I'm their new best friend and I've calmed Dad down. If he thinks his kids are upset now, wait til they get to the mouse house and figure out that you needed to plan the Character Breakfast no later than 90 days ago.

Sometime during Pluto's Princessless Bucket O Chicken lunch, he'll figure out what a toddler meltdown really is. If he's lucky enough to get overpriced tickets to that.



:ph34r:

The moral of this story?
People look crazy talking on Bluetooth, The Peanut Allergy drama is overrated, and DO NOT give me unnecessary drama after ten pm when I am Starbucks deficient.

The end!
 
<SNIP>
P: How do you know
SNN: The pilot just called in range
P: Well can't you just ask him
Can’t you just call the pilot back since you just had him on the phone?

LOLZ, gotta love those Kettles! Oh, wait, I got in trouble the other day calling them that. I need to use their Indian name “Opens Lav Door With Ashtrayâ€￾.
 
Ah Disney, every American family must make a Disney pilgrimage.

My 19 year old is a Disney College Intern at Disneyland where she's a lifeguard. One of her fellow interns is a parking attendant and he had a problem with guy blocking traffic and refusing to move. The intern asked him twice to move out of the way, the guy refused and then called the intern a few nasty names.
The intern asked the little girl in the back seat her name, she says "Samantha" the intern then says, "Well Samantha, if Daddy doesn't move his car from the fire lane so other that people can park, you won't ever get to see Mickey Mouse again."

The child bust into tears, the Dad moved and then found a supervisor who listened to his story and then politely told the guy, "What did you expect, you were blocking traffic and you insulted my worker."
 
Thanks for the much needed laugh! :up:

Could be a repeat tonight. Looking at both CLT A330 inbound late. Any idea what happened on flight #705?
 
The Fatal Nut lady decides to risk her son's life by boarding the flight amidst the peanut threat, the girls think I'm their new best friend and I've calmed Dad down. If he thinks his kids are upset now, wait til they get to the mouse house and figure out that you needed to plan the Character Breakfast no later than 90 days ago.

Sometime during Pluto's Princessless Bucket O Chicken lunch, he'll figure out what a toddler meltdown really is. If he's lucky enough to get overpriced tickets to that.


This whole thing almost made me shoot a Golden Oreo out of my nose, especially this part. Thank you for the laugh. I have an 8 year old, so I've been tortured by the lack of a character breakfast AND by participating in one. I don't know which was worse. Actually, the worst of the trip was the five consecutive rides on "It's a Small World." Get me a gun.

Gate agents put up with a heck of a lot. They should make more money.

Those nut nuts are the worst. We were on the receiving end of a letter-writing and calling campaign from them before East Consumer Affairs closed. Just when we got them calmed down, the merger happened, and all of a sudden, nuts were back in the "tidbit" rotation. The nut nuts freaked out again.

p.s. I always hated the use of the word "tidbit," too. Might as well have called them "nibbly things" like Pats and Eddie on Ab Fab.
 
Thanks for the much needed laugh! :up:

Could be a repeat tonight. Looking at both CLT A330 inbound late. Any idea what happened on flight #705?
Diverted to LGW for MTC or something? Idk, but mtc fixed it and we got it out around 11ish. They told us we might have to use 275. I was prepared to cancel it at 6am. ugh...thank GOD that didnt have to happen
 
Thanks for all your hard work!

As a reserve I always make sure FRA and LGW are gone. It seems like lately one or the other has had a problem every night. One of the worse things that can happen is when they call in a whole crew late at night to restaff. Talk about drama. Take some of the most junior f/a's who have been up all day watching catcrew and put them on an aircraft they have never worked. I've seen people take no contacts rather than come in.
 
Here's an older one from another airline I worked for during a leave from some other uknown airline
- - -

Our airline had made some schedule changes that affected several flights out of our small station. To relieve our already flooded reservations agents, we happily accepted overtime making phone calls to those affected passengers notifying them of the changes.
We would disclose the change, the reason for the change, apologize and rebook. Passengers were usually willing to take an earlier or later flight and just appreciated the courtesy behind the phone call. Many of the calls were fielded by secretaries who merely accepted the information and passed it along to their boss, the traveler. Any fallout from that point, would be taken by the secretary. It seems harsh to say, but in this industry we are walking scapegoats who never fully heal from the last brutal verbal beating by the time the next one’s being dealt.

One day started off particulary easy, with pleasant voices and answering machines. Who could have guessed that the next phone call I made would start routinely and end in more chaos than I’d ever seen in the terminal?

I sipped my coffee nonchalantly as I waited for the line to be picked up. I was fairly sure that this was going to be an answering machine, but on the fifth ring, a woman picked up.

I identified myself as calling from the airline and asked if I could speak to a Mr. Brown regarding the itinerary he had purchased for tomorrow.

The woman identified herself as his wife, so I greeted her and began to relay the information on the flight cancellation and rebooking options. I informed her that since they had purchased the romance package, I was willing to rebook them into first class as compensation for the inconvenience. As I was trying to pull availability from Chicago to Rome, she interrupted me and told me that first of all, she and her husband were not traveling to Rome, and secondly, he was alone and scheduled to travel to Chicago only for a week-long business conference.

I apologized and read the address in the reservation and the last four digits of the credit card used, which the woman confirmed as belonging to her husband’s place of business. I paused and asked her “Are you Mrs. Smith?â€￾

Silence.

“Ma’am?â€￾ I asked , fearing that I had lost the connection.

After a few more moments of silence, she said matter-of-factly, “No, I am certainly not Mrs. Smith. Does your screen say “Amanda Smith?â€￾


“Yes,â€￾ I replied, confused. “I’m sorry, I thought I was speaking to Mrs. Smith because the package was booked using a corporate card in her name and Mr. Brown’s frequent flier database lists his wife as Amanda Smith. There must be a mistake. Do you have the contact information for that passenger? Perhaps reservations got the name incorrect..â€￾

There was more silence. Suddenly, I heard the phone drop to the floor and the woman’s voice yelling “Get in here Marcus Brown, you lying sonofabitch!â€￾

I pressed my ear into the phone as close as possible. She was still yelling but I couldn’t make out what was being said. I looked around the office to find that I was the only one left making calls, so I punched the speaker button.

I leaned forward and strained to hear more, unsure if I should disconnect or hold the line.

The only words I could definitively make out where curse words. She tended to favor “son-of-a-####â€￾, and used “####â€￾ liberally. Finally, I heard some deeper muffling that I presumed to be the voice of Mr. Brown.

As I waited , my mind couldn’t help but ponder what was going on or who Amanda Smith was. It clearly wasn’t his wife! The reservation was for a romantic getaway to Rome. Perhaps it was his coworker and they were taking a vacation to secretly frolic on the company dime! Maybe she was the babysitter!

Noting that the reservation was booked on a corporate card, I decided that my money was on her being the secretary and him being the womanizing boss.

The little soap opera in my head was interrupted by a furious Mrs. Brown returning to the line . She wanted to know if I had conference call abilities, and if I could conference in Mrs. Smith.

I thought about that for a second. I definitely had the capability, but did I have the guts? Of course! It was just getting good!

I told her that I could, but that I would have to speak to the other passenger and get their permission first. I asked her what, exactly,was the purpose of the conference call?

“I would like for you to call that whore and tell her that her flight has been changed. I will give you the phone number to the office - - MARCUS! GET AWAY FROM ME!! I WILL CUT YOU!!â€￾ - - I will give you her phone number.â€￾ Mrs. Brown said, her fury radiating through the receiver.

“Unfortunately, I can’t say exactly that, so why don’t I just call her directly and make her aware of the change..â€￾ I replied, dying to make the phone call but knowing it would be unprofessional.

2

Suddenly, I heard a scuffle, and Mr. Brown’s voice pleading, “Baby, please!! Put down the phone and let’s talk for a minute...â€￾

I strained to hear more, but jumped back when the thunderous voice of Mrs. Brown came through the speaker screaming

“DO NOT GET ANY CLOSER TO ME, I WILL CHOKE YOU WITH YOUR CHEATING (peepee)!! EVEN THOUGH IT IS ONLY FOUR INCHES!! I BETTER GO GET ME AN AIDS TEST NOW, YOU’D HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF PUTTING IT IN A LAWN MOWER! YOU STUPID , STUPID ####!!!â€￾

I muted the phone and almost spat coffee everywhere. I looked around the empty office for something to clean my white shirt off with.

“HELLLOOOO?â€￾ Mrs. Brown bellowed into the speaker.

“I’m still here.â€￾ I said timidly.

“Can you dial the damn number or not?â€￾ she hissed “HELLO?â€￾

I realized the phone was still muted. I stuttered an apology and grabbed a pen to write the number.

She began to speak into the phone again, but was constantly interrupted by her husband

“It’s 9-1-0..MARCUS I SWEAR I WILL CUT YOU!!
Baby, you don’t have to do this, let’s go out to breakfast and talk it over. I’ll take you to -
I DON’T WANT NO DAYUM BREAKFAST ! GO SPEND YOUR KIDS MONEY AND TAKE THAT OFFICE WHORE TO BREAKFAST!â€￾
Baby, don’t call her a whore...let’s be reasonable
OH! HELL NO!!

...and then the phone made a whirling noise, and then a crashing noise as if it had been thrown and then the line went dead.

I said “Hello?â€￾ a few times until I heard the dial tone. I looked at the phone in disbelief. I looked around at the empty office. I looked at the coffee-stained floor and my stained white shirt.

I was disappointed that the line had gone dead, and selfishly wondered how I would explain the shirt and coffee-splattered floor. I realized that the phone call had just disrupted an entire family with children and possibly someone’s job, so decided to just document the record and move to the next call.

3
It was then that I noticed the secondary number appeared to be his office number with the intials A.S. next to it as a point of contact.

Dare I dial that number?

I’d love to say that it was my stellar customer service that drove my decision towards making that phone call. Instead, it was my lust for juicy drama.

I dialed the number and , just as expected, the greeting I received was sprinkled with sunshine .

“Am I speaking with Amanda Smith?â€￾ I asked

“Yes, this is Amanda. How can I help you today?â€￾ she happily answered

She didn’t sound a day older than 19.

I identified myself as calling from the airline and told her about the changes to the itinerary.

“I see.â€￾ she said sweetly. “I have provided his home phone number. He won’t be coming in today and won’t take calls from the office when he’s at home, so would you mind calling him for me?â€￾

“Sure...â€￾ I said, “I already called Mr. Brown...â€￾ I let my sentence trail off because I had no idea what to say.

“You DID?â€￾ she squealed delightfully

“Yes...â€￾ I answered, still processing her strange reaction

“Did his WIFE answer?â€￾ she asked in excitement

Now it was my turn to be silent.

“I’m not really sure who his wife is at this point.â€￾ I answered awkwardly



“Well, technically, she is, but he totally said he was going to leave her. I’m totally the one going to Rome with him though, so whatever. I’m tired of him , he is obviously going to stay with her. Which doesn’t make sense because she’s so fat.â€￾


I apologized for the inconvenience and hung up.