A colleague of mine has to go to Florida the week after next. Today she finally got an email confirming her travel details. Our company has a policy of always taking the cheapest option... So she has to fly to Atlanta, then change on to a domestic flight to get to Tampa. But they've allowed her barely two hours to get through US immigration and customs. Which, as some of us know, is not always enough, unless you're lucky enough to be sitting near an exit and are one of the first off the plane. When I left the office, she was on the phone to the travel people: 'But what the hell do I do if I miss my connection...?' Any other horror stories?
Obviously not an option, but she should see if she can fly to Atlanta on JAL and do her transfer at Narita airport in Japan. I was going to Korea with a transfer to KAL at Narita and it was going to be close. They had a cute girl waiting at the gate for me and another guy and she literally whisked us down to a shuttle van--that we were the only passengers on--and drove us to the terminal our plane was taking off, where they had more people to get us to where we were going. Our bags made it too. The Japanese and the Koreans both have great airlines. Cute young stewardesses, good food, good service. It's wonderful.
It's a Federal Regulation......you must go through Atlanta no matter where you are headed. Flying from Wyoming to Connecticut? Somehow, you will end up in Atlanta eventually. The deck is stacked - it's a rigged game. And they say Southerners are stupid and lazy.......
I love checking for a flight to visit the folks in the south. The first few choices are direct from Newark to either Greenville or Raleigh (depending on which family). Then as you go down the selection list, the connections get sillier and siller. So we can fly direct for $200 per person, or we can fly from Newark, to Chicago, to Philly, to Atlanta, then to Raleigh, for $1500. Hey Honey, which do you want to do?
We used to have all our corporate travel booked through the main office, which sucked because they didn't really know how to book rooms properly for news crews. One time, for example, they booked my and my reporter in rooms at a Holiday Inn in Brownsville, Texas that was literally right next to the Rio Grande. I called my office and told them that I wasn't going to park a vehicle full of expensive teevee equipment that close to the Mexican border overnight and that the reporter and I were going to find safer accomodations. Or another time a few months later when I shot a story at Fort Hood and they got us rooms in nearby Copperas Cove, Texas (where there's nothing as far as restaurants and such) instead of Killeen (which is where Fort Hood really is and it has an abundance of restaurants to choose from). After that, they let us start booking our own rooms for a few years and it worked out well. Since we had a per night spending limit, it's not like we were able to book some fancy suites, but we could book rooms that were safe and close to both food and where we actually needed to shoot our stories. Since last year, however, we've had to go through the corporate offices again. I haven't been screwed yet, but I figure it's only a matter of time. I don't like to travel by plane when I'm working because dealing with all the gear is just too much of a hassle. Fortunately, the last time I had to do it was nearly 11 years ago.
Kill her, take her place, and the Florida Crew and I will meet you at the gate. And, considering the Florida Crew, you ought to be safe...at least from other people.
