More customer disservice

[ariannawyn]

Nine days from now my kids and I are going to visit my father. I made my flight reservations through Orbitz back in November, including some good seat selections near the front of each plane and with window views for the kids.

Today I went to look at my itinerary, and my seat selections were gone. I tried to make new ones, and discovered that there

Comments

[briony530]

SIX flights...three each way? Wow, where does your father live?

[ariannawyn]

Hawaii. He retired there - I grew up in Massachusetts. And before you get jealous, I should point out that he's 84 years old and cranky, and lives out in a rural area where there's not much for the kids to do, and I will spend about 15 hours en route each way.

But yes, it's paradise, sort of.

[briony530]

Don't worry, not jealous! Enjoy the scenery and water and hope the flights aren't so bad you want to gnaw your limbs off.

[briony530]

Maybe you missed the story about Southwest's fleet being grounded for inspection due to their many FAA failures?

[briony530]

Yes, it is more complex, and it probably is a symptom of an industry-wide problem. But at the risk of sounding like some blindly patriotic nitwit, the FAA probably does have the strictest standards in the world, and deaths due to aircraft failure are incredibly rare. Still safer than driving, but the media loves to jump on airplane safety 'cause it gets ratings.

[almondroy]

That's what those pesky Gameboy-type devices are for ;)

[ariannawyn]

Oh, they'll have their Gameboys along, never fear. But they won't play them for 7 hours straight. Which is why there will also be Uno cards (because there isn't enough room on an airplane tray table to play Magic), a small magnetic chess/checkers set, a variety of other small games, a portable CD player and my laptop with a few kid CDs/DVDs and some headphone sets.

As you can probably tell, I've done this before.

But it only works if we're all sitting together. Sigh.

[almondroy]

That's why I was thinking the Gameboy if everyone was segregated-I thought that with sufficient game variety, that and books might tide them over.

[ariannawyn]

I can tell you don't have children. :-)

[vixen_sun]

Or enough nyquil to keep them calm.. If that works for them. Not that I suggest drugging your children normally but sometimes a little nap time isn't a bad thing.

[briony530]

How about bribery, pure and simple? Pay them for good behavior...or better, charge them for bad. Just kidding, sort of...