To Paris

In all the trips I've taken recently there's been one constant, the airlines suck and a large percentage of the people who work for them should never be allowed to interact with customers. Let me just say that everything ended up fine and we are safely inhabiting out little apartment neat the Eiffel Tower.

The night before the trip, US Airways (Formerly known as US Air or more frequently US Scare) sent an e-mail suggesting that I check in in advance. I started to do so and was given the option of upgrading to first class for a modest fee. I was concerned because there were 4 of us and I wanted to sit at least in pairs so I called the reservation line. The very nice woman there said there were 4 seats and that although she couldn't guarantee the exact seats, that there'd be no problem with us sitting together. Needless to say, the next evening at the airport the ticket agent, known only as William R (they are smart to not put their last names on their tags) could not have been nastier, more sarcastic, or less sympathetic as he sat us in 3 separate places.

I come from what you'd call a client service background, the basis of which is having a true understanding of your customer and being able to translate that into whatever action will bring them satisfaction. If it simply isn't possible, you do the best you can to sympathize with and assuage their feelings of disappointment and frustration and perhaps suggest ways they can improve their situation beyond what you personally can do. Let's just say that William R lacked the necessities to do this. Again, it turned out fine, we got other passengers to switch so we could sit together. Then we got to Paris airport.

Have you ever gone down an escalator when there's a big crowd at the bottom and you get a little scared that you're going to get squashed into them by all the people behind you? Well, that's what we go as we made out way to Passport Control. I'm sympathetic to the airport people. After all, who could have anticipated that several large airplanes would arrive at the world's 6th busiest airport during the busiest travel week of the year? Two, count 'em, two agents at a window in a very small area with a moving walkway disgorging a constant stream of people. Disaster was averted only because people started crawling under barriers and because the intrepid passport control agents ceased to actually exercise control. Stamp 'em and move 'em through.

Anyway, here we are. We had a nice walk down the Champs Elysees and a pleasant dinner and now it's time for bed. Not many pictures yet but I'll try to upload some tomorrow.