March 28, 2006
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Sunday evening Alex discovered a heretofore unsuspected benefit of being in the military.
He was waiting at his gate at O'Hare for boarding to begin for the flight to Memphis when the person at the counter requested three volunteers to miss that flight, receiving as compensation a $250 voucher toward future travel plus hotel and expenses, seeing as how the next flight to Memphis wasn't until the middle of the next morning.
Having a muster at 7:30 a.m. so the brass quintet could drive to Nashville for an event, he remained silent. As did everyone else.
A little later the same voice came over the PA system, this time calling three names, one of them "Ivy." Alex groaned as he gathered his stuff and proceeded to the counter, where he was told, along with the other two names' owners, that as they'd been the last to check in, they were being bumped. Sorry. (BTW, considering the fact Alex checked in at 6:00 p.m. for a 7:39 p.m. flight, we find that a bit hard to swallow....he was one of the last passengers to check in? I doubt that.) In an indifferent voice the woman at the counter tendered the captain's apologies.
Alex irritably asked if the captain was prepared to tender his apologies and provide an explanation to his superiors in the Navy, as he'd obviously be unable to be at the 7:30 a.m. muster Upon hearing that, she asked (nothing gets past her, boy!) "You're in the military?" Alex fished out his military ID, whereupon he was waved away with the explanation, "Legally we can't bump military personnel. Never mind."
He said he did feel obliged to mumble an apology to the other two distressed passengers, both of whom pleaded business engagements the next morning in Memphis. Don't know if they managed to get on the flight or not.
Still, he said it's nice to know as a member of the military, he's unbumpable.
Comments (9)
Unbumpable, that's a wonderfully descriptive word!! I wish it applied to all the other types of bumps Alex and all other military will no doubt run into in their life!! Wouldnt that be great if we could be unbumpable. hmmm, no!!, kids already have enough trouble with being careful w/o being unbumpable. Can you imagine a teenager being that??? Horrors.
Oh yeah! The other two gentleman did get on the plane. All that for nothin' -Alex
Please, please, PLEASE tell me he wasn't wearing his uniform when she said, "You're in the military?"
No, he wasn't wearing his uniform.
That would have been Just Too Much.
I thought he HAD to wear the uniform "all the time".
Not when he's off duty. He can wear it then, but he's not required to.
I guess this wouldn't be a good time for a rant about how much I hate airlines, and about how in any other business if you were caught selling the same shares to two or three different people it would be called "fraud" and you'd be sent to prison, whereas in the airline industry it's called "overbooking" and it's standard procedure, and about how there's a good reason that these airlines can't stay in business even though every flight I'm on is completely full of paying passengers.
Nah, wouldn't be the place for that.....
You're right, John, but hey - how did you get to NYC the other week?
We all use 'em, even while we complain about them. There are other options, even if they're less "handy," although what's so handy about arriving 2 hours ahead of time, only to have your flight delayed, and then to miss your connecting flight and have ANOTHERlong layover - yeah, I don't know what's so handy about that! Last time I flew we quite literally could have driven in the same time.
Dumb.
me<><
You just go right ahead and rant, John...won't offend me any. You're right as rain!
Don, BTW, figures AA carefully chose the three least expensive ticket-holders to bump. Which makes a lot of sense, huh?
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