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Actual Stories by Travelers
The following are actual stories told by travelers from Mendocino
County, California to travel agents in the UK...
A man called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked
what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting
an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that is not possible, since
Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, "Don't lie
to me. I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state."
A client called in inquiring about a package to Hawaii. After
going over all the cost info, she asked, "Would it be cheaper
to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?"
I got a call from a woman who wanted to go to Capetown. I started
to explain the length of the flight and the passport information
when she interrupted me with "I'm not trying to make you look
stupid but Capetown is in Massachusetts." Without trying to make
her look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, "Cape Cod is
in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa." Her response... click.
A secretary called in looking for hotel in Los Angeles. She gave
me various names off a list, none of which I could find I finally
had her fax me the list. To my surprise, it was a list of hotels
in New Orleans, Louisiana. She thought the LA stood for Los Angeles,
and that New Orleans was a suburb of LA Worst of all, when I called
her back, she was not even embarrassed.
I got a call from a man who asked, "is it possible to see England
from Canada?" I said, "No." He said "But they look so close on
the map."
Another man called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas.
When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had a one-hour
lay-over in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car,
he said, "I heard Dallas was a big airport, and I need a car to
drive between the gates to save time."
A nice lady just called. She needed to know how it was possible
that her flight from Detroit left at 8:20am and got into Chicago
at 8:33am. I tried to explain that Michigan was an hour ahead
of Illinois, but she could not understand the concept of time
zones. Finally I told her the plane went very fast, and she bought
that!
A woman called and asked, "Do airlines put your physical description
on your bag so they know who's luggage belongs to who?" I said,
"No, why do you ask?" She replied, "Well, when I checked in with
the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said FAT, and I'm
overweight, is there any connection?" After putting her on hold
for a minute while I "looked into it" (I was actually laughing),
I came back and explained the city code for Fresno is FAT, and
that the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.
I just got off the phone with a man who asked, "How do I know
which plane to get on?" I asked him what exactly he meant, to
which he replied, "I was told my flight number is 823, but none
of these planes have numbers on them."
A woman called and said, "I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola on one
of those computer planes." I asked if she meant to fly to Pensacola
on a commuter plane. She said, "Yeah, whatever."
A business man called and had a question about the documents
he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion
about passports, I reminded him he needed a visa. "Oh no I don't,
I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those."
I double checked, and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When
I told him this he said, "Look, I've been to China four times
and every time they have accepted my American Express."
And you wonder why US citizens generally score less than the
rest of the world on geography.
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