Why our country is in trouble
A Washington, DC
airport ticket agent offers some examples of why our country is in trouble!
1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle
seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window.
2. I got a call from a candidate's staffer, who wanted to go to Capetown.
I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport
information, then she interrupted me with, "I'm not trying to make
you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts,"
Without trying to make her look stupid, I calmly explained, "Cape Cod
is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa,"
Her response - click.
3. A senior Vermont Congressman called, furious about a Florida
package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando.
He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that's not
possible, since Orlando
is in the middle of the state. He replied, "Don't lie to me, I looked on
the map and Florida
is a very thin state!"
4.I got a call from a lawmaker's wife who asked, "Is it possible to see England
from Canada?"
I said, "No." She said, "But they look so close on the
map."
5. An aide for a cabinet member once called and asked if he could rent a
car in Dallas.
When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had only a 1-hour layover
in Dallas.
When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, "I heard Dallas
was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save
time."
6. An Illinois
Congresswoman called last week. She needed to know how it was possible
that her flight from Detroit left at
8:30 am and got to Chicago
at 8:33 am. I explained that Michigan
was an hour ahead of Illinois,
but she couldn't understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her
the plane went fast, and she bought that.
7.
A New York
lawmaker called and asked, "Do airlines put your physical description
on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?" I said "No,
why do you ask?" She replied, "Well, when I checked in with
the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I'm
overweight. I think that's very rude!" After putting her on hold for
a minute while I looked into it (I was laughing) I came back and explained
the city code for Fresno,
CA is (FAT), and the
airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.
8. A Senator's aide called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii.
After going over all the cost info, she asked, "Would it be cheaper
to fly to California,
and then take the train to Hawaii?"
9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman who asked, "How do
I know which plane to get on?" I asked him what exactly he meant, to
which he replied, "I was told my flight number is 823, but none of
these planes have numbers on them."
10. A lady Senator called and said, "I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola,
Florida. Do
I have to get on one of those little computer planes?" I asked if
she meant fly to Pensacola,
Fl. on a commuter plane. She said, "Yeah, whatever, smarty!"
11. A senior Senator called and had a question about the documents he
needed in order to fly to China.
After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him that he needed
a visa. "Oh, no I don't. I've been to China
many times and never had to have one of those." I double checked
and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he
said, "Look, I've been to
China
four times and every time they have accepted my American Express!"