Airlines Are Not My Friend

If you've read the news over the past two days one of the leading stories is that American Airlines has cancled 1,000 flights.  Unfortunately I have been snagged in this travel nightmare today.  I had a quick two night business trip that was to conclude with an evening flight home today.  Of couse my flight was one of those that were cut.

 

I learned of the problems around mid-morning when a coworker jumped on the web during a break in our meetings.  I remembered that I had been scheduled to fly on an S-80 for my return trip so I immediately logged into my frequent flier account to check my status.  The remarkable thing was that the airline's website barely even mentioned the issues.  A plain link to a quick PR blurb was all of the information given.

 

Next I pulled up my intinerary and was happy to find that my flight was still listed for departure at its original time.  Satisfied that things were looking fine I went back to work.  Unfortunately, right before lunch I again logged in to print my boarding pass.  That effort was met with a website error and the suggested remedy was to "speak with ticketing agent at the terminal."  That message is NEVER a good sign.  Still my itinerary showed that I had a flight and that it was on time.  Something was up.

 

My next move was to get on the phone with AA customer service.  I was pretty suprised that the phone call was met with a message, "All representatives are busy.  Please try your call again."  What?  They wouldn't even put me on hold?  That is a REALLY bad sign.  I tried calling a dozen more times and kept getting the same message.  The system would not let me talk to a real person, and the automated prompt said that my itinerary was still valid and on time.  Lies! 

 

In a last ditch effort I followed the voice prompts to dig through the automated system until I was prompted to say "Agent" if I had a special need.  A little weak I know, but that seemed to be the only way to talk to a real person.  At that point I advanced to actually being on hold, which I considered progress.  I then spent over 90 minutes on hold.  During which time I drove across town (speaker phone rocks), ordered food, ate, and had plenty of leasurely water cooler talk.  My cell phone battery died shortly thereafter, without me ever talking to a real person.

 

I had already checked out of my hotel and my rental car needed to be returned.  It looked like I was about to get stranded at the airport.  I called the car rental company and they were kind enough to let me know that if I were to return my car, I would be unable to rent another.  All of the cars were booked so if I gave up my car I'd be without wheels.  My solution was to immediately drive to the airport to talk to a ticket agent, but in order to keep my car I left it in hourly parking.  The rep on the phone said it would be $75 if I were to ditch the car in the parking garage.  If I could get a flight I'd pay $75 but if not I'd still have a car.  It would be totally worth it either way.

 

After about an hour in line at the airport I was finally able to talk to a real person.  I finally caught a break when they were able to find a commuter jet that had an open seat tomorrow morning bright and early.  I immediately set to work getting my hotel to hold a room for tonight and extending my car rental.  I caught another break when I was able to secure a room (places had booked up quickly) and even got them to match the prior night's rate despite the fact that they doubled the rate overnight.  You've got to love a company that charges everyone double due to this sudden scarcity.  Capitalism at its best.

 

So now I have returned to my hotel.  I've spent the whole afternoon and evening working to get myself home, but now I've gotten as far as the hotel where I started the day by the time I was scheduled to arrive home.  Today has been a-hell-of-a-day.  Thankfully A little experience let me keep my rental car and some bargaining and quick action let my hotel room at a semi-reasonable rate.  I have a boarding pass in hand that will get me home only 15 hours late.  I managed to work the system well enough that it didn't turn into the total nightmare it easily could have been. 

 

Today I learned that the airlines are not even close to prepared for this type of problem.  They don't have enough phone lines or the ability to scale up their customer service numbers.  They also are completely unable to give any useful information on the internet or by phone.  In this day-and-age it is rediculous to expect someone to be face to face at the terminal to get a flight rebooked.  I hope that this experience is a wake up call for all of the airlines (I'm sure none of the others would have done any better than AA) for their maintainance programs and their customer service departments. 

 

I love to travel but these days it is becoming more and more of a bitter experience if I have to give up my fate to the airline industry.  Come on guys, lets get our acts together. 

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Dress to Impress

Over the last year and a half I have started traveling for business every couple of months. Usually on these trips I am visiting a contractor which does business for my company. Ultimately my role is to perform an audit or provide oversight into how well they are executing their contractual duties. I have also starting giving briefings to high level managers and decision makers. In other words, at times my job requires me to put forth a professional, credible persona.

A large part of that professionalism is dressing the part. In my normal work environment we don't have a dress code. As an unspoken rule, shorts and sandals are a bit too casual except on special occasions, but day-to-day a tee shirt and blue jeans is perfectly acceptable. I am sometime teased by friends and family because I almost always wear the same thing whether at work or at home: a collared polo-style shirt and blue jeans. When I travel or have a presentation to give that outfit does not give the impression I need to present.

For those situations I currently wear a pair of black slacks, a solid color button-up shirt, and a tie. My entire "dress" wardrobe consists of one pair of dress pants, about four button-up shirts, and less than a half dozen ties. In other words, I can get through a week of business travel and then I am out of fresh options. The problem is that I am finding that in some situations I am still a tad under dressed.

A particular weakness in my current plan is that I know my dress shoes are not up to snuff. I bought them for $30 at WalMart. They are black. They are simple. They also look like I bought them at WalMart... My shoes are clearly due for an upgrade.

Next, in cold weather, or really anytime mother nature is not cooperating, I also look like a schmuck. At issue here is that I only have one real jacket, and it is completely casual. It is a decent jacket for walking around town, but it is more at home on a camping trip than in a board room. Because I am from the South the jacket also is not up to the insane weather conditions I have encountered during my travels this winter (a high temp of -6 is NOT a temperate climate). Thus, I need a better selection of outerwear that is classy and able to stand up to all types of weather.

My last big hole in my professional wardrobe is my briefcase. Again from WalMart for about $30, I bought a messenger bag / soft side brief case. It is made out of nylon and looks more at home on a college campus than by my side during a "power lunch." To top it all off, back in January when I took a trip, the shoulder strap broke as I was walking through the Cincinnati airport. In order to slog through the airport with all of my stuff I really need a bag with a shoulder strap.

A few days ago I was about to buy a new strap for the ailing bag. Then I saw that my options were either pay $18 for a decent padded strap, pay $12 for another crap piece of nylon with plastic hardware and no padding, or worse yet buy a strap of neon green or rainbow color. Rather than throw good money after bad I started looking for a replacement briefcase.

Today I popped into the luggage store at the local mall to see what I could find. I was immediately put off by the $300-400 cases they had filling their shelves. The sales clerk tried to help me out but when I said my price range was $60-100 she just laughed. I was ready to leave but she then told me to feel free to dig through some bags that were behind the counter and lined up below a display case. There I found some treasures. Ultimately I selected a bag that was listed as a Kenneth Cole case new for 2001 (like I care for a classic black briefcase what year it was "in style"), and it had been marked down from $250 to $179 to $139 to $99 and finally down to $79!

I still agonized about the price for a while before I realized that it was just barely more than I paid for my old WalMart bag plus one replacement strap. I decided that it was time to buy a quality product that would hold up for years (it even has a lifetime manufacturer warranty) and project the type of image that is expected of me for important meetings and business travel. This is one of those cases where spending a little money now to make the right impression could pay massive dividends with raises and promotions down the line. Now, if only I can find the same kind of deal on the rest of my professional wardrobe as I did on that case so I will be totally ready to dress to impress.

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Loving Your Job (or NOT)

A the last minute work has taken me out of town. I don't have to travel more than a handful of times each year, but something popped up. My only internet access is the nifty iPod Touch I got for Chirstmas. I guess it isn't only a toy; it is a way to blog almost anywhere! Anyway, I'm exhausted from the time change, plane ride, and mile-a-minute information I've encountered today.

Before I take a nap I wanted to share this great piece of personal finance info:

Yesterday Aspire 2 Wealth was included in the Carnival of Money Stories #42. Dan at MoneyMyths was kind enough to put together a great list of posts. My personal pick from the carnival is the post Loving Your Job. It also seems very "on topic" for my life right now. I'll let you guess where I fall on the issue. At some point I'll flesh out my thoughs in a full post about this topic. Till next time...

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Thanksgiving Holiday

I am leaving early tomorrow morning to drive to my in-law's house for Thanksgiving. That means it is rather unlikely for me to make any posts for the next 5-6 days. It also means that I will be driving my wife's car 1390 miles round trip. According to AAA (http://www.fuelcostcalculator.com/TripGasprice.aspx) I will burn 51.48 gallons of gas with a total expected cost of $154.94. Wow! Holidays don't come cheap. The trip will also take almost exactly 22 hours round trip, which adds up to hundreds of dollars when you consider the opportunity cost of lost work.

Thankfully I am not making the drive alone because my wife and her aunt are sharing the car. I also like my in-laws (amazing I know). The wife has also promised me the best and most massive home cooked Thanksgiving dinner known to mankind for my trouble. When you add it all up, the family and the experience greatly outweigh the costs for the trip. As an added bonus, my wife's aunt has even offered to pay for half of the gas and her dad will cover our meals once we get there. The moral of the story, think about the costs of your Holiday festivities and be smart about how you spend (like ride sharing), BUT always remember that the true thing to be thankful for is that you have loved ones to spend the Holidays with.

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