Speaking of lies the airlines tell you
Oct. 26th, 2014 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plutherusI don't actually know why the flight was switched from San Francisco to San Jose. The woman at the checkin counter told me it was "weather related". It was a warm clear day in San Francisco. When I told her this, she suggested that perhaps it was foggy. I kind of boggled at that, and suggested that perhaps morning fog is not entirely unknown to San Francisco.
The fact is, I have no idea why the flight was switched. If I had to guess, I would venture it was because there were so many people there for the World Series that they over-booked their flights by more than their capacity to deal with them. And they made more money by shuttling people to San Jose and flying them out of there than they would have if they'd told people in advance they had flights available in San Jose and risked them going to their competitors instead.
But I don't really know. And neither did the checkin clerk. She didn't want to say she didn't know and, given our society's intolerance for confessing ignorance on any topic I don't really blame her. But "I'm sorry I don't have that information, all I can do is make sure you do get to where you're going" would have been a perfectly acceptable answer. The obvious lie was more annoying. And then the vague threat of "We're going to waive the extra charges for you" just makes it worse, not better. If you cause any problems or demand any additional considerations, we could make you pay extra if you want to get home is the real message here. So, just more annoying.
And then when I got there, they changed my seat.
This was really not that big of a deal. I still got a seat, and I still got home. But, originally I had reserved a window seat in an exit row. They moved me up a ways and stuck me in an aisle seat. Which happens. I get it, they're shuffling flights around (for whatever reason). Some people aren't going to make this flight, and most likely some people who were supposed to be on earlier flights are on this one instead. I get that. Some seats are going to change. It happens. But the cheerful way in which they did it, as if I'd won some great prize, "And we moved you into a better seat!" was bullshit. I had one of the best seats on the plane so telling me this seat, getting bumped into by everyone going up and and down the aisle, with less legroom, and nowhere to stow my bag is so "much better" because it's "much closer to the front of the plane" is nonsense and an insultingly transparent lie. Look, I get it, sometimes you have to change seats. A simple "I'm sorry, but your reserved seat isn't available any more, so we gave you the best one we had," would have completely solved the problem. But don't piss on me then tell me how cool and refreshing the rain is.
And, finally, just for some perspective, yeah, none of this was really that big of a deal. Until the last bit I was more amused than annoyed. Sure, the airlines just make stuff up instead of telling you the truth about anything. Sure, TSA is rude, lost my phone (another passenger found it on the floor under the x-ray machine), actually reduces our safety compared to what we had before, and steals stuff all the time to boot. Sure, they over-sell their flights then inconvenience their passengers with no compensation to make up for it. But in reality it's still a lot more convenient than walking. And, when you think about how we got around for most of human history, airplanes are pretty damned awesome. I leave you with the words of Louis CK, which I strongly recommend listening to before having to deal with TSA or any other petty bureaucrats puffed up on their own power:
The fact is, I have no idea why the flight was switched. If I had to guess, I would venture it was because there were so many people there for the World Series that they over-booked their flights by more than their capacity to deal with them. And they made more money by shuttling people to San Jose and flying them out of there than they would have if they'd told people in advance they had flights available in San Jose and risked them going to their competitors instead.
But I don't really know. And neither did the checkin clerk. She didn't want to say she didn't know and, given our society's intolerance for confessing ignorance on any topic I don't really blame her. But "I'm sorry I don't have that information, all I can do is make sure you do get to where you're going" would have been a perfectly acceptable answer. The obvious lie was more annoying. And then the vague threat of "We're going to waive the extra charges for you" just makes it worse, not better. If you cause any problems or demand any additional considerations, we could make you pay extra if you want to get home is the real message here. So, just more annoying.
And then when I got there, they changed my seat.
This was really not that big of a deal. I still got a seat, and I still got home. But, originally I had reserved a window seat in an exit row. They moved me up a ways and stuck me in an aisle seat. Which happens. I get it, they're shuffling flights around (for whatever reason). Some people aren't going to make this flight, and most likely some people who were supposed to be on earlier flights are on this one instead. I get that. Some seats are going to change. It happens. But the cheerful way in which they did it, as if I'd won some great prize, "And we moved you into a better seat!" was bullshit. I had one of the best seats on the plane so telling me this seat, getting bumped into by everyone going up and and down the aisle, with less legroom, and nowhere to stow my bag is so "much better" because it's "much closer to the front of the plane" is nonsense and an insultingly transparent lie. Look, I get it, sometimes you have to change seats. A simple "I'm sorry, but your reserved seat isn't available any more, so we gave you the best one we had," would have completely solved the problem. But don't piss on me then tell me how cool and refreshing the rain is.
And, finally, just for some perspective, yeah, none of this was really that big of a deal. Until the last bit I was more amused than annoyed. Sure, the airlines just make stuff up instead of telling you the truth about anything. Sure, TSA is rude, lost my phone (another passenger found it on the floor under the x-ray machine), actually reduces our safety compared to what we had before, and steals stuff all the time to boot. Sure, they over-sell their flights then inconvenience their passengers with no compensation to make up for it. But in reality it's still a lot more convenient than walking. And, when you think about how we got around for most of human history, airplanes are pretty damned awesome. I leave you with the words of Louis CK, which I strongly recommend listening to before having to deal with TSA or any other petty bureaucrats puffed up on their own power:
