“Should” Have Been An Easy Question

(I am meeting someone at LAX who’s coming in on an international flight, and we are going to meet and fly to Austin together that night. He informs me in the morning that his plane is going to be a few hours late because they had a late start, but he tells me when he should land. I wait and watch at the terminal as a bunch of people from his flight walk out and meet their loved ones, but I can’t find him. This is before I realize people with connecting flights go through a different set of doors. I don’t have his phone number yet, only social media platforms, but I’m getting bad reception. The following exchange is with the international customer service person.)

Me: “Hey, are the people who were on [flight number] done going through customs? Are all of them out yet?”

Customer Service: “That flight landed five hours ago. So, I believe they are done.”

Me: “No, it didn’t; it landed forty-five minutes ago. There was a delay that lasted a few hours.”

Customer Service: “But my paper says it landed in the morning.”

Me: “No, my friend told me that they would land at three, and they did. I saw a bunch of Aussies walking out with their airline pins and everything.”

Customer Service: “No, my paper says that plane landed at ten.”

Me: *getting frustrated* “Yes, it was supposed to land at ten, but it was late and landed at three. I just want to know how long going through customs takes.”

Customer Service: “You can talk to [Airline] about it. But my paper says ten.”

(We go in circles for a while, before I talk to the commercial airline on the second floor. They send me back down with an airline representative to help me explain my problem better.)

Airline Representative: “This young lady is asking if the people who were on [flight number] are all done with customs. The plane landed at three; it was late getting out of Sydney yesterday.”

Customer Service: “As I have said, my paper only says that it landed at ten.”

(Again, we went in circles, showing the customer service person the representative’s itinerary and repeating my story of seeing the airline hostess walking out. Finally, I decided, with the airline representatives help, to just go on my flight to Austin and find him there. I did, but to this day, my friend and I both laugh about the customer service’s insistence attitude about what time his plane SHOULD have landed.)