Saturday, February 2, 2013

Calm Cool Collected in Chicago



Question: What should you do when someone is applying a rule to you which is to no one's benefit?

Answer: Remain calm, cool and collected. 

For example, while dealing with the Delta ticket agent today who explained that she would be checking my bag to Hartford, even though she could see that my ticket had been changed to transfer at Detroit to head back to Paris. Her point was, (if she even had a point) that originally I had purchased a ticket which included a Hartford leg, so she would have to apply the rule of not "short checking the bag", which she would be doing if she checked it to Detroit only.

We both knew that I had already spent 30 minutes on the phone with a Delta ticket agent and then her supervisor to have this corrected. And yes they had already charged me $192 to not fly on the Detroit to Hartford bit. But rules are rules, even if they are not real rules, and she either needed to send my bag to Hartford today or charge me $150.

Clearly arguing and explaining were getting me nowhere. So I took that negative energy and turned it right back into her, like some weird kung fu move learned in a previous life.

I said, "Okay. I understand. Go ahead and send the bag to Hartford. I am not going there, so once I arrive in Paris I will ask them to go ahead and send it to me in Paris."

Huh.

End of disagreement.

My bag is on its way to Paris, with a brief stop over in Detroit. No extra charge. I am trying not to gloat.