cww.blog!

I received a number of responses to my most recent entry in the comments section of the entry and on my Mensa introverts mailing list. Most of the responses said, essentially, that I was obviously at fault because I did not show up to the gate early enough. A Mensan even pointed out the really tiny print on the United web site about boarding closing ten minutes before the departure time. Never mind that I didn't get a copy of that with my ticket purchase, presumably because I did not buy them through United. Really, I looked through all the crap I got with my ticket, and that was nowhere to be found.

So, when did the airlines get so cocky? Was management getting pissed because they weren't meeting their on-time quotas?

I remember distinctly one time I was flying from Boston to Dallas on Delta, and I was eating pizza at Logan Airport, when I heard my name called out over the P.A. system in conjunction with something about needing to hurry over to the gate. I had simply lost track of time in my hunger, and so I ran to the gate, all was well, and we still probably left on time. We definitely arrived on time. The gate people probably weren't even done with their pre-flight paperwork by the time I took my seat on board.

Times have changed, I guess, and we consumers are getting the shaft much more than we did in the past. I'll just add "fear of not being able to get on a flight I've paid to take, despite doing everything I can do to get to the gate on time" to my "culture of fear" awareness list.