It had been a busy several weeks, traveling within my region, large company meetings, and visits from HQ personnel. A lot of entertaining as well, lunches and dinners with customers seemed to be the best way to maximize my time. A week earlier I was at a luncheon meeting with some important customers. After I paid the bill, the water came back and said that my credit card had been rejected and asked if I had another card I could pay with ($150.00 lunch bill), so I gave him my other credit card. The waiter brought the bill back, so I could sign for it, as well as both credit cards. The first card that he said was rejected was cut into several pieces (very embarrassing - lucky I had two credit cards with me). The waiter said that it is required of them (by the credit card company) to destroy the rejected credit card. When I called the credit card company latter to find out why my card was rejected they apologized, said there must have been some mix-up or computer error, but that my credit with them was perfect and there was no reason it should have been rejected, let alone destroyed.
They apologized and said that they would rush me out a new card (to replace the destroyed card). Unfortunately this would take over a week, and because of my traveling schedule, I would not get it for at least two weeks.
Well it was now about five days after this incident, where they had wrongly rejected, and destroyed, my visa card. I was now in the middle of a long, tiring, Texas trip. The last week or two seemed to be one mishap, flight delay, or problem after another. I had just landed in El Paso, Texas and was at the Hertz Rental Car counter checking in to get my car. As usual, I gave the young man behind the counter my drivers license and credit card. He then asked for a different credit card, and said that the one I gave him was rejected (déjà vu?). I was tired, hot, and short on patience, at the end of my rope. I pulled my third, and last, credit card out of my wallet and politely asked for my rejected card back before I gave him the other card. He told me he had to keep, or at least destroy the rejected card. I asked him again, this time more assertively, to please give me back my other card and I would give him the new card. He once again refused and told me that it was required for him to destroy the rejected card.
I had to think quickly on my feet. I could not afford to loose a second credit card in two weeks, and travel without a backup. So I stayed calm and leaned forward to give him the new credit card. As he leaned forward to take my new credit card I quickly grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, looked at him straight in the eye, and demanded he give me back my credit card. As you can guess, this was quite a scene, in an airport with all the other people around. I was determined to get my other card back, and this Hertz rep knew it. He could see that I was determined to get my card, by the look in my eye, as well as the fact that I was gradually lifting him off the ground by the color of his shirt (it is amazing what adrenalin will do, and he weighed only 150 lbs). I told him to call the police if he wanted, but that I was not going to let him go till he gave me my credit card back - in one piece. By now, as his feet were starting to leave the ground, I think he realize I was not going to give in. Luckily for all of us, he gave me my rejected, and undamaged, credit card back. I gave him the new credit card, which the computer accepted, apologized for my violent force and explained my reasoning (the false rejection just a week earlier). Lucky for me he did not call the police.
This was an embarrassing, ugly sight (I am not a forceful, demanding person). However, looking back, I am not sure I would have handled this situation any differently - I was not going to give up the credit card. After I left the Hertz counter, with my cards and keys to a car, I went directly to a pay phone to find out why my Master Card, from a different back than the Visa that was destroyed a week earlier, was rejected. MasterCard, just like Visa, said that there must be some mistake, but that my card and credit was in good shape and should not have been rejected.
People use to tell me that I was foolish to have, and carry, three different credit cards (each from different banks with credit limits of over $10,000 each). Well it was times like this that I was glade that I did.
On landing at San Jose airport, as I did almost every week, but often different days, I had the long term shuttle drive me to the long term lot (a regular thing). This trip was especially long as I had tied in a ski trip in Colorado the weekend before. Well this trip I totally blanked out when I got to the parking lot. I had the shuttle drop me off where I thought my car was - but it was not there. After looking for several minutes I had to ask myself what day of the week it was (an odd feeling - totally loosing track of time).
Our trip started out on a United DC-10 flight from LAX to Chicago. First they delayed the boarding by one hour, due to mechanical problems. Then after boarding the plane, pushing back, and starting the engines, they decided that we needed to go back to the gate and have the mechanics look at the problem again. After another hour of delays I realized that the only other flight to the east coast that day was leaving in one hour. So I grabbed all 5 of us, ran off the plan, to the other side of the airport and jumped on a Piedmont Airlines plane to Toledo, which we just made (all hot and sweaty).
Well, all went well here until we were about 40 minutes out of our landing. The pilot came on and announced that we had a slight problem with the landing gear. He explained it as nothing major - "It was the hydraulics in the front landing gear steering mechanism. That this would have no effect on the landing gear other than our power steering would be out. So the only difference is that, after a normal landing, a tug would have to come out to the end of the runway to tow us to our gate." Well as you can guess, all the passengers were at worried when the pilot first cam on the intercom to announce " a problem". However, once the pilot explained that the hydraulic problem would only effect the steering while taxing to the gate, and not the landing itself, everybody was calm and felt safe again. That is except for my two Douglas Aircraft engineers! After the explanation over the intercom from the pilot these two guys actually became more worried, extremely nervous. The first looked at each other in horror, took out their calculators and started doing quick equations. This only made them more nervous.
The two Douglas purchasing agents laughed off the extra concern from the two engineers. But after the engineers finished their calculations they explained their concern. As it turns out, what the engineers had figured out, and what the pilot failed to mention, was that with the hydraulics on the front steering being out - we had no way to lower the aerolons for landing (these are the flaps that give you more lift used in landings and takeoffs). Everyone on the plane was still calm and relaxed, except for my two engineers.
As we came closer to our landing, I too realized something was wrong. We started our decent much earlier and gradual, and never lowered our aerolons, thus our speed was still FAST. A mile from the runway we were only a few hundred feet off the ground and coming in fast (normally a plane would be much higher and slowing down). I could not even see the runway and we were only 30 feet off the ground, no aerolons, air speed still fast, and the nose of the plane still parallel to the ground (this is not normal landing procedure!). From my view it looked as if we were going to land in the grass. Just as we were about to touch down the runway appeared and the nose of the plane lifted higher than usual. Instead of touching down somewhere near the middle of the runway, like most planes do, we landed at the very beginning, what seemed to be just a few feet from where it started. Just before our wheels touched down, the pilot also rotated the nose up higher than usual, tilting the wings up to help give us more lift and slow us down.
Now we were on the ground with wing wheels rolling, the nose of the plane still high in the air giving the wings an angle to help slow us down - and we were barreling down the runway at what seemed to be twice the normal speed. At the same time there were fire engines, ambulances, and rescue vehicles, ten or more lining the full length of the runway, with lights flashing. These guys were ready for a problem. About midway down the runway the front landing gear finally came crashing down. From such a high angle and long drop to the ground I thought it might damage the plane, but all was fine except for a few stowage bins that popped open. The plane took the complete length of the runway to stop, then taxied in to the gate on its own (no tug needed). The pilot did a picture perfect job in bringing the plane in with no aerolons.
Once we got to the gate we had another small surprise. Instead of walking out of the plane through the jet way being greeted by a flight attendant or pilot we were all met by a member of the rescue crew. Here was this guy standing there in his silver, fire-retardant, moon suite. It was almost as if he were saying "Thank me, I was ready to pull you out of a burning plane crash". I guess we were lucky.
The rest of the trip
The rest of the trip became a comedy. It seemed as if almost every leg of the trip where we were "scheduled" to fly on a Douglas plane, we had a mechanical problem. It became a running joke - we would plan for delays with Douglas equipment (statistically there is no difference in reliability between Douglas and Boeing planes). At first they all thought I was crazy to use carry-one, and not check my luggage. But they soon understood why as we made several last minute changes to different airlines due to mechanical delays.
On this trip I was on a flight from LA to Dallas. It was a full, morning flight. About an hour into the flight the captain gets on the PA system and asks if there is a doctor on board, and asks them to identify themselves and ring their call button. Being a Monday morning flight it was a packed with businessmen/frequent flyers, so very few seemed that this was out of the ordinary. After a few minutes the doctor and the flight attendant came back to look at the passenger in question. Because they were about 3 rows up from me, on the aisle, I could not see too much, but it did look like they were talking to the passenger next to them more than the one in question. After a few short questions, the doctor and the flight attendant would wander up to the galley to confer, then return back to the passengers seat. The only test I could see the doctor do was check the passengers' eyes with a flashlight (this seems to be fairly routine as well). Finally the two convene with the pilot and everyone goes back to their business. All this is fairly routine and standard. The last thing is usually to have the patient or doctor meet with the pilot to decide if the problem justified an emergency landing. In this case, like many, we flew on.
Well as we were landing in Dallas, the flight attendant got on the PA system to remind everyone that there was a medical incident earlier and asked if we would all stay seated to let the paramedics on before we disembarked. To my amazement, everyone did stay seated as the plane door opened and the paramedics came on. Usually there are only 2, this time there must have been six. What was odd is that they all came in and just looked at the patient. Then a paramedic from the back came from the back with a small portable EKG machine. Without even looking at the patient he hooked the wires up to this mans arm, turn it on, look at his watch for 30 seconds, then turn it off and pack the equipment back up again. It was not until this point that I realized we were talking about a dead man. It really sunk in, my whole attitude changed. One moment I was feeling normal, and within a second I had a big lump in the bottom of my stomach. It sunk in - I had a human being die within a few feet of me, and was sitting near me for the last hour!
At this point there was a discussion amongst the paramedics as to what to do.
There were several events where
I almost brought a 757 down
Here my face went numb
Crazy woman stops plane in SFO on Christmas eve
It was Christmas eve 1985. I was on a packed flight out of SFO about 9pm.
Bomb or food aborts takeoff
On a flight out of Rochester, NY
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Dealing with heighten security (post 9/11) and Delta in SLC (6/5/02)
Here I was flying on a frequent flyer pass with Delta, on my way home from a 3 day trip to work on my rental property in Park City. Like so many trips to my house in Park City to work on the house, it is all work. Even though Park City is a beautiful area, I end up trying to pack a weeks plus worth of work into 3 days. Working hard, 12 hours a day in the hot sun, just trying to get all of the work done so that I can move on to other things. This trip was no different than any of the others - fly out to complete 4 items. Once I arrive I uncover more issues, that are often require more immediate attention. Then as I try to rap up things, other things happen.As I had just completed the dirty, dusty job of de-thatching the lawn I attempted to turn on the sprinkler system for the first time after the winter. After wrestling with the main street valve for 3 hours, and flagging down three handy man to see if they could help me (it is a tricky valve) - I finally get the mail valve on, only to find that the pipes had froze and broke. Water is now gushing out everywhere. Luckily I was able to get it turned back off. Now I have to race to water the entire lawn by hand, as the sprinkler system does not work and I need to make sure it does not burn out after my de-thatching. (I probably should have run out to buy a cheap sprinkler rather than water by hand. However after pushing the de-thatcher around for 4 hours in the hot sun, I don't think I was thinking too clearly.)
Now I am racing to the airport to get home a day early. My flight, that I changed the night before, does not leave until 10:15pm. However, if I am lucky with traffic, I might be able to make the 8:40pm flight. Murphy's law, when in a hurry there seem to be more delays ( traffic, traffic lights, delays in getting the rental car shuttle back to the airport. You know, just the usual when you are in a hurry). I get to the airport at 8:20pm and go directly to the Delta check in area. I first try the "self check in kiosk", enter all my data, and a quickly told that I need to see a ticketing agent, that my record can not be processed by the "self check in kiosk". So I proceed to look for the line for the ticketing agents for coach.
Unlike most airlines that have one line for the ten agents. There were ten different lines. So I picked the shortest, waited for an agent, then walked right up. She looked up and asked me how I got there - I told here I just walked up. She then informed me that I needed to be escorted by one of the many security people that were there to escort the passengers from the many lines to the agents at the counter. Well just at that time one of the security agents walked up to me - so I looked first at the small Asian security agent, then at the Delta agent and said "this is the security agent that brought me here". Trying to exert her authority, she asked that the security agent take me back to the front of the line and search me and my bags. This included a swab wipe down of my bags, as well as the palm of my hands for traces of explosives (I have been through this enough to understand that this is fairly standard now). Now, after clearing the security check at the ticket counter, I go back to the Delta agent at the counter. I hand her my "paperless ticket" confirmation ticket with all my flight info on it (Name, flight info, reservation code and frequent flyer number), and tell her that I would like to check in. She then hands it all back to me and suggests that I use the "self check in kiosk" rather than use her. I remind her that it did not work and that is why I am standing in front of her. Well she now seems insistent to do things differently, so she walks me over to the kiosk and tries to show me how it works (I have used one of these a hundred times and remind her that it was the kiosk that suggested I see a ticket agent. Well, she went through the whole process and got the same message that I did. So now we go back to the counter and start from the beginning. I remind her that I changed the reservation the night before and that all of the info should be in the system under my record locator. She now wants my frequent flyer (FF) number to pull it all up. I politely suggest that she use my record locator (as that is what I had been using with all other Delta agents to build and modify my reservation). She still wanted my FF number, I remind her that that too is on the "paperless ticket" confirmation ticket with all my flight info on it.
During this time an ambulance had pulled up to the airport and the paramedics had rushed in to help a man in his late 50s who looked like he was having heart problems. I say this with a level of confidence as I have seen this happen several other times at airports. In order to keep my cool, which was not easy when dealing with such an incompetent and rude person, I stepped back to talk to one of the security agents at the front of the line. She could see that I too was getting pretty worked up, and joked that I should relax so that I too did not end up like the man with the paramedics. I joke with her about how silly this situation was. I point out to her, and my amazement as well, that no one seem to be working. During this whole time, she and all of the other eleven agents at the counter seemed to be working in slow motion. The airport was light with traffic. Unlike most times at the ticket counter there were more delta agents than passengers. I point out to her most were not working at all. There were three groups of two just talking to each other, two others were talking on their cell phones, and the other three seemed to be staring at the computer monitor in front of them - but taking no action. Now that I pointed this out to here, she too seemed to see the comedy in it all, and she cracked a smile.
My ticket agent finally was able to figure out how to pull up my record on the computer but said she could not find the change. I told here not to worry and please just put me on the next flight to Seattle. After what seemed like an hour (ten minutes), I am on my way to the gate. One hundred yards, and upstairs from the ticket counter I need to go through the security check to get onto the airport concourse. Here again they check everything - both bags and the explosive wipe down. During this process they found a small Letherman Tool that I had accidentally left in my bag. It was a nice one, so I decided to go back downstairs and check my bag on. Luckily the line was short, and it was a different agent. I told her I would like to check my back through to Seattle and that I was already checked in and ticketed. This seemed to confuse her - but she slowly figured it out and told me that there was not enough time for may bag to make it - I though I was on the 10:15pm flight, the ticket had me on the 8:40 flight. I now had a choice - either give them the Leatherman to keep or wait an extra hour and a half. Frustrated as I was, I gave them the Leatherman, and went running back upstairs to try to make the flight. Back upstairs through the security check again and then running down the concourse to make the flight.
Where do you think my gate was, you guessed it, at the very end of the end concourse. I ran the whole way, with both my bags, so I had worked up quite a sweat. When I got there they were just getting ready to close the gate but were holding it for me. Being that I was arriving a the last minute, sweaty and out breath, they wanted me to go through a thorough security check again before entering the plane, this time shoes off and a complete pat down. Unbelievable - two x-rays, three times where they totally unpacked my bags, three explosive wipe downs, two magnetic wand checks and a pat down - all within 30 minutes!