It's post-cruise clean living Day No. 2, and I found this recipe for veggie-rich enchiladas. But I don't want to write about them.
I want to write about United Airlines. Two days later, I am still appalled at the way every United Airlines employee we encountered treated us as we flew out of Seattle. I have to say: Our luggage made it home, our flights were on time. But just because an experience could have been worse doesn't mean it was good.
I've thought about how to respond. What do you do, when you've been on the receiving end of awful customer service? Usually, I do nothing. I don't write letters or whatever; I just move on, having more important things to think about. For some reason, though, Friday keeps bugging me. Maybe it's because United Airlines' crappiness will now forever be a part of my family's story of our fabulous trip to Alaska, and boy do I resent that. Maybe it's because they made my kids' lives just a little bit worse on Friday. Who knows.
Anyway, when we were Juneau we met up with my dear friend Jenna, who happened to be there at the same time. Jenna co-writes one of my favorite blogs, the Haiku Diaries. She and her co-author explore haiku to its fullest possibility as a succinct, disciplined approach to describing events in their lives. And I was inspired. Boy, was I. The following is going to United's corporate headquarters.
A Haiku Series for United Airlines by a Passenger on Flight 742 from Seattle to Denver on August 6, 2010
Dear Marlys Z., you
Are the Service Director
at Sea-Tac Airport
Marlys, you were so
Mean to a soldier with her
Makeup smeared from tears
Marlys, you could not
Remember what time it was
Although we told you
You insisted she
Was too late to check her bags
Which was just not true
You laughed and laughed as
Though your idiocy or
Her plight were funny
I said, "the lesson
Is never fly United"
To comfort the girl
Marlys Z., you turned
And walked away, snarking
"See if I help you"
Marlys, you did not
Help us even though we stood
in your line for hours
Half of your kiosks
Stood idle on a Friday,
While hundreds waited.
Friday is Cruise Day
You seem to be an awful
Service Director.
The gate agent was
Mean too; she would not allow
pre-boarding with kids
The flight attendant
Shouted her way down the aisle
While our young son slept
I begged her to shh
"If he wakes up, we'll all suffer"
She just sneered at me
"I have to sell my
items," she snarled at me like
sleep was strange to her
(Maybe she hates kids
Maybe she hates parents, or
Maybe she hates sleep)
She managed not to
Wake him up, poor three-year-old
Stuck on her airline
Still, the worst one was
Marlys Z, back at Sea-Tac,
Hating passengers.
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