It's been an interesting week of travel adventures for me (stay tuned for my future article on being "Pistol Whipped through the Friendly Skies"). Today, thank God, I made it to Jamaica safely, in spite of the well-known budget airline I selected for the trip.
During the flight home, I was tapped on the knee by the flight attendant and told in a patronizing tone that I needed to listen to the announcement on Exit rows since I happened to be seated in the exit row. Ok, fine - I was on my cell, so thanks for getting my attention...but even if I overlooked your tone, was a knee tap really necessary? Incident #1.
Some time after the knee tap, I tolerated being treated like a kindergartner. How else do you explain the fact that my fellow passengers and I were told to be verrry careful filling out our customs forms, to not "rush completion", or "make any mistakes" because there were only a limited number of forms available. Do I really look like I would have difficulties correctly completing my name, address, and passport number? Incident #2.
I landed in Kingston starved and dehydrated as I refused to pay $2 for water and ignored whatever ridiculous price they were hawking for food. No big deal...I was in good spirits - very happy to be home.
I made it through customs relatively quickly and patiently waited for my luggage at carousel 2. I waited, and waited until I heard the announcement that there were no more bags coming. My two checked bags hadn't arrived. Tomorrow is Christmas day. I have one outfit - and I happen to be wearing it. Incident #3.
I will fast forward past the painful process of filling out the luggage claims forms, past my advising the budget airline staff on how to effectively manage an irate crowd, and skip over how I maintained a sense of calm throughout an extremely tedious 2-3 hours, where there was limited communication from the budget airline staff*. I will fast forward right up to the point where I shake my head vigorously, point my arms to the heavens and ask no one in particular a critical question:
What on earth is the benefit of a budget airline, if they
a) charge you for every single service (e.g. a sip of water, each piece of checked luggage, which have yet to arrive),
b) treat you like a moron and
c) do not even provide you with a cheap deal on ticket prices?!!
*At this point I stopped counting the number of incidents
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