Normally I go with a weekend recap on Mondays, but I’m going to go with annoying travel experiences from the weekend. I have a few of those from this trip. I don’t get people.
Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. As part of my way of dealing with his struggles, I’m using my ability to recover well from marathons to try to make a difference in the autism community. I’m attempting to run 61 full marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a great charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism.
So far, I’m through 51 and a couple of ultramarathons. 10 to go! On Saturday, I was the official pacer for the 3:40 group (recap here) in the Mankato Marathon in Mankato, Minn.
Things I’m Fine Without Hearing
From the pilot, on the way to Minnesota Friday:
“Sorry about the turbulence. We were cruising along on a nice, smooth ride at 39,000 feet, but we were told to move down to 37,000 feet due to a likely traffic conflict up ahead.”
No apologies necessary. Turbulence is always better than a “traffic conflict” at 39,000 feet.
Not Happy With Dollar Car Rental Right Now
Early in the year, I used several different car rental companies. Hertz is overpriced. Alamo really puts the hard sell on insurance and upgrades. I finally settled in on Dollar and I’ve probably used them 20 or 25 times this year. I really haven’t had any problems with them. In St. Louis, there was an issue with my reservation, but I book through Southwest and I think it was either my fault or Southwest’s fault. Not sure, not worried. Everything ended up OK.
But they annoyed me last week in Kansas City. I rented a full-size car since I had Tiffany and Benjamin with me, but they didn’t have one when I got there. So, they gave me a standard size instead. Not the end of the world, but I had to talk the guy into reducing my rate to the standard fare. He was resistant at first, then eventually gave me a flat discount of $10 for the two days, which was probably about $5 short, but I could tell I wasn’t getting anywhere, and I’m not going to try to contact corporate to recover that.
This weekend in Minneapolis, I got to the counter and there were two clerks, each helping somebody. I was the first person in line. As soon as one of the people were done, the clerk just walked off. I don’t know if she went on break or what, and I know she’s entitled to do that. But it was pretty obvious that the customer still being helped was an idiot and was going to be a while. I think the first clue was that he was wearing a Merona collared shirt inside out with the collar up. The arguing over everything was a second clue. The stupid jokes about the incompetence about rental car companies followed by turning around to face me to try to get laughter cemented my opinion.
He dragged the process on and on and on. Another man came up next to me and looked like he wanted to form a separate line and go ahead of me. When I finally got my chance to go up, the guy started pulling up my reservation. That man who was standing next to me decided to come up about 30 seconds after me. The clerk asked me if it was OK if he helped the other man, because he had a return and it was going to be quick. What am I going to do, say no?
Well, the guy starts complaining about the tires and the ride. The clerk apologizes and says he’ll let the manager know. So the guy complains again. And the clerk apologizes again. Rinse, spin, repeat for about five more minutes. I’m about to turn to the guy and tell him that he had some nerve cutting in like that when he knew he was going to go on. I didn’t feel like getting into a fight in the airport, though, so I kept my mouth shut.
A woman FINALLY comes back from break and takes the other station. She looks off to the line and shouts, “I can help who’s next!” I look at the clerk helping me to let him know, “Hey, give her my driver’s license!” But he’s too paralyzed with shock over the guy complaining about the tires. So I continue to wait as that woman helped another customer.
But finally it’s my turn. The guy tries to upsell me to a full-size and I’m having none of it. I had a standard car and the only one they had was in the shop. So, they had to upgrade me to the car the guy was trying to sell me. He tells me, “We’re going to upgrade you to a full-size as our way of apologizing for the time you had to wait.” Seriously? You just tried to sell me that car five minutes ago — don’t insult my intelligence and lie to me!
30 minutes after getting in line behind NOBODY, I finally had my keys and I go out to my car, which was in space E6, and something funny happened: There was no car in E6! So, I’m walking around clicking the keychain to try to unlock doors and finally I fun it in E2. Awesome.
But wait, there’s more!
I got the car at 4:10 p.m. on Friday. From the counter, you have to walk about five minutes to get to the car. I spent about three minutes actually looking for the car. I got in the car about about 4:18, turned on my GPS and got rolling. I drove out of the rental car garage at about 4:20. When I returned the car, I probably pulled into the garage at about 4:18 on Saturday. I parked, got my stuff and walked to the counter to return the car. It was 4:25. In the other terminal at MSP, if my memory serves correct, they start the clock when you exit the garage. I’ve been through that garage twice this year.
I would have been under the 24-hour window. But because this terminal makes you check in and out at the counter, I didn’t make it. Also, most car rental companies have a 29-minute grace period on that 24-hour period. Apparently, Dollar doesn’t . They charged me $5 for that extra hour. That $5 kicked in an extra $6 in taxes. So even though I really only had the car for 24 hours, because Terminal 2 at MSP is outdated I got to pay an extra $11.
I’ll survive, but I’m definitely not thrilled. Dollar, you failed this weekend.
Inconsiderate People Everywhere
I don’t get people. Why does everybody think rules don’t apply to them? Three rulebreakers annoyed the heck out of me while I was traveling, aside from the guy who couldn’t wait his turn at Dollar
1. LINE CUTTER
On Southwest Airlines, you board in the order than you checked in, more or less, and there’s no assigned seating. You pick a seat when you get on. The numbering goes A1-A60, then B1-B60, then C1-C60 or however many there are in the C group. So, A1 boards first, A60 boards right before B1, etc. You line up and people are supposed to act civilized. They have signs at the gate for every five positions. So A31-35 lines up behind a sign, A36-A40 lines up behind the next sign, etc.
I had A34 for my first flight. A woman stood up in front of me and did the “I’m gonna play on my phone and not look up trick and hide my boarding pass” until we got up to the agent. She pulled out her pass and it was A38. Not the biggest deal in the world, but it just annoyed me. I can tell who’s traveling for the first time and who knows what they’re doing. She knew what she was doing, she knew she was cheating, and that annoyed me. I got my seat, but still — it’s the principle.
2. SAFETY GUIDELINES DON’T APPLY TO THIS GUY
When you’re below 10,000 feet and heading in to land, you have to have all your electronic devices turned off. They say that devices can interfere with the plane’s communications equipment. I don’t know how serious of a threat it really is, but if that’s what they tell us, that’s what I’m going to do. It’s not worth it to chance it over the last 10 minutes of a flight.
Well, when we were landing in Los Angeles, some 20-something guy across the aisle from me had his iPhone on and he was hiding it and sneaking peaks at his email. We were about two minutes from landing. He’d look around, make sure nobody was looking, then sneak more looks. I don’t know what this guy thought was so important that he’d risk interfering with the plane’s communications equipment while we were landing, but that really annoyed me. I didn’t say anything. I’m not the type to run my mouth. Maybe I should?
3. THIS GUY KNEW BETTER THAN THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS
On the same flight with the guy with the iPhone, we had to wait about 10 minutes to get to our gate because there was a plane still there. While we’re sitting on the tarmac, a guy gets up to get some bags out of the overhead compartment. The flight attendant comes on and announces over the PA that we’re still a taxiing plane and he needs to remain seated.
The guy apparently doesn’t care and he reaches for one of his bags and hands it to one of his travel companions. The flight attendant repeats the announcement and he casually grabs a second bag and then sits down without closing the compartment. So the flight attendant comes on again and tells him to shut the overhead compartment and he gets up and does that.
I don’t know why this guy thought he was above the rules, but again, I was annoyed.
Am I right to get annoyed by these people? Am I too easily annoyed?
OK, That’s All For Today
Have a great Monday, y’all! I’ll have something for ya tomorrow!
Rob Benefiel says
Great. I’m annoyed. Jerks.
🙂
Mae Lee says
Dollar use to have most of my business, and what you experienced is all too common, which is why I shifted a lot of my business to Hertz and Alamo.
They attract the following:
1. bottom feeders who argue over every nook and cranny
2. the clueless traveler who asks for directions on everything despite the availability of maps, GPS, etc.
3. line cutters who feel they are more important than everyone else
4. clueless clerks who try to sell me more costly LDW when it was their fault for running out of smaller vehicles
5. once they gave me a vehicle dripping wet with a cracked windshield in a dark garage. I didn’t see the crack until after I left the garage into broad daylight. They attempted to charge me for it. I have LDW, so they got nothing from me, but they lost a major customer as most of rentals are now elsewhere afterwards.