Sunday, August 1, 2010

our travels to portland

After a lovely weekend in Loveland, CO celebrating a wedding, getting to see/meet family, and enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather, we are now stuck at the airport. We flew out from Colorado this morning and landed in San Francisco around 9:45 a.m. We immediately went to the gate, checked everything out, and then headed to get some coffee. They began boarding and we were group 4 so we ran to the restroom. I’m never in a hurry to get on a plane where I feel like I can’t move or breathe. We began walking back to the gate, knowing full well that we were getting ready to get on that plane. We walked up and boarding was done. The clock said 10:30 a.m. and our flight departed at 10:42 a.m. We stood at the desk and then came miss sunshine from out of the gate.

We asked nicely, “Can we still board?”

She said abruptly, “I think the door is already closed.” (as if we were disturbing her…. no, lady, this is your job)

She, then, began to type some things on the computer. After that, she picked up the phone and mumbled a few words that definitely left no reply for anything on the other end of the conversation.

We are standing there in disbelief. I mean, honestly … we cannot board our plane, it’s sitting right there, and nothing is happening.

She hung up the phone and said, “Yeah, they’ve already closed the door. Are you Westbrook?”

“Yes,” we replied.

She said, “Well, we’ve been calling your names and paging for you all.”

Colt said, “We were in the bathroom.”

“Well, I’m sorry, you can’t board.”

“I mean, I can still see the plane; it’s still there. Are you serious? We can’t board?” (it’s only 10:35 a.m. at this point and p.s. you can’t hear them paging in the bathroom)

She said, “No, the door is already closed.”

We proceeded to stand there as she was ‘figuring things out’ while watching our plane sit there.

Another employee walked up and she commented to him, “Yeah, they missed the flight. I mean, we kept calling and calling and calling and they never showed up.”

YES, WE REALIZE THAT LADY. AND WE’RE STANDING RIGHT HERE.

Anyway, we ended up standing in a customer service line for about an hour and a half to get all of this fixed. It was pretty terrible, but the lady behind us looked like Danielle from New Jersey Housewives and acted like her too. It made things kind of interesting. It ends up that we’ll be heading to Portland at 10:30 p.m.

Now, let’s talk about it. Yes, I understand there is a rule that you cannot board the plane once they have closed the door. I’m aware. However, her response that she ‘thinks’ the door is closed indicated to us that she was already set on not helping us. That’s issue #1. A normal, nice human would have immediately called to check and see if there was any possible way for us to board. She decided to waste our time by fake typing on the computer and fake talking on the phone. My next guess, issue #2, is that she saw a young couple with coffee in hand rushing up to the desk and thought it’d be really great to make our day miserable by ‘teaching us young kids a lesson.’ I promise I’m not an old, crotchety, negative woman. I'm just mad.

And, issue #3, if the gate was really closed, why was it closed 12 minutes before departure? After my ‘status update’ on facebook, I have been assured that there are plenty of people that have boarded planes in way less than 12 minutes from departure. That makes it pretty frustrating.

However, we are now sitting in a food court and had eating sushi and miso soup for lunch, which was wonderful. And, hey, being stuck at the airport for an extra 12 hours with your husband isn’t so bad!

So, desk lady… JOKE’S ON YOU! I’m having a fun morning/day/night in the airport with my husband and I’m going to eat lots of yummy food that’s bad for me and have coffee and ice cream and lots of sweets. So there.

2 comments:

  1. Claire... you make me laugh!!!
    The poor desk lady was just probably having a bad day... and you're NOT!!! In the end, you'll get to Portland; booom desk-lady!
    San Francisco is a beautiful city anyways, you're surrounded by beautiful ocean, little mountains and pretty bridge. Aaaaand at a really cool airport. Can't wait to see you & Westie-man. :)

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  2. Oh Claire. That sucks. I hate that they did that to you!

    We had a similar flight experience and I'm pretty sure it was the same airline as you guys... we had our flight time wrong and we only had about 15 minutes before the flight. BUT we WERE flying International and we were at the front desk. As in, we hadn't even gone through security. So I kind of understood that.

    But a few months ago I landed late in the Dallas airport late and I literally ran to the plane. And I boarded about 5 minutes before the door closed. And guess what? The door closed AT THE TIME of the flight. So that is ridiculous. I can't believe that lady did that.

    But anyway, give the Watsons our love and have fun!

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