Our flights last Friday were to be TVC-ORD-SFO-RNO. Unfortunately, while I was waiting waiting for flight #1, I got the dreaded “flight cancellation” call on my phone. The cancellation was for “air traffic control.” I immediately called the 1K United phone line and explained what had happened.
With Katy out of town and both of us boys planning on a golf weekend, I regretfully agreed to Vegas. It meant my prepaid hotel reservation was gone, my golf reservation was gone, my Priceline car rental was gone, and I had no idea what would happen to my Marriott timeshare stay. Would I be able to recoup those points? It was destined to be a financial disaster. But this was the 1K desk. If anybody could help me, they could. The agent instructed me to head back to the ticket counter at Traverse City to “un-check” us in so she could continue processing our new tickets to Las Vegas.
The ticket agent at the counter was Joe, a baggage handler by trade now who is now tired of dealing with the public and working at a United Express station. I told Joe my story about needing to be unchecked going to Reno so the 1K agent on hold could reissue tickets to Las Vegas. He did un-check us on the Reno destined flights, but did not hand me my Las Vegas boarding passes. His response instead was, “Let me try a few things.”
Joe spent 20 minutes on that computer. Then he ran down to the Delta ticket counter and suddenly we were going to Reno after all! We were booked DL from TVC to MSP and United MSP-DEN then United DEN-RNO.
Joe had saved the day and saved me a few hundreds bucks. We arrived in Reno shortly after our originally scheduled time. I tried to slip something in Joe’s pocket for the effort, but he refused and asked me to write the home office about the station in Traverse City instead. I already have.
