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“These tickets haven't been validated. They are no good for this flight”.
“But we already gave these to the woman at the counter and she checked us in.”
“No, you'll need to get them validated before I can let you board.”
“Okay, so where do we go to get them validated.”
“At the airline office. There's one in downtown Rome.”
“But our flight leaves in one hour. There's no way we can get downtown and be back in
time to board the plane.”
“That's right. You will probably miss your flight.”
AtthispointIamstartingtoloseitandmysenseofoutrageisrisingtolethallevels.Pamel-
bows me out of the way and pursues a totally different tack. She smiles sweetly and speaks
to the ogre in gentle, dulcet tones.
“I think there may have been some misunderstanding here. We were already checked in to
the San Francisco flight and just wanted to make a minor change in where we picked up
our luggage. But, really, it's not that important. It sounds like it would be inconvenient for
everyone, so why don't we just let it go. Would that be okay?”
The bouncer toys with us for another minute while he rifles through the tickets one more
time.Then,hehandsthembacktous,andtellsusthatitwouldprobablybeokay.Hewishes
us a safe trip, and Pam thanks him and smiles sweetly again. Meanwhile I keep replaying
alternate versions of the event in my mind where I bring down the giant with a swift kick
to the groin followed by a devastating blow to the jaw.
After my rage settles from a boil to a simmer, I'm humbled by my wife's skill in quickly
grasping the nature of the situation while I was only digging a deeper pit. Somehow she
understood that this guy was not someone who ever made things better for anyone, only
worse. He was the kind of customer service representative that a neighborhood loan shark
might send out when someone asks for better terms. He holds your arm behind your back
and twists until you agree that the present terms are fine just the way they are. Then he lets
you go and you consider yourself lucky. Just the way we felt as we boarded our flight.
For a while I considered writing to the airline to complain. Then I realized that they had
hired and trained him. And I had to admit it was a very effective way to deal with com-
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