Disclaimer: The following is written as per my personal experiences,
most of which was done while using American Airlines for my travel. It has not been
reviewed or approved by them. You should read it for entertainment and that alone.
I have been a loyal American Airlines traveler and will most likely remain so as
long as they provide the service they currently do for their loyal customers. After
discovering that they are NO longer serving food on the long flights like to Hawaii,
the loyalty may stop sooner than expected.
Being an American AAdvantage multiple million miler and having flown many miles
outside of the program, it was very difficult to choose a single travel story to
write about. I've been around the world twice, once in each direction. I've had my
luggage lost on a business trip to Japan when I was to be there for an 8 week stay.
My luggage has also been lost on a trip to Frankfurt, Germany. My laundry has been
lost and never found on a four-week business trip to Sydney. I've had dinner on the
tarmac at DFW while waiting 6 1/2 hours to have the plane deiced so we could depart.
I've sat in the fog in Houston for 3 1/2 hrs. waiting for the fog to lift. I've
departed Houston on Monday afternoon around 2:30 PM and arrived in Boston at 8 p.m.
on Wednesday night. I've been on a plane that made an emergency landing in Durbin,
Australia. I've been upgraded to a $1230 Marriott River Walk Suite in San Antonio
on a $59 room for two. I've been through Israel security twice going into and
returning from Israel long before 9/11. I've sweated going through the checkpoint
going into East Germany on my way to Berlin because of my previous high-level
government clearances. I tipped in East Berlin before the wall came down, and
wondered why the waiter was upset, not realizing until much later that it was
illegal in a Communist country. I've run out of cash in both West Berlin and
Honolulu. I've been hassled at customs entering Hawaii from Australia as I had
been warned would happen. I've lost my car in the Frankfurt Airport parking lot
when I didn't know any German. I've been in the men's restroom in Tokyo when
there were more female attendants than there were men. I've seen the pilot before
take-off come back and tell rowdy passengers to get their program together or he
would have them removed. I've swum in the Dead Sea and rode the three-wheel taxis
in Bangkok. I've driven from Frankfurt to Kalamata in southern Greece, from
Frankfurt to Bergen, Norway, and from Frankfurt to London. Holding a German
driver's license, I've enjoyed the pleasure of driving the German autobahns. I've
been checked into occupied rooms more than once, sometimes with the door chained
from the inside, and some when the door wasn't chained at all. I've arrived with my
family in San Francisco after a long flight from Hawaii with a paid confirmation for
rooms when there weren't any available. I've arrived on business trips with
guaranteed reservations where my credit card had already been charged, but there
were no rooms available. I've checked into small hotels when everything in the area
was booked and realized that the rooms weren't the best when the desk attendant
wanted payment before checking in and wanted to know if the rental was by the hour
or for the night. When diverted to another airport because of bad weather at DFW, I
saw a passenger order pizza and have it delivered to the plane while we were waiting
for the weather to clear at DFW. I've flown from San Francisco to Dallas by way of
New York City. I've seen airports that I really didn't want to see because of being
diverted because of weather at the desired destination, like Providence, Rhode
Island, Lawton, Oklahoma, Wichita Falls, Texas, Austin, and Las Vegas-where we
weren't allowed to deplane. I've arrived in customs at DFW from London at 6:20pm
and made a connecting flight in another terminal-with my luggage-at 6:32pm. I
ordered what I thought was sliced roast beef in a German Company cafeteria and had
sliced beef tongue. I ordered the special that I thought was pork roast in a German
restaurant and instead got headcheese. I learned to put out the "Do Not Disturb"
sign on my room in Germany and France if you didn't want one of the housekeeping
staff in your room before you are ready for them, and that includes turning the
shower off with you in it. I remember the "Your Someone Special Program" American
had for so long that was so "Special" for their loyal customers. But for a single
story that is most interesting, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, so
I'll try more than one.
In March 1989, I received a very
impressive looking letter from American Airlines
at Dallas/Forth Worth Airport, Texas. It was written by Michael Gunn, Senior Vice
President of Marketing. He was congratulating me on accomplishing what very few
travelers had achieved: more than one million miles in the American Airlines
AAdvantage program! He wanted to extend his personal thanks for my continued
support. To commemorate this achievement, American was sending me a special gift
under separate cover. I was excited. Would it be a set of luggage? Would it be a
pair of first class tickets to Hawaii or Europe? Would it be something like I had
received from my bank at Christmas, a smoked turkey packed in dry ice? I was really
high on believing that they were sending me something special in appreciation for
my loyalty, since I had steered thousands of dollars in travel money to American
Airlines.
A few years ago, I was on a non-stop flight from New York LaGuardia to Dallas
Fort Worth. The flight had been rather non-eventful until a little before scheduled
landing time. I noticed that we had already began our descent and didn't think much
about it until the pilot came on and told the flight attendants to prepare for
landing. At that time, I realized that the arrival gate had not been announced or
the connecting flights and gates provided for DFW, which was the usual procedure on
these flights. I looked out of the window of the plane and noticed that there were
trees in view, and lots of them. Having landed many times in DFW, I knew that we
WERE NOT at DFW. Shortly after touching down, the pilot came on and told us we had
landed, but we weren't at DFW, but had managed to land in Shreveport, Louisiana. We
taxied to the end of the runway and in a few minutes, a fuel truck approached and
was connected to the plane. After 7 minutes by my watch, the fuel truck detached
and drove away. The flight took off and we proceeded to DFW. We were NEVER given
any reason for the unscheduled landing in Louisiana and I was left scrambling to
catch another flight since I had missed my connecting flight.
Most of my flights have been without fear and most of them on time. However, one
such flight was not without fear nor was it on time. The flight was into my home
airport of Houston Hobby. It was the last flight of the night in late February.
Because of the closeness to the Gulf of Mexico, low visibility can occur because
of fog. On this night, the fog was at it thickest. It was difficult to see the end
of the wings of the plane. The runways at Houston Hobby are not the longest. On this
night, the approach was deathly quite. You could not hear a sound in the cabin made
by a human. The plane came in fast in case the pilot could not see the runway and
had to abort the landing. We came down, and down, and down. Then at what seemed
like the last minute, we felt the power and the plane began to climb. Still, there
was nothing said by anyone. Across the aisle from me was a black professional
football player. On this night, I believe he was as white as I was during this
episode. After a couple of minutes, and with the plane in a steep climb, a slow
talking pilot, most likely from Alabama or Georgia came on and began to speak. In a
very slow drawl, he said, "Well FOLKS, we missed it that time. We are going
to circle and try it again. If we miss this time, we are going to the
large Houston Airport on the north side and have you bussed back". I'm
sure if there had been a vote taken by the passengers on-board before the second
approach, we would have proceeded to the large airport and not tried the second time. This time, the approach was again very fast and I might add very, very quite in the passenger compartment. We did manage to safely land. There were some very happy passengers for being on the ground safely.
While working in Europe during the 80s, my company decided to send the employees
to Rome, Italy for a four-day weekend. They decided to distribute the employees
across several airlines and flights so that any disaster would not have destroyed
the entire team. I drew the flight that would fly the Italian airline with a switch
of planes in Milan. Upon arriving in Milan, we proceeded to the departure gate as
provided. We were told that there would be a delay and that boarding time wouldn't
be until 1 p.m. Since we had been traveling some time, we decided to get something
to eat. There was plenty of time before we had to return to the gate for the new
departure time. After a leisure lunch, we proceeded to return to the departure gate
as directed, arriving about 12:50, which was still ten minutes before boarding time
as has been announced. Upon arriving, we found that there were NO passengers at the
gate; only the gate agent. Being rather surprised, we asked the gate agent what was
happening since he had been the one who had told us to be back at 1 p.m. He proceeded
to tell us that it "looked like everyone was present", so they had boarded the
passengers and were in the last stages of preparing for take-off. He had to call
the plane to tell them to wait and send us out on a special bus to get us on board.
I had been told the Italians had some funny ways of doing things by American
standards, but this one I witnessed first hand.
I remember going to New York City one Sunday night back when the Dallas Cowboys
were an excellent team with a late game on ESPN. The plans were to arrive such that
I could enjoy the ball game. I arrived at my Hotel in Times Square, the Marriott
Marquis, one of the finest hotels in the country if not world. After checking in on
the 8th floor, I proceeded to my room to see the Cowboy game that was about to
start. Upon reaching my room that was several stories up, I found that the key I
had been given wouldn't open the door. I attempted to open it several times before
going back to the elevators to return to the eight floor to obtain assistance.
Security was summonsed to assist me. We proceeded to go back up to my assigned
room, but they couldn't open the door either. During this time, the ball game was
underway. We proceeded to return to the reservation desk to get another room. I was
assigned another room and I hurriedly proceeded to that room to try to get at least
the second half of the Cowboy game. This time, the key worked and I entered the
room. There was only one problem!!! I couldn't find the Cowboy game on the TV. I
called the front desk and was told that the cable was out in the hotel, and they
were very sorry. By this time, I was totally disgusted. I went to the bathroom to
get ready for bed. When I turned the water on, the faucet handle came off in my
hand. I managed to get it back in place enough to turn the water off. I called
house keeping and reported the problem. I was assured it would be corrected the
next day. The next afternoon, I returned to my room and proceeded to wash my face.
Guess what? The handle again came off as it had done the night before. After
getting changed, I thought I'd pay a visit to the hotel's customer service desk.
There was a very nice lady there who asked how I was doing, and when I started
telling her the story, she asked me to stop. She got a tablet and began taking
notes of all that had happened so far. She then told me she was sorry, and that
wasn't the Marriott way of doing business or treating their customers. She then
offered to "comp" the room for two nights, but since I was on expense account, that
wasn't any benefit to me. She then offered to give me a gift certificate at the
expensive restaurant there at the hotel. Again, since I was on expense account,
that wasn't any benefit. She asked what she could do for my inconvenience and I
told her to have house keeping leave me a small box of chocolates that I usually
received when I checked into the hotel. I was very impressed with how she had
handled the situation. The next day it dawned on me what I should have requested.
The next night after work, I decided to pay the customer service desk and the nice
lady another visit. When she saw me coming, she said something like, "Oh No, not
something else is there?" I told her that everything was going great, but wondered
it her offer from the previous night was still open. She told me that within reason,
the offer was still there. I told her that the next time I was in town, I thought
it would be very nice to have the Presidential Suite for my next trip's lodging.
She informed me that the Marriott Marquis didn't have a Presidential Suite, but
that there was the Suite that Bill Marriott stayed in when he was in town, and if
it were available, she would book me in there at my usual rate. In a couple of
weeks, I found I was going back to New York City for a trip and called and told her
I was coming. I was told the suite would be available and ready when I arrived.
When I checked in, the young man who checked me in took a look at the room, and
then looked at me and said, "Man, you've got some very nice accommodations this trip".
They were indeed nice. Bill Marriott travels in style.
On another trip to San Diego, I stopped at a local health store to purchase some
fruit for snacks. A nicely dressed elderly lady was in the checkout line ahead of me.
When her bill was totaled, she became very embarrassed. She was $1.29 short. I
didn't want to see her embarrassed or to be tied up in line, so I placed two
one-dollar bills on the counter. The elderly lady and the clerk both told me that
I couldn't do that. I assured them that I wasn't taking the money back. By this
time, several people were gawking, amazed that a total stranger would give someone
$1.29. Realizing that I meant what I said about the money, the lady asked for my
name and address so she could pay me back the $1.29. Rather than do that, I asked
that she repay me by someday helping someone in need as I had helped her. The
transaction was completed and the lady hurriedly exited the store. I then asked the
clerk for my change since I had given her $2. Well, apparently, she was so rattled
that she had given the change to the lady who had just left. That was one of the
best $2 expenditures I ever made, seeing the relief on the elderly lady's face and
the shock of everyone involved and watching.
My most told travel story is about a DFW departure late one night on American
Eagle returning to my home airport of Houston Hobby. This happened while Eagle was
flying the old propeller airplanes and the passengers were taken by bus from the
terminal out to the plane. Again, this night, it was the last flight of the night
and everyone was tired and ready to get home. The bus had taken a full load to the
plane and every seat on the plane was taken. We had stowed our carry on luggage and
were about ready to depart when the bus arrived with one additional passenger.
There was only one very LARGE problem. Every seat in the plane was already occupied
and there was another passenger on the bus waiting to board. After conversing with
the bus driver and back to the gate agent, the flight attendant asked for Mr.
Smoothie(fictitious name) to please push their flight attendant call button. No one
moved. After a few minutes, she repeated the announcement. Again, no one moved. The
flight attendant then became a little angry and stated that if Mr. Smoothie didn't
ring the call button, that they would be required to check identification. The
explanation given was that Mr. Smoothie was a non-revenue passenger and shouldn't
be on the flight. Again, no one moved. At this time, the flight attendant was quite
frustrated. She ordered everyone to produce his or her identification. She started
checking from the front of the plane and the bus driver began checking from the
rear. When they meet in the middle, neither had found Mr. Smoothie. About this
time, it dawned on them that maybe Mr. Smoothie--the non-revenue passenger--might
be the passenger in the bus waiting to board. Upon checking, they found that it was
the person they had been looking for and who was waiting to board the already full
aircraft. The flight attendant apologized several times for the delay and hassle,
and drinks were provided for all that desired without charge. This unnecessary
hassle delayed us about another hour!!!!
If one travels on a regular basis, expect the unexpected to happen, because it
will!
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In a few days, a small package arrived. I was still very excited even
though it was a rather small package. Upon opening the package, I COULD NOT believe
the special gift that I had received. It was a small paperweight with an AAdvantage
card enclosed showing that I had 1 million miles. I've told this story many times to
American employees and their response have almost always been unanimous. After
expressions of disbelief, they suggested that I return the paperweight to Mr. Gunn
and tell him to put it where the sun doesn't shine.
