24 June 2007

Military Travel


We can all relate to Calvin.

This is how the airlines make you feel sometime. I believe that the Department of Defense (DoD) has a deal with the airlines. The more connections and longer delays, the cheaper the flight. We had four connections coming, and leaving- two days late.

Hmm...sounds like the $200 toilet seats from the 1980s. Someone's hand is getting greased in this deal. And it's not me.

We feel like Calvin on the ground and the Airlines are Hobbes. You are at the whim of them. Pay homage to us, or we will bump you and lose your luggage. Well, you have already done both, so they need to come up with something else to torment us with.

They have, hand over your dime-sized chap-stick. You might be MacGyver and do something with it on the plane.

We were supposed to leave on Friday, now it's Sunday. It's not looking good:

1. The first flight leaving this AM was two hours late leaving.
2. Hortense (made up name of the ticket agent) said my bag was overweight. I saw the scale, 53 lbs. Apparently 50 lbs is max. She wasn't budging. Well, add an 'l' to the word and her shirt and belt were but that's another story.
3. Even when I asked for some slack since UNITED AIRLINES lost my luggage coming here for three days. Nope, Nada, Nyet, Zilch, Zero. She gave me a bag to empty some stuff out. How nice of her!
4. UNITED AIRLINES had that big glitch this past Thursday where 250,000 people were stranded/backed up due to a computer glitch. Hmm...
5. The bumping has now begun. There are seven of us flying back. Two were bumped to tomorrow. No explanation, just a hotel voucher and $20 in meal vouchers.
6. We overheard the next UNITED flight announced that it was overbooked and looking for volunteers. Hmm...
7. When I asked Hortense (again, not her real name) about our flight, she replied "The computers say it's on time". The same computer that ran a smooth operation this past Thursday for United. Hmm...

Why get upset. It's your tax dollars at work (mine, too). I'm sitting here getting paid by the DoD because the Airlines can't get their act together.

I will probably never see that little bag with my uniforms and boots again. I think I see Rudy (Not his real name) trying on my boots.

Maybe I can catch a flight on Aeroflot...

1 comment:

Rebekah said...

$20 doesn't go very far for meals. We are anxiously awaiting your return.....

This "One weekend a month, two weeks a year" deal.....THEY LIE. Your two weeks is turning into a month (I'm factoring in the "extra trips" you've had to take to prepare for all this hurry-up-and-wait time on the government's dime and the frustration of all the hassles on your end, and mine), not to mention your "all expense paid 'vacations'" to places we won't even mention here. :^)

Hope you get home soon! We miss you.