Ordeal at BWI

I know I just blogged, but I feel my experience at the airport yesterday needs to be told.

I left work around 2:45 so I could go home and finish a few things before leaving. I finally headed out around 3:45 and hit some major traffic on 395 which I didn’t expect. At one point I got cut off by a lady with a sticker on her car said "Save the parrots!" Oh, please. Luckily traffic got better and I made it to my cousin Genelle’s with plenty of time.

Genelle gets me to the airport without any problems. I take my little luggage bag which I’ve had since I was 15 and my sister and I nicknamed R2D2 because of how the back wheels slide out and it leans back some. I get to the Southwest counter, excited to see that the line for ticketless customers (this just means you got them online) is much shorter. But just my luck, the computers for self check-in break down as I get in line. With only two people in front of me, it takes 20 minutes to get my whatever the pass was called so I could move on to security. I had to check in at the gate to get my boarding pass.

Security was the best part of the day...no line at all. Probably because everyone was stuck in line with the broken computers.

I get to the gate and check in and get my actual boarding pass. I’m wandering around and I hear over the speakers that they’re paging someone named "James Fulton". They say the name multiple times and I listen closely just to make sure. They were clearly saying James so I ignore it. I wander over to the Hudson news store and buy a snack. As I’m paying, the voice in the PA system comes on again calling my name for sure this time. They’re telling me to dial zero on a courtesy phone. I quickly pay for my stuff and search for a phone. I see one and it’s being used, then I see a second right next to the counter at my gate and it’s being used also. I ask the guy at the counter if there are any other courtesy phones and he says he doesn’t know. How helpful. I wait for the guy to hang up. Finally he does and I dial zero. The voice on the other line says "I’m sorry, but this is Sprint Customer service." Turns out it was just a regular pay phone. I ask the guy at the desk again if there are any courtesy phones at all here. He says he doesn’t know of any because it’s a new wing and they haven’t been put in yet and that I should ask some one "over there". I run down towards the beginning of the wing and ask another lady where I can find a phone. She informs me that there are instructions on the pay phones on how to use them as courtesy phones. I run back to the pay phone and that same damn guy is on it again. Luckily he gets off quickly this time and I see the 800 number to call. I call and get through, but they inform me that whoever was trying to reach me had hung up because it took me so long.

At this point I realize I’ve dropped my boarding pass somewhere the midst of running around. I get in line at the counter again so the Idiot Counter Guy who doesn’t know anything about courtesy phones can print another one out. Then the lady next to him who’s on the phone shouts out my name. "Yes, that’s me!" She tells me my cousin has been trying to page me because I left my cell phone in her car and that someone who works for Southwest named Roberta is going to meet me upstairs just inside of security in the B section. The guy next to me hears this and says "whoa, that’s a ways away." Fantastic. I run run run upstairs and find the area. I don’t see anyone in Southwest clothing so I ask some of the security people and they know nothing and lead me to more people who know nothing. At this point I’m worried because Idiot Counter Guy said if I wasn’t back in time that he’d give my seat away to stand by and also that if someone found my other boarding pass, they could just walk on since you don’t need ID after you pass security.

I’m about to give up and head back towards the gate when a lady calls out for me. It's Roberta she has my phone. Phew. I get to the gate in time. Double phew. As I was waiting to board, I’m holding my boarding pass and a lady comes up and hands me my first one. She tells me her husband saw me walk away from the Hudson news place leaving it on the counter. I guess I had been a little too flustered from hearing my name paged.

All that’s important is I made it on the plane with my phone (and an extra boarding pass). I was sweating and panting and had a middle seat next to a guy who exhaled really loudly through his nose, but I didn’t care. Although if I hadn’t had my mp3 player with me, he probably would not have survived.

I realize it’s my fault I left my phone in Genelle’s car and that it was careless to leave my boarding pass at the little store. BUT...if Idiot Counter Guy had known the pay phone right next to him could be used as a courtesy phone, or even better, had the PA people gotten my name right the first time, there would have been far less trouble.

Last thing...thanks again to Genelle for getting my phone back to me!