Rock you like a hurricane
Feb. 17th, 2004 06:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyranoYesterday was not much fun. Since lots of people were at class, a suddenly assigned mandatory training (which I scheduled for when I wasn't at work, in order to avoid screwing up the work day) and so I started out at Gate 87A, in the main terminal, which is 'point of first contact' for most of our passengers.
On slow days, you have to stand there all day and say 'Don't forget to take the bus or you'll miss your flight and then you'll be sad' over and over.
On miserable days, like yesterday, you have to rebook passengers who missed their flights, monitor delayed flights, keep in constant communication with Operations and the various gates, help customers on Big United who can't find a United agent to talk to, call for wheelchairs for passengers, and stand there all day and say 'Don't forget to take the bus or you'll miss your flight and then you'll be sad' over and over.
And also explain to the couple travelling with two kids that, since they're travelling on the last day of a three day weekend, there are no planes with enough seats to get them to Eureka until tomorrow and since their plane was delayed due to the weather, United is only going to provide them with a 'Distress Rate' for their hotel room.
(Topic for discussion at some point--people who have kids and take them travelling tend to assume this gives them extra privileges that other people don't get.)
And there were a pile of other frustrating things that I don't want to try to explain. My supervisor approved me taking off a half hour early, once the afternoon crew arrived, and I blew out before I blew up.
I climbed the eight stories to the top of the parking garage, where the wind was howling and the rain was spitting, and I went through a few quick Tai Chi routines, saying 'You caused all this unhappiness, you take it back'. And after about twenty minutes, much calmer and more pleasant and exhausted and wet and cold, I climbed back down the stairs and drove home.
On slow days, you have to stand there all day and say 'Don't forget to take the bus or you'll miss your flight and then you'll be sad' over and over.
On miserable days, like yesterday, you have to rebook passengers who missed their flights, monitor delayed flights, keep in constant communication with Operations and the various gates, help customers on Big United who can't find a United agent to talk to, call for wheelchairs for passengers, and stand there all day and say 'Don't forget to take the bus or you'll miss your flight and then you'll be sad' over and over.
And also explain to the couple travelling with two kids that, since they're travelling on the last day of a three day weekend, there are no planes with enough seats to get them to Eureka until tomorrow and since their plane was delayed due to the weather, United is only going to provide them with a 'Distress Rate' for their hotel room.
(Topic for discussion at some point--people who have kids and take them travelling tend to assume this gives them extra privileges that other people don't get.)
And there were a pile of other frustrating things that I don't want to try to explain. My supervisor approved me taking off a half hour early, once the afternoon crew arrived, and I blew out before I blew up.
I climbed the eight stories to the top of the parking garage, where the wind was howling and the rain was spitting, and I went through a few quick Tai Chi routines, saying 'You caused all this unhappiness, you take it back'. And after about twenty minutes, much calmer and more pleasant and exhausted and wet and cold, I climbed back down the stairs and drove home.
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-17 08:47 am (UTC)And AUGH, the 'i have kids, i'm SPESHUL' attitude makes me want to stab them in the head.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-17 04:00 pm (UTC)I mean, it's great that people are nice to you when you have a baby that can't sit on their own, but once you have to pay for the kid to have their own seat, they're just another passenger, dammit.
*Watched an utterly ill-behaved family on one of those holiday flights whilst holding a good, sleeping baby*
Re:
Date: 2004-02-17 04:06 pm (UTC)I mean, I sure don't mine people with small kids boarding early. When I'm getting on a plane, I'm carrying several things. I don't want a rugrat falling, getting stepped on, lost, whatever. but damnit, listen to the nice people asking you to GO BOARD WITH YOUR RUGRAT. don't get all pissy because you werne't listening and then demand special attention.