Begin forwarded message:
From: Eszter Hargittai <eszter.hargittai.062705@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 27, 2005 4:24:32 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Can you prove that you were on a flight?
Dear Dave,
I wonder if any other IPers have experienced something similar
before and
if anyone has suggestions as to what one can do about such a
situation. In
addition to blogging this and sending you this note, I have sent a
complaint to the airline's Customer Relations dept, but am not sure
what
else to do.
Eszter
http://www.eszter.northwestern.edu
Can you prove that you were on a flight?
The other day I found myself in the curious position of having to
prove
that I had been on a flight in order to be allowed to return home. The
only explanation I could come up with for the airline having no
record of
my presence on the flight there is that the gate agent had failed
to scan
in my boarding pass. As far as I can tell I had done everything “by
the
book”. In this day and age of being tracked in so many situations
and so
many ways, I found it an interesting twist that I could think of
no way of
proving (no way that the ticketing agent seemed to find
satisfactory) that
I had, indeed, been on the plane and should be allowed to return
home on
my originally scheduled flight. Details follow.
On Friday, I went to Ohio for a wedding. In the morning I checked in
online, printed out my boarding pass and headed for O’Hare. Everything
went smoothly. There was a short line at security, the agent
checked my ID
and marked my boarding pass, I proceeded to my gate. There was a
bit of
commotion at the gate as several flights were scheduled to be
going out of
the same area very close to each other. However, it turned out
that there
were two doors at the gate and only people on my flight were exiting
through that specific one. Things proceeded seemingly fine. We were
called
to board and being a frequent flyer with this airline, I was
allowed to
board immediately so I did. The agent took my print-out with the
boarding
pass on it. She tore off the upper part and handed back the rest of
the
sheet. I think I recall seeing that she did not scan it in and finding
that curious, but nothing hugely out-of-the-ordinary. (This was
perhaps
the second time I had checked in at home and was traveling with a
printed
boarding pass so I did not have enough experience to know how this is
usually handled.)
I arrived at the Cleveland airport soon after. I realized that I had
neglected to print out the itinerary for my return trip so I went
to the
ticketing counter and asked for a copy of that. I also asked to
have my
seat changed to something closer to the front of the plane. This
was all
fine. The agent pulled up my record (for future reference, recall that
this is all at Cleveland after I had taken the flight there),
changed my
seat assignment and printed out my itinerary including both the flight
information going there and back. There was some confusion over my
preferred seat assignment so she ended up printing out the information
three times. I doubt this made any difference, but I’m mentioning
it for a
detailed and accurate account of everything that happened. I left the
airport.
Next day I arrived at this airport again and proceeded to the machines
that allow self check-in. Neither of the two machines I tried
recognized
my credit card so I proceeded to the line to talk to a ticketing
agent. I
told him the machines were not recognizing me so I needed to get my
boarding pass from him. He asked me where I was going and when. I told
him. I also handed him the flight itinerary the agent had printed
out for
me the day before at that same counter area so he could have all
the info.
He started typing on his machine and looked confused. (The
following is
not verbatim, it’s as close as I can remember.) He said there was no
record of me having been on the flight to Cleveland. Now I got
confused. I
had been at that same counter area just 26 hours earlier having
taken the
flight there and having gotten a printout of my entire itinerary
after the
trip. I said as much. He said I needed to show him some proof that
I had
been on the flight. I asked why that was relevant for my return
flight. I
was not trying to be hostile, I was just trying to understand the
situation and what that had to do with my ticket not showing up. He
said
that since I had not been on the flight there – he did not say “since
records fail to show that you had been on the flight”, rather, he
stated
as a fact that I had not been on the flight – my reservation for the
return flight had been cancelled. Now I got nervous. I could picture
myself having to spend the night in Cleveland. (No offense to
Cleveland,
but that was really not part of my weekend plans.) I said I didn’t
understand. I thought I had purchased the ticket not just reserved
it so
how could it be cancelled? He said they get cancelled if the passenger
does not show up on the first part of the trip. He did not specify the
reason for that and I was too confused at the moment to try to
make sense
of it. At that point I was concerned with getting myself on the flight
home.
He asked for my boarding pass stub from the day before. I
explained that I
had checked in at home and had printed out the boarding pass. I
quickly
realized that (for no good reason) I did still have the rest of
the sheet
so I pulled that out of my purse. I showed it to him. My name, flight
number, seat assignment were all on the sheet. But that wasn’t good
enough. He murmured something about how these home check-ins were
really
making things difficult for them. (I think that’s what he said, it was
under his breath so it was hard for me to understand.)
He told me that he wanted something different. I looked at him
puzzled and
frustrated. I explained that I had been on the flight and the agent
had
printed out my itinerary after my arrival so they must have had some
record of me being on it. He wasn’t satisfied. He asked if I had
checked
in any luggage. I said no. (This should not be too out-of-the-
ordinary for
a one-day trip.) In an accusatory tone (as in: I do not believe
that you
were on that flight) he continued to ask for proof. I was at a
complete
loss. Suddenly I realized that I had gotten a small water bottle on
the
flight that I didn’t think had anything on it to prove it was from the
flight, but thought had been distinct enough that perhaps he’d
take it as
proof. Again, for no good reason, I still had the water bottle
with me. I
pulled it out of my bag. He took it and looked at it and seemed
satisfied.
He said something about how that was fine then, the water bottle
proved
it. I honestly couldn’t tell if he was just being sarcastic.
At this point he proceeded to assign me a ticket.
The only explanation I can come up with is that the gate agent had
failed
to scan in my boarding pass and thus the airline had no record of
me being
on it. This is curious in this day-and-age of security precautions.
How
could an airline not know who is on its flights?
I still cannot think of anything I could have done differently to
prevent
this uncomfortable situation. I replayed Friday’s events. I did
everything
the way you are “supposed to” as a traveller. It also occured to me
that
even if I had simply checked in at the airport (as opposed to
printing the
boarding pass at home), theoretically I could have still NOT
gotten on the
flight, kept the boarding pass stub and left the airport so I
don’t quite
see how that would have been better proof of my having been on the
flight.
It made me feel better to know that because I am such a pack rat I
still
had the remains of the boarding pass printout and the water bottle
with
me, although in the end I cannot tell if they helped at all.
The most disturbing part of all this for me – beyond the fact that the
airline did not know I was on the flight, which seems unfortunate
in case
something happens to the plane – was the accusatory tone of the
ticketing
agent and the assumption that I was lying about having been on the
flight.
I don’t know what I could have done any differently, I cannot identify
having done anything wrong and so it was disturbing to be accused of
having been responsible for this situation and being treated so
poorly. Am
I missing something?
It sounds a bit silly that “the most disturbing” part to me was having
been treated poorly. I meant that on a personal level. Of course,
overall,
the really disturbing part is that the system is set up in a way that
something like this can happen.
http://crookedtimber.org/2005/06/27/can-you-prove-that-you-were-on-
a- flight/
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as jcp@xxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-
people/