The Crazy Traveler

Confessions of an Airline Ticket Agent

Ahhh...I love this article sent to me from my friend Stephanie. Here's the beginning of this article below. Just click on the link here or below to read the full post. It's eye opening!!!

Confessions of an Airline Ticket Agent

By TERRY WARD

Air travel these days can be as chaotic and draining as a four year old’s birthday party -- without the goody bags, er, in-flight meals, no less.

But before you lose your cool with a ticket agent in the heat of a cancelled connection moment, think twice.

Those arrangers of seating assignments and labelers of luggage hold more than just your boarding pass in the palms of their quickly typing hands. Depending on your attitude, a ticket agent can turn out to be your best friend.

Or your worst travel nightmare.

We recently dished with a ticket agent with nearly two decades of experience working for a major U.S. airline. In between putting out customer service fires at a Midwestern hub, here's what he had to say:

Payback For Rude Passengers

Click here to read more.

Direct - a post from Brock Gill

My friend, Brock Gill, travels a lot like I do. He's been in some crazy situations. He posted this blog below on his website about a recent trip on Southwest Airlines. It's very interesting and I completely understand what is going on in this story. You can read his blog here and his website is www.brockgill.com.

direct    

             

      i had the chance to hear a conversation with an employee of southwest airlines and the family in line ahead of me this week. the family was upset because they had bought a ticket from nashville to norfolk and thought that it was direct. the guy from southwest said that it was direct. the only problem was that for passengers getting on the plane to go to norfolk they first had to go with the rest of us to baltimore. the family said, "sir it is not direct". southwest said, "sir, it is direct but not nonstop". i listened and thought that it sounds like the same thing. after the argument finished i boarded the plane and headed for baltimore. i felt bad for the family of four who bought direct flights to norfolk. i actually heard southwest say that passengers going to tampa had to go to baltimore then norfolk, then tampa. how can that be a direct flight? it sounds like a deceptive way to sell tickets to me.

am i the only one who is confused about this? i decided to find out what the dictionary said about the word direct. here is what i found.
direct–adjective
14. proceeding in a straight line or by the shortest course; straight; undeviating; not oblique: a direct route.
15. proceeding in an unbroken line of descent; lineal rather than collateral: a direct descendant.

direct means exactly what i thought it meant. i guess the airlines have invented a new meaning that only serves to deceive passengers.

if i am going directly home from work i am not going to go the opposite direction and stop at wal-mart, drop off a passenger, wait for them in the parking lot as they shop, then go home. if i want to take a direct trip to the bathroom i am not going to go to the mailbox first. if i wanted to go to tampa on a direct flight i shouldnt have to go to baltimore then norfolk first. THATS NOT DIRECT. how stupid are these people?

for all of you frequent travelers who know about direct flights maybe you can share your insight. when i tell my travel agent to book me a direct flight to somewhere i expect to go there without other places first. my travel agent understands this. i think that anyone with an i.q. of 50 or more would believe that a direct flight is direct. i just hate seeing people taken advantage of. i hope that this is a warning to all travelers who buy tickets on southwest airlines.

i need some comments now    

   

              

posted by Life with Brock Gill at 10:37 PM        

How Many People Are On A Flight In At Any One Time?

A friend of mine told me that there are 65,000 in the air on a flight at any one time. So I'm trying to google  this and have found a couple of more places where people have said this. Is it true? Do you think so? As much as I travel, I think this could very well be true. It's an impressive number. What do you think?