I'm travelling to Virginia for business. I had a flight from Columbus to Charlotte. And then I had a quick run through the airport from gate E18 to E27 to get to get on another flight to Norfolk. When I arrived at the gate, the door was closing so I ran up to it and knocked. Nobody came back. I knocked a few more times... nobody. By this point, I was a little anxious, but I saw the airplane was outside the window getting fueled up and prepped for flight. Please note that I (honestly) made it to my gate at 10:58am. I know this because I checked my watch. The flight wasn't set to depart until 11:14am, so there was PLENTY of time for the "gate keeper" to come back and check the door one more time before they pull the sky walk away from the plane.
As I waited, I saw the fuel truck get packed up, pull away, and the ground crew was disconnecting hoses and finishing their prep work of the plane. I realized that my flight is going to be pulling out soon and nobody has come to the door yet. It's now 11:10am. I'm making quite a ruckus at the gate door. The sky walk is still connected to the plane, so I begin kicking the door, and pounding on it. I even go to the window and put my ticket up and wave it back and forth in hopes that the pilot will see me. Nobody sees me.
Eventually, the walk way begins to back up away from the plane and the pilot comes to the door to give the thumbs up to the crew on the ground. They cabin crew begins to pick up the steps to close the door to the plane. They forgot me! The witnesses at the gate are now on my side. I'm pretty upset by this point and I"m pacing back and forth trying to make sense of it all. I finally give the door one more last (hard) set of kicks.
FINALLY!!! A woman comes to the door and says:
"I"m sorry sir, this flight has already been boarded." -- Jessica O.
I was shaking by this point and I'm sure my face was red. I was clearly here in enough time, there were 3 witnesses at the gate that were charging their laptops that saw the whole thing unfold. The bottom line is that she didn't do her job and check the door one last time before she signed off. I don't go off on tangents and bitch at people, and I never yell. I stayed (somewhat) cordial to her, but also let her know that she screwed up and not me. It was HER fault that I missed my flight. Yes, I'm passing blame. :( She insisted that it was my fault and that she was already holding the plane up. Bull! That plane sat there for very long time and could have allowed me to walk on it at anytime. The witnesses at the gate even spoke up for me as I had my head on her desk in disbelief. They said that I'd been sitting here for a long time.
She was convinced that she was right. Therefore, I let her believe it and just kept my cool as she rescheduled me for a 2:01 flight... plenty of time to blog my experience and cool down.
1 comment:
Wow! I was mad. :)
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