Upidstay!

United Airlines is upidstay. That's STUPID in Pig Latin. Forgive me if you work for United. If you do, you should go find a job at a better company.

Anyhoo...

Our friends Frank and Tammy are coming for the weekend. Tammy is just starting the process of raising financial support for her dance ministry. Basically, she's going to be a full-time missionary. Her sending agency does not offer any training on raising support. Our sending agency, however, does. Matt and I were thoroughly trained before we came on staff with our ministry. So Frank and Tammy are flying out for an intense weekend of training with Matt and me. They left their 9-month-old son back in California. Frank could only get 2 days off work, so their visit is only from tonight thru Sunday late afternoon. That's a very short amount of time to accomplish what should take 5 days.

Well...

The day started off bad when their flight out of California was delayed 2 hours due to a small mechanical error. Because they were flying out of a smaller airport, that small airport had to wait for authorization (from the higher-ups at a bigger airport) to fly after making the repairs. Frank and Tammy had the pleasure of sitting in the plane at the gate for over 2 hours.

Then...

If there were police in the air, the captain would have gotten a speeding ticket. He flew that plane at 540 knots (that's 621 mph), which is 100 mph faster than normal. Go captain! They made up great time in the air, and I thought they were going to make their connection in Denver.

But...

They (and a pack of other from their CA flight) ran, and got to the gate right as the gate attendant had closed the door. And she would not let any of them on the plane. That captain could have held the flight 5 minutes to let all those people on. That plane sat at the gate for another 12 minutes. I know this because I am--according to Tammy--an airplane stalker (only when someone I love is on the plane...don't worry!), and I follow flight progress at this very cool website. It tells you the scheduled stats for the flight, as well as the actual stats. And once the plane has taken off, you can watch the plane's progress on a cool little map!

So...

Frank and Tammy went to the customer service desk to get onto another flight. Guess what? The next flight from Denver to Little Rock does not arrive until 2:30 p.m. Tomorrow.

It gets better...

Since the airline (not the weather) caused this problem, the airline needs to take care of the stranded passengers. They gave Frank and Tammy a wimpy dinner voucher and a hotel voucher. That's it. Seriously? That's almost an insult! Not only are Frank and Tammy losing almost a full day of their already brief trip, they're going to end up having to pay for breakfast and lunch, which otherwise would have been eaten free of charge at my house. And all this after being made to sit at the gate in a stuffy airplane for over 2 hours, and running their tails off through the Denver airport.

In conclusion...

I told them to go back to customer service and push a bit. They should get vouchers for breakfast. Frank will still have to go home Sunday, but the airline should move Tammy's return date to Monday, free of charge. If not, they should receive a voucher for a free future flight, because the airline messed up this trip.

This said...

1. I know that God makes no mistakes.
2. I know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him. I do love Him. So do Frank and Tammy.
3. I know it will all work out okay in the end.

I just needed to fuss a bit.