Customer Service and Traveling Alone with a Child

There are certain people that are good at their jobs. Those people have two choices, either do their jobs with a smile and a kind heart, or make everyone miserable. I ran into both kinds of people on my trip to Eagle Pass this week.
On the second flight back, from Atlanta to Akron, Guppy and I were flying Delta. We had already flown three times, twice on US Airways, once on Delta – each time with mixed results. One US Airways flight was great, with a very helpful flight attendant, and the other stank, with some grouchy old flight-hag. At no point was Guppy ever bad on any of the flights, even when he was projectile vomiting in his car seat. So, on the way back, our first Delta flight was OK, and then we got to the second flight.
It made me wonder why someone like this would even work in a customer-oriented job? She obviously hated her job, and she was really hating me. When you are boarding the plane, they allow people who have disabilities or small children to board first. So, I’m one of the first ones in line. I have a huge stroller, car seat, diaper bag, cooler with formula, and a backpack. I know it’s too much to carry myself, so on all the other flights (as was recommended online) I begged for help. You know, it kind of makes sense that the flight attendant would WANT to help you, seeing as how you can hold up the ENTIRE plane….
So, I got all my stuff to the door of the plane, and I could see her leaning up against the soda cart, waiting for the passengers to get to the plane. I smiled at her, and said, “Hi, could you help me?” and she looked at me as if I had lost my friggin mind. If she could have spit on me, she probably would have, but she rolled her eyes and said, “I can’t get off the plane.” Well, I have 40 people behind me that would have probably wanted Delta Dorkess to get off her lazy butt and help me. So I asked her (still politely), “Well, what do we do then?” She said, “I dunno.” And continued her staring down of me and Guppy, not even moving.
At that point the PILOT got off the plane to help me with the stroller, the carseat, and all the bags. Bless him, but I sure hope we did not interrupt his SAFETY CHECKS! Hmmm, pilot or stewardess help passengers, who knew?
So, I get in the seat, and Delta had put us in 1C and 1D, which are those front seats in the plane with no tray table or place to put your stuff. I asked if I could have another seat, but was told “NO. We’re full.” Arg, I’m not arguing with this utter lack of a woman. So I precariously perched my child into this seat, and placed the diaper bag and the formula cooler on the floor, behind my feet. At that second, this woman told me, “You have to put everything in the overhead bins. Nothing goes on the floor, Love.” Did this hose-beast just call me LOVE? Oh no she didn’t. Its on.
I didn’t get up to put them in my overhead bin. There was no room at that point, because the plane was full. I just put on my seatbelt, and looked at Guppy. So, she comes back over and says, “You are goin to have to put those up.” And I reply, “There isn’t anywhere to put them, and I need access to them for the flight.” And she says, “They have to go up.” So, I handed her the diaper bag, and she looked at me like I was handing her a steaming ball of elephant shit, covered in beetles. She pushed it back at me and said, “You’ll have to make room.” And I said, still seated, “I can’t, and the formula has to remain upright, because otherwise it will spill all over your plane, and then my baby will have nothing to drink, and he will scream the whole flight.”
She took the bag from me, and started shoving it in the overhead bin. I was still somewhat in shock that this Delta Dingleberry was being so nasty to me, that I just kind of watched while she was shoving the formula bag. I decided not to get up at that point and start fighting with her, only out of the fact that I had Guppy with me, and we couldn’t afford to get kicked off the plane, or tazed, or whatever they do to unruly passengers. Guppy and I just sat back, and as soon as the plane took off he fell asleep, and I got the formula out of the overhead bin. This woman then proceeded to ran my with her large hips every time she passed by.
Well, we got off the plane, and headed for the rest room at CAK. The bathroom was empty, except for a janitor lady mopping the floors. I laid the Gupper down on the changing table (which was marble, by the way. Who makes a marble changing table?) and started taking his diaper off. I told him “Ew! You’re stinky!” and the janitor lady came over and handed me a trash bag. She said, “I was just going to start getting the trash, so if you want to put the diaper in there, I’ll put the other trash over it so it doesn’t stink.” This lady was so nice. Her and I chatted about how hard it was to travel alone with a baby, how she liked kids, and how much she liked her job. She was such a pleasant change from what I had just experienced.
Some people are happy with their jobs, no matter what they do, and some people are just nasty. It’s a shame that I could write so much about this rude lade, and not as much about how nice the janitor was to me. But its funny how customer service works. It left a sour memory for Delta in my head, but a really nice on for the Akron Canton Airport.