Something in the Air

And I'm not talking about me. My flight to St. Louis was great. We left on time, the flight attendants were exceptionally friendly and the beverage service prompt. It only took us an hour and twenty minutes to get to St. Louis but we had to circle for a half hour or so until the bad weather passed, then we landed. And that's where the service just went out the door. 

First I went to the Admiral's Club after getting off the plane in St. Louis. The club was packed and the three ladies working the front desk were really cranky. They told me that according to my ticket I needed to pay $50 for access and when I inquired about the club in Dallas allowing me access one of the ladies stood up and started yelling at me saying they made a mistake and that they wanted $50 or I had to leave. Ummmm.... is that really how we treat customers? I would gladly have paid had maybe the ladies not been cranky and unprofessional. 

So back to the gate, waited 15 minutes and boarded the plane. We ended up leaving St. Louis an hour late. once in the air the flight attendant working the first class cabin, Stephanie, began beverage service. I've never seen beverage service from a cart in first class before. And Stephanie was also cranky. She talked as if it were an inconvenience that I wanted a glass of water. She sighed a lot when other passengers had a request. She never smiled, she never offered refills. When getting off the plane in Chicago she didn't smile or say goodbye or thanks.

I'm in Chicago now. I went to the Admiral's Club as I have an 8 hour layover here. Wow, what cranky people here too. They evidently caught the bug in the air causing all employees working in the airline industry to be cranky today. I tried to pay for a Day Pass at the club and was told that I couldn't buy one. Called customer service and they said sure I can, but by now I was frustrated and just went to the USO lounge for military personnel (including retirees). Finally I found someone that was in a good mood. Maybe the lady working the front desk hadn't caught the nasty bug yet, but then again she's not working for the airline industry so she probably was immune to the cranky bug.

After an hour there I took the train over to Terminal 5 (International Terminal). I checked in at the Etihad Airlines desk, got my tickets and quickly made my way through security and on to the SAS Lounge of which Etihad first and business class passengers have access to.

The lounge is okay. It's quite small, no restrooms or showers. Free booze and sodas and a very small limited selection of snacks. I think I'll go into the terminal to find some lunch. There are two ladies working here. The one at the front desk is friendly but the second caught the bug in the air. She was cleaning tables cussing up a storm and throwing stuff on the cart. 

I have about 26 more hours of travel time. Good think I only paid five bucks for this ticket otherwise I would have had higher expectations of service!

The SAS Lounge

My afternoon snack in the SAS Lounge