This commute included seeing people at the airport that I haven’t worked within a couple of years, a cabbie that pissed me off so much that I purchased a monthly US phone plan so I could use Uber, and lots and lots of UAL patience.
I’d become spoiled travelling to SF on Sunday nights. End to end the entire get-to-the-gate process (taxi, check-in, customs, security, coffee) takes a measly 30-ish minutes.
My first Monday morning commute was an eye-opener and when I arrived at the airport it was Packed (with a capital P). When I asked the nice lady at the United counter if Mondays were always busy, she replied, “It’s like this every morning.”
Customs stopped letting people through because there was simply no space. And, the security line spanned the distance between the machines and customs (easily an hour-long wait). I’m pretty thankful for Nexus… I only had to wait for 10-minutes for both lines.
But then I had to deal with United (UA/UAL)… a.k.a. Usually Always Late.
Flight delays to SF are pretty common… it’s because of the fog. This is why I try to fly on Sundays… because if the flight is delayed (Usually Always) my work week is not impacted. Though I must admit it was nice to see the sunrise over Calgary.
It was rather apropos that I spent the eventual flight reading (and laughing) over Scott Stratten’s The Book of Business UnAwesome. I spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with poor customer service and steering clients away from the experiences he writes about. So, I’ll leave with a quote:
Every time you use a QR code for something and don’t think it through, a kitten dies.
