Perhaps it’s because travel stresses us out. Perhaps it’s because many aspects of travel cut so close to the bottom of our personal Maslow’s Need Hierarchy (food, shelter, security). Perhaps it’s because travel so often is imbued with our hopes (I’ll sell $2M to the prospect in Topeka!) and dreams (Tuscany at last!).
Whatever the reason, people seem to get VERY PASSIONATE about their bad travel experiences. Mine? How ’bout the support guy named “Chris” in Madras informing me that I am “Veeeerrrrryyyy happpppeeeee” that Delta took my miles transfer money instantly but would not be transferring the miles for a couple of weeks, or our interesting and loosely defined-by-Delta weekend in Cleveland*.
Bill Baker is so passionate about his bad experience with JetBlue that he’s suing them in small claims court and blogging about it! What fun. In Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody, he explains how the internet made it possible for vengeance to be wrought (against all likelihood) after a cell phone was stolen. Let’s see how Bill does vs JetBlue now that he’s got Time’s Person of the Year (You) and me on his side.
* Ahh, Cleveland. It’s actually a fun city, with many inner-city neighborhoods experiencing a revitalization that extends to their nightlife…or so we hear. We were flying up Thursday, early enough to hit a jazz club and then explore some cool ‘hoods before heading to rural Ohio later Friday for an event. When we got to the departure gate, we were all informed that there’d be a 20 minute delay b/c the crew was coming off another plane. OK, cool. Some time later, we were all informed that they had LOST THE CREW. They thought they were in the building; it’d be another 20 minutes. Long story short, they 20 minutes-ed us into several hours during which they found the crew! they lost them agan! they were getting another crew! the other crew was making its way to us! Finally we boarded and prepared to push back. And a maintenance guy appeared in the front of the plane and had some convo with the cockpit. Guess what? They had taken so long to get us a crew, that the plane would not make it back to Atlanta in time for a government mandated service window. The pilot actually took a stand for the forces of good; he came on and said something about it not being fair and him taking us to Detroit anyway (what???) and they’d just have to service the plane there. He lost. Delta asked us all to troop a couple of concourses down to another plane we could use. At this point, it was going to be too late to go out in Cleveland, so we tried to rebook for the morning, figuring we’d save the cost of a night’s hotel, get a good night’s sleep at home, and start fresh in the morning. Oh, no, Delta would not allow that. So we go to the other concourse, and guess what? We lost the crew. We could see the plane out on the tarmac, but all its lights were off and there were no Delta employees anywhere. In the end, we got to Cleveland around 2 am, on a flight originally scheduled to arrive around 6:30 pm.
I asked James why they couldn’t get us a plane/crew and delay a different flight, minimizing the pissed-off-ness of both crowds. He wisely explained that it was in Delta’s best interest to REALLY piss off the passengers who were already pissed off than to slightly piss off more people. He explains it better.
But wait, there’s more!
Our return trip was scheduled for Sunday evening around 6:30. Yes, they do a round trip from Atlanta to Cleveland and back. Or they would if they ever got their shit together. Sure enough, the plane from Atlanta was delayed. The gate agent told us it would probably depart around 2 am (how often do they screw this route up that they know what horrific time it will actually occur?) When pressed, the agent admitted that the chances of a plane flying from Cleveland to Atlanta at 2 am were “very small”. He agreed to put us up at the Fairview Park Ramada, which includes a club called “Froggys”. I’m not sure when those photos were taken, but it was evidently before the mold/beer/cigarette smoke/filth/bedbugs/Stevens party arrived. But at least they were finally honest about the fact that Delta does not give a crap about its Atlanta/Cleveland route.
That’s one of Bill’s points on his blog: if you aren’t going to service a route properly, don’t service it at all. Rock on, Bill!!!
Originally found on brandflakesforbreakfast.
