the 100% directionless thread

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I do things that make me look cooler than I really am.
 
Want to hear a story?

This morning, I hopped on a plane to fly from PDX to DFW and I was scheduled to make a connection from Dallas to Columbia. Through some some sort of American Airlines company issue, we had a ground delay on the taxiway at PDX that caused us to be 45 minutes late to Dallas. Not an ATC delay, a company delay. (Remember that, it's important.)

Because I'm 6'1" and a bigger guy, I decided to purchase a first class upgrade at the check in kiosk for the second leg of my flight from Dallas to Columbia. I NEVER buy upgrades, but I was in a crappy seat and there was nothing better available, so why not?

Anyway, because we were 45 minutes late, I knew the connection to my next flight would be tight. I was able to get right off the plane, run to the ridiculous train that goes to the B gates at DFW and got to my gate about 10 minutes before departure. Mitch, the extremely unhelpful gate agent told me the flight was closed. I said, "can you just check?" Nope. No way. Against policy. I said, "Hey man, the door is still open, the jet Bridge is still at the door and I need to get on this plane". He said, "Nope. The flight is closed". And then he really became kind of a jerk about it when I asked if there was a supervisor around. I figured I wasn't going to press it, because I could see myself getting tazed by an overzealous security guy, "Sir! The ramp agent said the fight was closed!" Bzzzzzzzzttttt!

Well, hell. Now I'm screwed.

I stood at the window while I called the AA 800 number to rebook a a flight. For the next 10 minutes I watched ramp agents go in and out of the plane and at least 25 minutes went by before they pushed from the gate. But they wouldn't let me on the plane.

Okay. So now I've missed my flight to Columbia and lo and behold, there's no other flight leaving for Columbia tonight. Why Columbia? Well, because that's where my truck is. Long story. They got me on a flight to Savannah that gets in at midnight. And, because I need my truck, I'm renting a car to drive to Columbia and then I'll return it there and collect my truck, paying another day of parking. Oh yeah, did I mention that AA isn't going to refund my upgrade for the flight that they caused me to miss? Great service.

So, in a nutshell, I'm out the upgrade. The cost of the car rental. The extra day of parking and I get to deal with the inconvenience of having to DRIVE from Savannah to Columbia to get my truck and then drive back.

Done with American Airlines. Done.
 
Last edited:
DEmedic said:
Want to hear a story?

This morning, I hopped on a plane to fly from PDX to DFW and I was scheduled to make a connection from Dallas to Columbia. Through some some sort of American Airlines company issue, we had a ground delay on the taxiway at PDX that caused us to be 45 minutes late to Dallas. Not an ATC delay, a company delay. (Remember that, it's important.)

Because I'm 6'1" and a bigger guy, I decided to purchase a first class upgrade at the check in kiosk for the second leg of my flight from Dallas to Columbia. I NEVER buy upgrades, but I was in a crappy seat and there was nothing better available, so why not?

Anyway, because we were 45 minutes late, I knew the connection to my next flight would be tight. I was able to get right off the plane, run to the ridiculous train that goes to the B gates at DFW and got to my gate about 10 minutes before departure. Mitch, the extremely unhelpful gate agent told me the flight was closed. I said, "can you just check?" Nope. No way. Against policy. I said, "Hey man, the door is still open, the jet Bridge is still at the door and I need to get on this plane". He said, "Nope. The flight is closed". And then he really became kind of a jerk about it when I asked if there was a supervisor around. I figured I wasn't going to press it, because I could see myself getting tazed by an overzealous security guy, "Sir! The ramp agent said the fight was closed!" Bzzzzzzzzttttt!

Well, hell. Now I'm screwed.

I stood at the window while I called the AA 800 number to rebook a a flight. For the next 10 minutes I watched ramp agents go in and out of the plane and at least 25 minutes went by before they pushed from the gate. But they wouldn't let me on the plane.

Okay. So now I've missed my flight to Columbia and lo and behold, there's no other flight leaving for Columbia tonight. Why Columbia? Well, because that's where my truck is. Long story. They got me on a flight to Savannah that gets in at midnight. And, because I need my truck, I'm renting a car to drive to Columbia and then I'll return it there and collect my truck, paying another day of parking. Oh yeah, did I mention that AA isn't going to refund my upgrade for the flight that they caused me to miss? Great service.

So, in a nutshell, I'm out the upgrade. The cost of the car rental. The extra day of parking and and I get to deal with the inconvenience of having to DRIVE to Columbia to get my truck.

Done with American Airlines. Done.
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I'm really pissed and it didn't even happen to me!! I would love to help you compose a letter to them. :D
 
DEmedic said:
Want to hear a story?

This morning, I hopped on a plane to fly from PDX to DFW and I was scheduled to make a connection from Dallas to Columbia. Through some some sort of American Airlines company issue, we had a ground delay on the taxiway at PDX that caused us to be 45 minutes late to Dallas. Not an ATC delay, a company delay. (Remember that, it's important.)

Because I'm 6'1" and a bigger guy, I decided to purchase a first class upgrade at the check in kiosk for the second leg of my flight from Dallas to Columbia. I NEVER buy upgrades, but I was in a crappy seat and there was nothing better available, so why not?

Anyway, because we were 45 minutes late, I knew the connection to my next flight would be tight. I was able to get right off the plane, run to the ridiculous train that goes to the B gates at DFW and got to my gate about 10 minutes before departure. Mitch, the extremely unhelpful gate agent told me the flight was closed. I said, "can you just check?" Nope. No way. Against policy. I said, "Hey man, the door is still open, the jet Bridge is still at the door and I need to get on this plane". He said, "Nope. The flight is closed". And then he really became kind of a jerk about it when I asked if there was a supervisor around. I figured I wasn't going to press it, because I could see myself getting tazed by an overzealous security guy, "Sir! The ramp agent said the fight was closed!" Bzzzzzzzzttttt!

Well, hell. Now I'm screwed.

I stood at the window while I called the AA 800 number to rebook a a flight. For the next 10 minutes I watched ramp agents go in and out of the plane and at least 25 minutes went by before they pushed from the gate. But they wouldn't let me on the plane.

Okay. So now I've missed my flight to Columbia and lo and behold, there's no other flight leaving for Columbia tonight. Why Columbia? Well, because that's where my truck is. Long story. They got me on a flight to Savannah that gets in at midnight. And, because I need my truck, I'm renting a car to drive to Columbia and then I'll return it there and collect my truck, paying another day of parking. Oh yeah, did I mention that AA isn't going to refund my upgrade for the flight that they caused me to miss? Great service.

So, in a nutshell, I'm out the upgrade. The cost of the car rental. The extra day of parking and I get to deal with the inconvenience of having to DRIVE from Savannah to Columbia to get my truck and then drive back.

Done with American Airlines. Done.
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Geez man that really sucks, im sorry. You restrained yourself a lot more than me, i would've torn the guys head off.
 
DEmedic said:
Done with American Airlines. Done.
Click to expand...

And that's why I absolutely refuse to fly with Americant. I've been stuck at DFW way to many times with mechanical problems. Plus the customer service sucks. To be honest I almost never fly anymore, much rather road trip.
 
I've noticed that this forum kinda went dead for a while but now its gradually coming back to life. I slowed down posting and took a bit of a break for a while but now I'm going to try to be more active. Oh, I also decided finally to show you all my face. (sorry the pic isn't that great)
 
DEmedic said:
So, in a nutshell, I'm out the upgrade. The cost of the car rental. The extra day of parking and I get to deal with the inconvenience of having to DRIVE from Savannah to Columbia to get my truck and then drive back.

Done with American Airlines. Done.
Click to expand...

Delta are not any better unfortunately. I had a similar experience on international flights last month.Very surprised if you dont get some sort of compensation though! If you get stuck in Dallas and Im in country gimme a shout I'll put you up
 
It's so weird having two days of every 3 days off...I can dig it though.

Fiancé is working today...what should the pup and I do?


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Hiking? Or drinking lol. Austin has some great dog friendly breweries. Me and the girlfriend are gonna wander up to Houston since I'm off today and so is she.
You think your schedule is.weird, try having four in a row off every week if you dont pick up ot
 
I am really starting to feel used at one of my services.

When I signed on, it was to be on call every fourth day, 12 hours on weekdays and 24 on Saturdays and Sundays. I was at the time also working at a grocery store in town, so I could be at work and on call at the same time.

After a while, this one rather incompetent person had to leave after his training permit ran out; my supervisor asked me to take 8 hours each Monday and Tuesday morning. Sometime in there I quit grocery and started caregiving one day per week out of town, of which I would skip every fourth week so that I could be at this volly service. I also joined another service where I set my own schedule.

About a month ago, another trainee who was filling out a crew had her training permit out. At this point, my supervisor informs me that she, myself, and my younger sister are the only people who are in town during the day, so either myself or my sister will need to be on call 6a-6p Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday IN ADDITION to the hours that I'm already covering. This was only supposed to be for a few weeks. At the time, I thought that that was an unreasonable schedule, but I agreed to do it for a few weeks.

Here's the kicker. The person that they were planning have take an accelerated course and fill out a crew after those few weeks ended up signing up for the regular length course, starting in August. A few weeks turned into months. I told my supervisor that I was fine taking a lot of days, but I didn't want to do nights and weekends any more. After some time with her just plain not getting back to me, I followed up and was told that she didn't "have another EMT to put in that spot." Total BS. The other volunteers have day jobs, they could fill those night and weekend hours easily.

I'm just flabbergasted that she didn't even think to ask me if I was willing to extend my original commitment. Then when I straight up told her that it was too much and politely requested to be taken off the nights/weekend schedule, she didn't even respond until I asked again after over a week and then it was a refusal. I'm mad now. I'm scheduled for 86 hours on call this week. I cannot be home during that time, because I stay in town while I'm on call. My supervisor know this. I haven't been able to schedule hours at the other service and I've significantly rearranged my life in other ways. I would have cheerfully done that for a few weeks to help the service and because I'll need to use this supervisor as a reference.

However, the casual assumption that I would be fine putting an EMS service above everything else in my life has really ticked me off. This isn't even a great service. I run with the supervisor mostly and she honestly doesn't know medicine that well. I have been chewed out for bringing things up on calls that I saw were being overlooked. And by "bringing up," I mean the "hey, maybe you want to consider such and such" line which I've always been told is completely appropriate between professionals. The straw that broke my respect for this service was when the sup snapped at me for flipping through the lead views on the cardiac monitor. She directly told me not to touch the monitor because I was going to screw things up. I'm not an idiot, I understand how to work the most basic monitor functions without breaking anything.

Also, I just got my quarterly check.. for 500 dollars.

Yeah, I just want to walk away at this point. Instead, I'm going to email her and give a two week notice after which I will not do nights or weekends and if that's a problem, she'll have to find someone else. Then I'll stick it out until I find better employment, get the heck out of Dodge, and strongly advise my younger sister to do this same. This is not how EMS is supposed to be.
 
I say get out.
 
Seirende said:
I am really starting to feel used at one of my services.

When I signed on, it was to be on call every fourth day, 12 hours on weekdays and 24 on Saturdays and Sundays. I was at the time also working at a grocery store in town, so I could be at work and on call at the same time.

After a while, this one rather incompetent person had to leave after his training permit ran out; my supervisor asked me to take 8 hours each Monday and Tuesday morning. Sometime in there I quit grocery and started caregiving one day per week out of town, of which I would skip every fourth week so that I could be at this volly service. I also joined another service where I set my own schedule.

About a month ago, another trainee who was filling out a crew had her training permit out. At this point, my supervisor informs me that she, myself, and my younger sister are the only people who are in town during the day, so either myself or my sister will need to be on call 6a-6p Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday IN ADDITION to the hours that I'm already covering. This was only supposed to be for a few weeks. At the time, I thought that that was an unreasonable schedule, but I agreed to do it for a few weeks.

Here's the kicker. The person that they were planning have take an accelerated course and fill out a crew after those few weeks ended up signing up for the regular length course, starting in August. A few weeks turned into months. I told my supervisor that I was fine taking a lot of days, but I didn't want to do nights and weekends any more. After some time with her just plain not getting back to me, I followed up and was told that she didn't "have another EMT to put in that spot." Total BS. The other volunteers have day jobs, they could fill those night and weekend hours easily.

I'm just flabbergasted that she didn't even think to ask me if I was willing to extend my original commitment. Then when I straight up told her that it was too much and politely requested to be taken off the nights/weekend schedule, she didn't even respond until I asked again after over a week and then it was a refusal. I'm mad now. I'm scheduled for 86 hours on call this week. I cannot be home during that time, because I stay in town while I'm on call. My supervisor know this. I haven't been able to schedule hours at the other service and I've significantly rearranged my life in other ways. I would have cheerfully done that for a few weeks to help the service and because I'll need to use this supervisor as a reference.

However, the casual assumption that I would be fine putting an EMS service above everything else in my life has really ticked me off. This isn't even a great service. I run with the supervisor mostly and she honestly doesn't know medicine that well. I have been chewed out for bringing things up on calls that I saw were being overlooked. And by "bringing up," I mean the "hey, maybe you want to consider such and such" line which I've always been told is completely appropriate between professionals. The straw that broke my respect for this service was when the sup snapped at me for flipping through the lead views on the cardiac monitor. She directly told me not to touch the monitor because I was going to screw things up. I'm not an idiot, I understand how to work the most basic monitor functions without breaking anything.

Also, I just got my quarterly check.. for 500 dollars.

Yeah, I just want to walk away at this point. Instead, I'm going to email her and give a two week notice after which I will not do nights or weekends and if that's a problem, she'll have to find someone else. Then I'll stick it out until I find better employment, get the heck out of Dodge, and strongly advise my younger sister to do this same. This is not how EMS is supposed to be.
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And you're not being paid for this?

Quit.

Even if you are being paid for it.

Quit.

The reason we are treated the way we are is people are willing to put up with crap like that.


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TransportJockey said:
Hiking? Or drinking lol. Austin has some great dog friendly breweries. Me and the girlfriend are gonna wander up to Houston since I'm off today and so is she.
You think your schedule is.weird, try having four in a row off every week if you dont pick up ot
Click to expand...

I took the dog to the river then went to the gym. Gonna head to the pool in a bit. If I wasn't on the $5 till Friday budget drinking would be involved right around now haha.


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Handsome Robb said:
I took the dog to the river then went to the gym. Gonna head to the pool in a bit. If I wasn't on the $5 till Friday budget drinking would be involved right around now haha.


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Click to expand...
See, you clearly need a better stocked home bar. That makes the alcohol feel free, and free=better.
 
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