Home. Stock Futures Falling.

It’s been a rough trip back to the States.  I just found out my screwed up my next itinerary and left an “i” out of my name on the passenger info.  So far the bare minimum fees to correct that are $80; priceline is telling me they need to double check as it involves multiple carriers if they have to rebook me at current fares to cover the name change… i.e. I’d wind up paying an additional fare for my trip to Madagascar that leaves in 6 days.  Buying an “i”s may cost me several thousand dollars.  I’m depressed beyond words and sit here waiting to hear back from them.

Meanwhile, I’m finishing up my Stockholm Marathon review.  Like the blog posts themselves, I thought I did a pretty good job at the time.  But in reviewing the writing and the run itself, it turns out I am a disappointment.

First, my results —

Pretty good, right?  And I could download a non-time displayed certificate for my efforts in three different languages:

Again, I was feeling like, “hey, yeah… I did that…”

And then I scrolled through the official MarathonFotos images.

I look awful.  I look terrible.  Pudgy.  Hunched.  Struggling.  The very model of a modern major lumbering fool.  I rarely if ever like the way I look but these captured moments in time have me body shamed and feeling lousy.  After my experience on a Delta flight last night, wherein a rude flight attendant made me feel ever so much more conscious of my non-svelte self (see my email to customer service below — I didn’t go right out and talk about body shaming but it’s actually part and parcel of the way she made me feel), well, it’s been a rough, rough return to terra firma americana.

Dear Delta,

Shame on your flight attendants of JFK to MCO flight DL203 today, June 5, 2017. They were rude, aggressive, and disrespectful.

I waited for the captain to turn off the fasten seat belt sign and announce it was ok to move about the cabin.  I made my way yo way the back of the aircraft and used the lavatory but as I exited the WC, beverage service had just started.  The flight attendant working the rear section was one row in front of me, i.e. One row from the rear.  I waited for her to finish the row and asked if I could just get past her.  She moved the cart a fraction of an inch in the tiny A320 aisle and dismissively waved me past saying, “go ahead and try.”  She could have moved back one row to let me out of the rear galley/lavatory area but instead she chose to make me squeeze through and encroach on other passengers.  She made a snide comment to herself or perhaps to the other passengers I apologized to as I shimmied and squeezed past the cart.  She mumbled haughtily that the seat belt sign was on (it wasn’t and indeed the pilot had authorized movement about the cabin).

Knowing the recent issues with air passengers I didn’t say anything out of fear of retaliation by the already aggressively rude flight attendant.  Instead I am writing a formal complaint to you about the behaviors of your flight crew.  It was and is an unacceptable way to treat a customer.

I have recently been shifting my flying dollars and habits to Delta but honestly if this is how you want to be represented by your employees and this is how you want to treat not only customers but fellow human beings, I will need to seriously reconsider my travel carrier preferences.

In short, the actions and attitude of your crew working DL203 today were wholly unprofessional and unacceptable.

Sincerely,

Kevin Hanna

Here endeth the Stockholm Marathon posts.  And here beginnenth the Madagascar Musings.