Friday, June 19, 2009
I was just handed a warm towel for my hands after having been served a warm small cup of nuts with the beverage of my choice, seated in the last row of the first class section of United Airlines flight 89 from LAX to Maui. For some unknown reason we were upgraded from economy to first class, which we certainly deserve after last night’s traumatic experience, but that was the fault of Frontier Airlines and United had nothing to do with it.
Yesterday we flew out of Indianapolis just after 4 pm on Frontier flight 406 to LA with a stop in Denver. We decided to pay to check Marcia’s larger bag but I carried on my duffle bag and this computer. All but only a half dozen passengers including us got off in Denver. From Indy to Denver we were seated in front of a family whose small child screamingly cried for the first 15 minutes of the flight and then periodically kicked the back of Marcia’s seat. It was a much quieter crowd from Denver to LA. Of course the only complimentary service was a small plastic glass of a soft drink or water. The cabin crew remarked as we landed both in Denver and LA that we were in fact 15 minutes early, as if they deserved some special recognition for that. We patiently waited at carousel A for Marcia’s bag until all but a couple of the other passengers had left and then realized that for some reason her bag had not made it. How can that happen on a flight with no plane change? As we used to say about some inept friend, apparently Frontier could “screw up a one car funeral”.
Here we were at nearly 8pm, ready to go to our hotel near LAX for dinner and a short night of sleep before boarding this plane which was scheduled to depart LAX at 10:47 this morning, and Frontier had no idea where Marcia’s bag was. They could only offer that another flight from Denver was scheduled to arrive about 10:30pm and perhaps the bag would show up. The attendant kept suggesting that maybe our connection hadn’t allowed time for the bag to be transferred and seemed never to comprehend that there wasn’t any connection. She filled out the missing bag report, gave us little kits with toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, disposal razor, etc. And assured us that the bag would be delivered to our hotel if it arrived and that they would keep us posted via our cell phones.
(I had to interrupt this writing to eat the kind of lunch that you used to get on airlines. A small salad, dinner roll, tortellini, sponge cake with lemon icing, a cookie and red wine in a real wine glass. This served on top of a white cloth on my seat tray, while the movie is showing.)
So we caught the shuttle to the hotel and had dinner in the bar. At least the food was good for hotel food. Back in the room I took my usual nighttime pills including the one that helps me sleep 8 hours, brushed my teeth with the flimsy toothbrush and nasty toothpaste from China, and went to bed. I woke up at midnight to go to the bathroom, Marcia was reading and there had been no news from Frontier. We called the hotel bellman, then Marcia called Frontier and finally got a person to talk to in LA. I was beside myself, well not actually but, rather, beside Marcia asking in a very loud voice as she was talking, “What are we supposed to do? We are to fly to Hawaii in the morning, that’s this morning, June 19th!” I just had to go into the bathroom and shut the door until the conversation was over, and then went to bed but couldn’t sleep until my blood pressure finally went down a half hour later.
This morning I learned that Marcia had been told a flight was due in from Denver at 8:30, but that no one had responded to our lost bag report so Frontier still didn’t know where it was. Our only recourse was to go to the airport, check in at United and then go to the Frontier lost baggage office to see if Marcia’s bag had been found. Thankfully, United and Frontier are located next to each other at LAX, though in separate buildings. So we arrived via shuttle at the airport just after 8:30, went to United and showed them that we had done on-line check in, but for some reason we never understood their web site wouldn’t let us get seat assignments. Told we could go to the gate and seats would be assigned there, we rushed over to Frontier and thank God there sat Marcia’s bag, having just arrived from Denver. Why or how it was taken off of the plan and left in Denver yesterday we will never know.
So we went back to United, Marcia checked her bag there because I had already paid for it, and then through security to the gate. Announcements were being made that the gate attendants were working on seat assignments, trying to put families together and that they would call our names when seat assignments were available. We had an hour before takeoff, but seating was limited in the waiting area and families with children and everyone were just milling around not quite sure what the process was. Names began to be called, but not ours and I of course was getting antsy. At the next gate they had already asked for volunteers because that flight had been overbooked. I could just imagine us getting stuck at LAX because of that. Finally after many people had already started boarding, our name was called and when Marcia came back with the boarding passes we saw that we were in row 6, seats C and D, in first cabin. We still weren’t sure of our good fortune until we boarded the plane. Thank you, United, you made our day.
So, here we are, well feed and liquored, Marcia dosing off because apparently she’s not that much into the movie, (I think its “He’s just not that into you”), and I am settled down except for the fact that Marcia told me there was a message on our home phone last night that the son of a 92 year old friend of mine had called to say his mother had died. Myra was a nice lady, we had met when we both worked for Honeywell back in the ’60’s, who sort of took me under her wing after my first divorce and even made soup for me one time when I was sick and living alone in a studio apartment. I have visited her a few times since she went to a nursing home after her husband died. The last time I saw her she talked about how she would like to go out for Chinese food, and I promised her we would do that. But, as too often happens, things kept coming up and I never got around to keeping my promise. I thought about her just last week, remembering that she wanted Chinese. She had seemed still strong when I saw her last just before Mother’s day, and her mind was still good, especially about older memories. I hope she died in peace and without suffering.
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