Surrender, Dorothy

Flashbacks from BlogHer09

Hello again! I missed you! I have another micro poetry collection that will be out on Friday. It's cheery! It's about war. I'll put it with the others on Kindle. In the meantime, here's my BlogHer round-up. I will attempt to put up some photos of the high points tonight, and then I promise I'll go back to the Ultra-Pool.

Proudest Moments:

• Made a bunch of new friends at the BlogHerHumor session -- and they wanted to talk about writing! as in not content, writing! Meter! Word choice! I almost peed myself. Really. I did. I felt more comfortable in that group than I have ever felt in any other group at BlogHer.

• Got time with almost all the people I desperately wanted to see, and some more than once. You know who you are.

• Felt really good about my session on balance. Felt, dare I say it? Balanced. You may now vomit.

• No hangovers. At all. I have finally learned to pace myself, just in time to fall asleep in my glowball headband shortly after midnight.

• Got a fabulous photo of the cake at Sparklecorn because they sliced into its haunches and I freaked out at the skin-like quality of fondant.

• Blondie -- crowd-hating, heights-hating Blondie -- rode the ferris wheel at Navy Pier by herself.

• The first annual Crawdad Reunion pulled together successfully. Welcome, Elisa.

• Not once did I feel I wasn't interesting enough, pretty enough, smart enough or funny enough. Not once did I feel that way about anyone else, either. I must be evolving or maturing or maybe just drinking less.

• When the bookseller told me they'd way over-ordered Sleep Is for the Weak and then only sold 10 copies as of Saturday morning because she *thought* it was really popular, I didn't punch her in the face. And when she said, "That's okay, though, we'll just send them back," I managed to politely smile as I thought, "Never say that to an author. THAT BELONGS IN YOUR INNER MONOLOGUE."

• I didn't attend one session in which I heard the term "monetization." Because, you know? It's still not actually a word.

Least Proud Moments:

• It only took two hours for me to step in a crater on the way to the liquor store with Average Jane and go from chatting pleasantly to flat on my back on the cement. And I was not drunk, just clumsy.

• Didn't stick with Sleep Is for the Weak signing because a) none of the contributors could find it b) none of the readers could find it c) I couldn't hear the karoake properly.  If you bought a book and want signatures, e-mail me -- we'll figure it out. If you've never bought the book, Judas Priest, what are you waiting for?

• Was frequently late for morning things because I love to sleep. I wasn't out late. I just love to sleep.

• Never saw Eden Kennedy for more than two seconds. Sob.

Uncategorized:

• MamaPop apparently hates Gwyneth Paltrow.

• No matter how often I said, "When are you going to bring back the Festiva?" nobody at Ford would acknowledge that fine automobile. (Although they did give a nice tour -- I'll be doing a round-up on my review blog later.)

• I'm positive I now hate hard alcohol. I tried two sips of a margarita and decided it's me and wine, together forever. Anything else is too hard to pace and it tastes like sweetened rubber dog shit.

---------------------------

Writing about schooling your kids in the summertime on BlogHer today.

American Airlines Debacle: Sean Responds

This so far:

Dear Ms. Arens,

 

Without question, this was a terribly frustrating situation and I am very sorry it resulted in your missing your daughter’s birthday.  I’ll be happy to have someone on my team look into the specifics and follow up with you again in more detail.  In the meantime, it would be helpful to know the flight numbers on which you were scheduled and traveled, so that I can be sure we have the facts. 

 

Sincerely,

Sean Bentel

American Airlines

An Open Letter to American Airlines: This Time You've Gone Too Far

Dear Gerard J. Arpey:

Something is very, very wrong with your scheduling policies at American Airlines. 

On Friday, April 4, I was scheduled to fly from LaGuardia to Chicago at 6:15, have a short layover, then fly from Chicago to Kansas City, arriving around 10:30 p.m.   When I got to LaGuardia, I noticed my flight was delayed until 7:45.  As most flights on American out of LaGuardia seemed to be delayed, I thought no big deal.  I understand. It's Friday afternoon in one of the busiest airports in the world.  I called AA reservations to see if I was going to miss my connection. Indeed, I was going to miss it. I was told I'd have to spend the night in Chicago and fly out in the morning.  No offer to help accommodate me in Chicago was made.  At this point, I was a little annoyed, but still okay.

Because there was no offer of accommodations, and because my daughter's fourth birthday party was to happen at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, I asked if I could fly to St. Louis instead, thinking I would rent a car at my own expense and just drive home.  Again, no big deal.  I was put on a 7:45 flight to St. Louis, arriving at 9:30 p.m.  It wasn't a great plan, but I thought it would be workable.

Then that flight got delayed until 9:30 p.m.  No reason.  Just delayed.   At this point, I added a hotel room in St. Louis to my Priceline car rental.  I was starting to get peeved.

Then it got delayed again.  We finally got on the plane at some point (I can't even recall when).  I heard one of the flight attendants talking on his cell phone about how he really wanted to fly the next day because he'd get more money, but he couldn't if he flew this flight. Then he was talking to someone about how his flight crew was "illegal."  We were all sitting on the plane at this point, already more than two hours delayed.  Cell Phone Boy continued talking to someone apparently in charge.  The next thing we knew, another flight attendant was announcing that we were going to have to get off the plane because the flight crew was "illegal" according to FAA guidelines.

It didn't end there.  She then told us that we'd have to wait for a new flight crew to be called in from New York, but by the time that flight crew got there, the captains would be "illegal."  So we'd also have to wait for new pilots.  She told us that the captain was on the phone with American trying to get permission to fly us home because the fault was on American's side.

About fifteen minutes passed.

She then got back on the intercom.  "I don't know what to say," she said. "I'm embarrassed.  You're all going to have to get off the plane while we wait for a new crew.  We're tentatively going to take off at 12:45 a.m."

We got off the plane. I got in a huge line thinking it was to reschedule my flight or get a refund. No, it was a line for a $10 food voucher that could only be used at the Au Bon Pain outside security, because everything else was closed. Oh, and you can't take liquids through security, not even sealed water bottles.  I asked about rescheduling. She told me I had to go see the ticket agent outside security.

This was around 11 p.m.

When I got to the ticket agent, she grumpily told me she was mad she had to stay until our needs were met because she had an exam in the morning.  She then told me she had no idea how I'd gotten onto the St. Louis flight, because the only place she could rebook me was to my original destination, Kansas City.  I'd have to sleep in the airport, catch a 6 a.m. flight to Chicago, be laid over several hours and arrive home around 12:30 p.m. the following day.  At this point, I did almost cry for the first time.  I was so terrified of having the same thing happen in Chicago that I decided to stay on the St. Louis flight. I asked about compensation for the ordeal, and she looked at me blankly and muttered something about the Web site.

We finally took off around 1 a.m. and landed in St. Louis at 3:15.  I waited for the Hertz shuttle for a half hour, got my car, and got to a hotel outside the airport at 4 a.m. I slept four hours and drove back to Kansas City, returned the rental car and drove home. I drove longer than I slept, and the hotel and rental car together cost me $240.  And I missed my daughter's fourth birthday party.

Generally I understand flight delays if there is weather or mechanical difficulty.  It's hard for me to understand why a full flight had to pay for American's scheduling gaffe or a flight attendant's wish to earn more money.  The guy in the seat next to me said he now wouldn't get to see his girlfriend for four months, as this was his last chance before leaving for an internship in Japan.  How many people's days or weekends were ruined?  Hmm. Everyone's. 

Why was the back-up flight crew not called the first time the flight was delayed, if the potential for the first crew going illegal so imminent?  Why are the pilots not on the same illegality schedule as the flight crew?  Why did it seem that NO ONE was in charge, no one was on hand to explain the situation, and no compensation or accommodations were offered for this living nightmare?  I have never been so mistreated by an airline in my life.

I realize times are tough in the airline industry, but this is not the way to make friends.  I just left a conference on blogger relations.  We'll see how good you are. 

I'm sending a copy of this letter to Sean Bentel.  I hope that you will not make this same mistake with future flights. I know that while I was not impressed with your airline before, I will go out of my way to avoid it in the future.  I've had policemen handing me a speeding ticket treat me with more respect. Get it together, American. 

Sincerely,
Rita Arens

---------------------

In other, less annoying news:

• Book review on Buddhist philosophy up at Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews
• Race and parenting at BlogHer