Perspective

I flew from Greenville to Omaha via Detroit (don’t ask) last week and incurred a few problems. By a few I mean the first leg of the travel was a disaster from the start. I should have known better when I walked into the gate and saw that my flight was delayed over an hour and a half due to late flight crew. This means that connecting flights are either over sold or under booked and will be canceled so they don’t want this plane to make it. Is that my paranoia? Maybe, but listen to the rest of the story and tell me if I’m wrong.


Being a conscientious traveler I checked with the gate agent and just wanted to make sure I would either make my connection or they would hold it. I was told, “Mr. Luby, you will have plenty of time to make your connection.” Perhaps I might have, had our plane not sat on the tarmac for 25 after landing, “waiting for a ramp up crew.” I exited the plane with little hope but was buoyed by the gate agent that said my plane had not taken off and was at gate D11. Off I ran from C3, only to find out that she was wrong. My plane left on time and was the last flight to Omaha. Off to gate C2 (yes C2 the one right next to where I started) to see if they could put me on another airline. Of course by the time I ran all the way to D11 and then back, there were no flights out of Detroit to Omaha. I was given hotel and meal vouchers and told I had a confirmed seat on the 8:30 flight. “If it’s confirmed why don’t I have a seat number?” I knew I was on standby and so did she, but I would have been disappointed if she had been the only person who didn’t lie to me that day.

I was at the gate at 6:30 the next morning knowing damn well that this would be over sold and wanted to be first in line. I was right, and as more people showed up closer to the flight and the agents were asking for volunteers, I was getting pretty anxious. I saw a woman ditch her husband and two teenage daughters to get on the flight. They would get home in the afternoon. I saw the agent telling people they were on standby without telling they were on standby. I could feel the collective blood pressure rising.

After all the seated passengers boarded they began to call names. Mine was second. As number one and I approached the scanner, the woman next to me announced over my shoulder to the gate agent, “I have to be on this flight! I was supposed to be there last night and my father is dying!” I looked at her face and it erased my first thought which was, “she’s good.” She was either Meryl Streep or in sincere agony. She wasn’t acting.

I looked at my ticket. I had already lost 12 hours of my vacation. Was I ready to give up a day or day and a half? My dad was old too. I made the mistake of looking at her face again. It gave me undeniable perspective. Damn it!

“Um ma’am, if this is the last seat, she can have mine.” Did I just say that? The gate agent looked up from her computer and stared at me. The woman behind me stared at me then her. The gate agent leaned forward and whispered, “No, there are more seats and you’re next.”

I’m thinking, “Whew, that was close,” and the woman thanks me anyway. I wanted to say how much I didn’t want to do it. I wanted to tell her I’m sorry her father was dying. I wanted to punch the CEO of the airline in the mouth. All I said was, “I didn’t really do anything,” and walked away with a better sense of perspective.