Passengers Expected To Proceed At The Speed Of Light

July 17, 2009

in Delay/Cancellation Stories

My girlfriend and I recently had a flight from San Francisco, CA to Tampa, FL with a layover in Miami via American Airlines. The problems started in San Francisco, when our flight was supposed to leave at 11:45pm. Due to the airport not scheduling the correct information for the flights, they double booked the gate we were supposed to be leaving out of. At 12am, we realized our flight to Tampa was going to be late, because they were still boarding a flight to New York, while the plane we were supposed to get on is waiting on the runway. Finally, everything gets situated, and our flight finally comes in. People are rushing off the plane, and then we begin to board.

We didn’t leave San Francisco until 1:10am. The flight over was completely horrible. There was a screaming baby, naturally, the entire 6 hour flight. The gentleman in front of me went into epileptic shock in the middle of the flight, and the flight attendants had no idea how to get a handle on the situation. People on the flight were freaking out, ladies screaming, little kids running around, and it’s around 3am.

We finally land in Miami 2 hours late, and now we have 20 minutes to catch our connecting flight. Of course, we had to run across the entire Miami airport to catch our connecting flight. We get to the gate where our flight is and the lady at the counter says “Are you two going to Tampa?” I respond yes. The lady completely snaps, starts screaming at us “If you don’t get on this flight right now, they’re going to leave without you. Don’t think planes wait for you.”

My girlfriend, knowing how much of a hot head I am, turns to me and says “Don’t say anything” but it’s too late. I start going off on this lady, explaining to her that her airline is the reason we are late. I wasn’t physically flying the plane. I am not in charge of when planes leave and what have you not. The lady responds to me in a nasty attitude saying that our flight landed 15 minutes ago and we had plenty of time to get to the other side of the airport. I look at her, and curse words just started to flood out of my mouth. Then she said the plane was leaving and we’re not going to get on it. She tries to shut the door in front of us so we wouldn’t be able to board, but my foot got in the way of the door closing. I threw our boarding passes in her face, said a few obscenities and boarded the flight.

Our flight from Miami to Tampa couldn’t have gone any more smoothly, which was pleasing. But what a way to end a 10 day vacation!

{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }

Anonymous July 13, 2009 at 3:26 pm

You try that crap to my gate agents — regardless of the perceived "attitude" she gave you — and I *will* have you thrown off the airplane and escorted downtown by the cops for questioning. Your behaviour was absolutely unacceptable, and you should be ashamed of yourself.

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xxx March 8, 2013 at 9:29 pm

your gate agents? sounds like you did a shitty job training them

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aaron July 13, 2009 at 5:30 pm

This does sound like a flight from hell, but you took a huge risk mouthing off. It never helps and typically makes things worse, as you almost experienced.

A plane is just a bus with wings. Don’t expect logic, warmth, or grace.

Grin and bear it and get on the plane.

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GottaLoveIt July 13, 2009 at 8:42 pm

Grow up, please.

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SAW July 13, 2009 at 9:33 pm

1) passenger – grow up.
2) gate agent – find a new job.

In defense of the passenger – it’s the AIRLINE’S job to maintain calm. Had the agent not mouthed off, the passenger would not have snapped. They never seem to remember this.

To “anonymous”… if you train your gate agents like the one in this story, find a new job.

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Hugh July 14, 2009 at 12:54 am

SAW: Ditto 100%

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Jeanie July 14, 2009 at 2:25 am

Was it REALLY necessary to mouth off at the gate agent?

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SAW July 14, 2009 at 3:25 am

It's never NECESSARY to mouth off… but truth is, when you're traveling from airport to airport, confronted with delays, crying children, and other such things, sometimes what happens is that a plethora of small things (that normally wouldn't affect you on their own) build up, and passengers just reach a breaking point. They're more often than not (believe me I've seen it) set off by airport workers behaving badly.

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Jodi July 14, 2009 at 4:06 am

I believe its utter bull. I doubt they'd let him board and not call security to have him removed had he done that. So I don't believe the story at all. Probably some 13 year old trying to act tough in a story. ::rolls her eyes::

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SAW July 14, 2009 at 5:40 am

I don't find this at all unbelievable. What likely happened is that the gate agent realized what a stupid thing she'd just said to set him off – thought about how that could reflect negatively on herself, scanned the two boarding passes and let them on. Since she hadn't yet left the gate to confer with the flight crew, it's likely nobody on the plane even knew.

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anon July 16, 2009 at 9:16 am

You sound like an asshole.

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PTH July 19, 2009 at 2:06 pm

You are lucky that you did not have the police escorting you out of the airport in handcuffs for a body cavity search and delousing at the county jail.

There is no way the airline would have let you on the flight. A quick call to the captain and your ass would have been in an orange jumpsuit waiting for arraignment on charges of air rage.

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Voice of Reason July 23, 2009 at 6:15 pm

This attitude to the boarding agent (obscenities etc.) was unjust and stupid on the poster's part. HOWEVER, the rudeness on this person's part had been building for the entire day, and she had the unfortunate luck of being the straw that broke the camel's back.

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S.M. July 25, 2009 at 12:55 am

Maybe the obscenities weren’t needed but I’ve had a few gate agents that seriously needed a good B#tch slap now and then. I’ve ran into the same situation with gate agents from continental acting like it’s my fault that I got in late on a delayed flight and couldn’t get across the airport in the 5 or 10 minutes that I had to connect. So while he may have carried it a bit far I can understand where he’s coming from.

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Tony June 15, 2010 at 2:10 am

If the Airlines continue to hire monkeys all you will get is peanuts. (no offence to real monkeys)

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bildo February 24, 2013 at 9:53 am

You are a dick, the lady was an asshole, and I hope your GF dumped you for being such a shit slice.

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