Comfort in Chaos

You may have watched the television show, America’s Dirtiest Jobs. The host participates in gross, dirty jobs in a reality show format. Working for an airline may not be physically dirty, but it would classify as mentally dirty. A lot of angry people are stuck in airports because of delayed flights, missing their connecting flights and cancelled flights. And I was one of those displaced travellers.

Orrin, a United Airlines ticket agent in SFO is my new hero. Orrin, went above and beyond the call of duty. He helped turn a bad situation for me into a much better one.

I landed in San Francisco 20 minutes after my flight was to take off for Philadelphia, but was holding out hope that it was delayed and I would miraculously make the flight. As I ran into the terminal the reader board said that a US Air flight was leaving in 30 minutes. United and UA Air have an agreement that sometimes will let a traveller fly on the other airline.

I ran across the airport to the US Air gate and the ticket agent said there was a seat available, but United needed to pay for the ticket before she assigned me the seat. She told me to run as fast as I could to United’s customer service because they would begin boarding in five minutes. I ran through the airport to United.

Orrin, the ticket agent said it was already closed and he couldn’t get me on it. As his fingers tapped on the keyboard, he just kept shaking his head no. Finally, he handed me a receipt and said he didn’t know if it would work, but to tell US Air that he just put it in the computer. He said if it didn’t, to come back and he would assign me a seat for the next flight.

I ran back to US Air and they told me the ticket hadn’t been reimbursed. Finally she agreed to give me a boarding pass. I made my meeting with 10 minutes to spare.

When I reached my hotel there was an email from United Airlines apologizing for the delay. They sent a link for me to complete a form with my feedback. I usually don’t take the time to do that, but today I wanted to be sure Orrin was rewarded for his effort. I completed the form. At the end of the form it thanked me for taking the time to give them feedback and offered me a $75 credit on my next flight. I didn’t expect to be thanked for thanking them, but it was a nice surprise.

In giving and to Orrin for making the skies a little friendlier,

Robin