Student Tops Profs

December 16, 2007

in Delay/Cancellation Stories

Arriving back in the U.S. on a trans-Atlantic flight, I arrived in Chicago just in time to get stricken from the list of passengers for the flight I’d booked. It was too late–my seat got given away while I stood there protesting. Security rules prevented my being put back on the list. In sympathy, the airline employees put me at #1 on the standby list for the next flight to my small university town.

While I stood around at the gate for the next flight, three acquainted professors gabbed about how irritated they were to be “so low” on the standby list (#s 2, 5, and 7 out of about 20). They had tickets for a later flight but really wanted to get home earlier. One of them said to the others, “Do you know who that #1 is? Can’t this be changed?” Another answered, “Can’t your department get you the miles you need to always be at the top of the list?” I bit my tongue. A grad student living on $12K per year beat out the tenured, high-salaried profs whose departments seem to regularly pull strings…

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

bradfield April 4, 2009 at 10:33 am

HAHH good for you =)

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