Yesterday was one of those days when nothing happened the way I anticipated it should or would happen. I was scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Houston this week. However, since I had been out of my office all of last week and several days the week before that, I needed to transact some business that could only be transacted from my office. For one thing, I had credit card receipts I needed to code and get turned in to business operations. Some of the receipts were in my office. Others were in my car. Consequently, I left my house at 6:00 a.m. on Monday morning headed to Round Rock rather than to Houston.
In the early morning hours, while driving to Round Rock, I revisited Sunday’s dinner conversation with my daughter, son-in-law and the General the evening before. The content of our conversation was rolling around in my head. Did Kevin really say that a physician had been forcibly removed from a United Airline Flight from Chicago to Louisville, KY simply because the airline wanted to make room for a non-ticketed employee to take his seat?
Actually, according the story Kevin shared, four ticketed and seated passengers where chosen at random by the airline to forfeit their seats to accommodate airline employees needing to get to another destination. Apparently, if you read the fine print, the airline has the wherewithal to make those determinations. Wouldn’t you know it? Big business always wins.
If you ask me, the 69-year-old physician has a very real basis to file a malpractice suit against the airline. He responded to the demand that he disembark the plane by saying something closely akin to: “I can’t and won’t do it. I have to get home. I already have patients scheduled for tomorrow. I have a professional and ethical responsibility to them. You’ll have to select someone else”.
The poor man is almost my age. His determination to make the airline honor his ticket reportedly cost him two teeth, a brain concussion, and video footage of his being forcibly dragged lying on his back down the center aisle of the plane. It was not one of the finer moments for the airline. Probably the same could be said for the doctor.
Interestingly, as I stood in line to board my Kansas City-to-Austin flight Saturday afternoon, I vaguely heard some message being broadcast about a flight being over booked. Volunteers were being requested to wait until a later departure and cash-in on the benefits for doing so. I briefly gave it some thought and mostly ruled it out. After all, the following day was Easter. I had church responsibilities I needed to fulfill. I couldn’t easily delay my departure. As it turned out, the request for volunteers wasn’t for my flight. In fact, there weren’t that many people on the flight we shared from Kansas City to Austin.
As a rule of thumb, I always volunteer to forfeit my seat and get a free ticket. They say time is money, but when you are a social worker, there isn’t that much money involved. Seldom ever do I pass up an opportunity to forfeit my seat, get a free airline ticket and take a later flight. It just makes good business sense to do so. Besides that, you can count of me needing a ticket to go snow skiing. I guess you could say, “I’m a bargain hunter”. If I can save a dime, forfeit my ticket and get an extra flight out of the deal, it is generally well worth my time.
Are you ready for this? There were only forty-five passengers on the flight from Kansas City to Austin on Saturday afternoon. After I got over the subtle disappointment that I couldn’t forfeit my ticket and get a later flight and free ticket, I breathed a sigh of relief. I really needed to get back home. I really wanted to get back home.
When I checked in for my boarding passes for Saturday’s flight from Denver to Austin, I only looked at the first boarding pass. Can you believe it? It was number A-27. I was elated!
It wasn’t until I got to the Denver Airport on Saturday morning that I made the discovery that SWA had gotten my tickets out of order. Instead of boarding as passenger A-27 on my flight from Denver to Kansas City, I was numbered as passenger B-30. I guess it is a good thing that I had planned to check luggage.
The flight from Denver to Kansas City was a full flight. The second leg of the journey was a very different experience. In fact as we boarded the plane in Kansas City, airline attendants announced, “We have plenty of seats. Spread out if you like. Everyone can have a row to themselves if you want.” That was music to my ears! I picked an empty row and sat in the center seat. It was quite a contrast to recent experiences in flying.
Many years ago when I was doing my weekly commute from Midland-to-Austin or subsequently Dallas-to-Austin order to be a church in Henly on Sundays , I left Henly immediately after church in fog so heavy that it is almost impossible to drive. By the time I got to the Austin Mueller Airport, I was certain that I was too late to board. I turned in my rental car and scurried to check-in as quickly as I could. As it turned out, I was the last passenger to board. In fact there were no other passengers to be seen. As it turned out, I was passenger number three. Can you believe it? The flight crew outnumbered the passengers two-to-one.
The plane subsequently sat on the runway for a very extended period of time waiting permission to takeoff. Under the auspices of “there’s no place like home”, the flight crew wanted to get back to Dallas. It was a very enjoyable flight. Of course it was back in the day before electronics, so I didn’t have some of the essentials we have today to occupy myself, but I had all of the peanuts I could possible want. The airline attendant offered each of the passengers a large bag of peanuts. It worked for me.
Yesterday, I would have been better served to fly from Austin to Houston than to drive. As it turned out, I unknowingly embarked on a five and a half hour commute. It was beyond belief. Somehow you intuitively know that when you are in stop and go traffic (mostly stopped) on Hwy 71, there has been a horrible accident up ahead. Eventually the presence of five vehicles with flashing lights at an intersection was a clue that my suspicion was correct. The divided highway headed EAST had just been closed. Law enforcement officials had just begun directing traffic down a two- lane road to the south.
Wouldn’t you know it? As luck would have it, I was in the left lane. There was no way to turn right. Consequently I turned left on the two-lane road following the car in front of me. That driver was obviously as lost as me. Instead of it being a shortcut to Bastrop, it turned out to be a dead end (story of my life). We both retraced our steps and eventually joined the procession South on the two-lane road. It was also a stop and go (mostly stopped) experience. Did I mention it took me three hours to get from Austin to Bastrop? For a thirty mile commute, that is slow going.
As some point, I momentarily opened the sunroof of my car. As I looked up the dark clouds were threatening. I immediately closed the sunroof. Moments later it started raining heavily.
Whether by car or plane, travel isn’t always what you anticipate. I found myself praying for the unknown folks who were responsible for the delay. Instead of fretting that I was going nowhere, I was grateful I was not the responsible party who caused the crash.
All My Best!
Don
Carpe Diem 