One whole week off (and Why US Airways is horrible)

So much has happened in the last week that I feel exhausted just thinking about it. The highlight and the lowlight are as follows... well, let's start with the bad stuff, shall we?

The Lowlight:
I will never fly US Airways again. As faithful readers know, I was stuck in Seattle due to bad weather. I managed to fly standby to Philadelphia on Monday afternoon. At the Seattle airport, I was hurried onto the airplane at the last minute with no connecting flight to the DC area. I had, however, asked about my connecting flight. I told the US Airways people that I was originally scheduled to fly into Baltimore, but would it be possible to fly into DC instead? Two different people at different times mentioned that they thought this would not be a problem.

When I got to Philadelphia after 10 PM EST, I found out that the plane I had just taken was heading to DC next. I spoke with the two women at the gate about how I didn't have a flight home and asked if could I get on the DC one. They were incredibly unhelpful. They told me that I did have a flight to BWI and that they would have to talk to ticketing to see if a change was possible. One woman got on the phone with ticketing and said that I was "trying to change" my ticket. I said that I was not trying to change my original ticket and that it was not my fault that I had missed my first flight. The nastier blonde woman, who was not on the phone, said that it wasn't US Airways fault either. I pointed out that it made no difference which flight I went on seeing as there were tons of empty seats and it would be a nice gesture on behalf of the airline. The women, particularly the nasty blonde one, showed zero sympathy and told me that their hands were tied and that the airline didn't allow people like me on restricted tickets to get more expensive flights without paying.

I was eventually told that even though there were 70 empty seats on the DC flight, I had to fly to BWI unless I wanted to pay for a new ticket. They didn't care that I had missed my first day at a new job or that I was getting in far later than my original flight would have on the day after my original flight. At this point I was so frustrated that I started crying. These people obviously knew nothing about customer service and one of the women, the blonde again, was downright mean. I asked her to talk to my father on the phone and tried to hand her my phone. She gave me this nasty look, held up her hands, and said something like, "I'm not talking to anybody on your phone. Eeew germs."

Instead of helping a customer in an unpleasant situation out, these women at US Airways helped me get home an hour and a half later than I could have. I studied marketing and so I know that bad word of mouth can hurt a company very much. These women could have had me talking about how helpful and wonderful US Airways is. Instead I will tell everyone I know about how horrible my experience was and I will relish every moment. Thanks a lot.

The Highlight:
With my birthday just days away, the festivities have already begun. I threw myself a party on Friday and a lot of wonderful people showed up. Thanks, you guys! The biggest surprise of all was when my friend Prince came all the way down from NYC for the night just for my party. Definitely one of the best presents ever. Even though I had sent Prince the E-vite with a teeny tiny hope that he would come, I was completely surprised when he showed.

Not far behind in the best-presents-ever list is the book I got from David. How he remembered the cheesy teen novel I mentioned the first time we went out is beyond me. Definitely an awesome present. So awesome that he gets to be mentioned on the blog. David, are you happy now? You get to be my Friendster and you get a blog mention all within the same week. Lucky you. ;)