That Doesn’t Fly With Any Level Of Reality
My Aunt has been a travel agent for over forty years. She has some far-fetched stories which I refused to believe until I became a travel agent myself. This is one of them.
My aunt had a new client come in and book herself a flight overseas in the late 1980s. Immediately, this client was very demanding and frighteningly specific in her needs. She had never travelled before, but had an event she had to attend.
Client: “So, can you tell me what aircraft I’ll be flying? And how big are the seats? Do I really need a passport to go to France? And it needs to be a smoking flight, but none of those cheap brands, and how many bags can I take? Can you make sure they will take proper American money? Will they be speaking foreign? Do I need to take my own toilet paper? All these countries are so backwards. And…”
My Aunt ended up writing everything down – where to go in the airport, flight times, airlines, who to ask if you get lost, parking, how to go through security, how to request a seat, how long she had to be there beforehand, what the meals would likely be, how long the flight was. Everything.
Well… almost everything.
The day after the flight was due to depart, my aunt receives a hysterical phone call from the client.
Aunt: “Hello [Travel Agency], how can we help?”
Client: “It’s [Client] and I want my money back! You’ve ripped me off! How dare you do this to me!”
Aunt: “What happened? Where are you?”
Client: “I’m at home! The flight never came!”
Aunt: “Was the flight delayed? I can ring the airline now and find out what happ—”
Client: “No, they never picked me up!”
Aunt: “What do you mean? You didn’t book transfers as you said you would get to the airport yourself?”
Client: “The plane never picked me up! I waited on the sidewalk all day, and they never came!”
Aunt: “What?! The flight doesn’t pick you up from home? This is why I gave you directions to the airport, where to park—”
Client: “I threw all that parking stuff out because I have paid for a flight! They should be picking me up!”
Yup, the client was convinced that the 747 would just land on her driveway and she would embark from there. No amount of convincing from my aunt, her manager, the owner, the airline representatives, or anyone else would convince the client that planes don’t collect from any houses anywhere. When the client was asked if she had seen any other planes land on her street, the client asserted that no one else flew!
She did not get a refund.
