John

As most of you have seen on my blog, I recently got a job working for SkyWest, a regional carrier for United Airlines, as a Customer Service Agent.

Basically, I stand at the gate, make announcements, tag bags, and scan you onto the plane.

Going through training during the Thanksgiving Holiday has given us the opportunity to see all kinds of people though. Young people. Old people. Nice people. Mean people. Stupid people. et al. etc..

Displayed prominently on the ticket jackets for everyone who got their ticket printed at the airport is the info that you need to be at your gate 30 minutes prior to departure and that boarding starts 20 minutes prior to departure. For everyone, regardless of where you got your ticket, the departure screens all over the place tell you that doors close 10 minutes prior. Technically, if you are not there 30 minutes prior to departure, your reservation is subject to cancellation with no refund. It is the traveler’s responsibility to show up on time. As an airline, we are required to close the door 10 minutes prior to departure to ensure that the plane is able to actually leave at the scheduled departure time. One of the reasons we have to give this 10 minutes buffer is that things go wrong…

This is especially true during the holidays when many things go wrong.

So… when you run up to the gate screaming and waving your arms with 1 minute and 17 seconds left on your magic stopwatch that all of the airlines surely knows about and has sync’d their clocks you may very well see a plane sitting at the end of the jetway…

but it is not your plane…

What do TAISMUSEN (both mac addresses), Free Public Wifi, NCR-GCC-G9, INFOR2007, LA5757, and linksys all have in common?

They are all computer-to-computer network SSID’s broadcasting at the Marriott O’Hare in Chicago. The Marriott itself provides internet access via its local ethernet at $12.95 / day, but helpful individuals are apparently all to willing to share their connecting for free. Or are they?

(more…)

Pizza from Domino’s Pizza had a stated delivery time at order of 30-45 minutes. Delivery person did not arrive at hotel until 7 PM. Then lied to me and said he had been waiting down in the lobby for 20 minutes. offered no discount or other consideration for the lateness.

“Pillow Top” Mattresses. HA. perhaps they meant five year old pillows that have been run over repeatedly by a steamroller. The mattress I had to sleep on the first week had feathers coming out of it. Ever had feathers stick you leg at 2 AM? Pulled the sheets off the last night. Their idea of a pillow top mattress is a regular mattress with a thin, hard, compacted feather comforter on top of it.

High Speed Internet Available…. for a charge. In this day of ubiquitous internet access, the only places that charge for service are coffee shops like $tarbuck$ and larger airports. I have stayed at really ratty motels up to Double Tree guest suites in San Antonio and have never ONCE been asked to pay extra for internet access. Marriott? $13.00

per day. yeah, thats right, not a one-time per stay charge to connect your computer to their network, but $13.00 every 24 hours.

And dialing 1(800) CALL ATT? nope. not unless you left a credit card at the front desk. Here, they block your access to toll free calls unless you provide them with a means to charge you for those free calls.