~ This is why I do it ~

Delta Reservations, 1965

by Tina~in_ut

For the most part, the calls I get at work are boring. They are the same thing day in and day out: stupid questions. My main job is customer service, but those challenging calls are few and far between now, for various reasons. I'm also newly trained for CRO (Complaint Resolution Officer) calls, but haven't had many of those yet, thank God. A CRO takes calls from disabled passengers who were treated poorly. We take these calls very seriously and to me, these are the scariest calls ever. We get everything from assigning blocked seats because the passenger has an emotional support animal or fused leg, to complaints because an ordered wheelchair was not supplied, to oxygen requests, or because we lost a passengers wooden leg! (that's another story!)

Today a lady called me and the first thing out of her mouth was that she had a lot of stupid questions. I thought, "You and every other person I talked to today!" ..... but I just laughed. Then she said I was going to think she was an idiot. That got me laughing. I told her that I had just hung up with the idiot! Then she told me the reason for her call. Her husband is on oxygen and needed to fly from Atlanta to Phoenix, but she was concerned because he needs it constantly and she found out that he could not use his own onboard. She couldn't figure out how he was going to get from the car to the plane and then off the plane to the house without us supplying the oxygen. You see, this man cannot even walk from his bed to the living room without it and she was sure he couldn't take his through security.

When we get a call having to do with any kind of disability, we are not allowed to answer any question off the top of our head. We have to look up the answer every time, even if we know it. If the FAA audits us and we answer without pausing to look up the information, we get fined A LOT of money. I don't seem to have a problem pausing! In fact, this woman was on hold for a long time. I looked up all the information we had on oxygen and was asking my boss about the situation. I even googled to find out where this woman could get oxygen for her husband.

When I went back to her, before I could even tell her what I found out, she told me her "story." Her husband was dying. He didn't have long to live. When he was told of this, his wife immediately set out to find the daughter he hadn't seen in many years. The man's ex-wife had kidnapped the girl when she was young and told her that her father didn't want to have anything to do with her. The girl was even told her father's name was something other than what it was. The lady found her on MySpace. She's 23 years old and has a daughter of her own now. The lady's greatest wish was to reunite her husband with his daughter. They have talked on the phone, but haven't seen each other.

When I told the woman that her husband could bring his oxygen as far as the jetway, that we'd store it for him during the flight while he used the oxygen we would supply, and then his would be returned once the flight landed, the relief, pure joy, and excitement in her voice made me cry. I've had nasty passengers make me cry before, but I've never had a nice one cause tears. She was so happy. In her eyes, I was responsible for reuniting her family, although we all know that's not true. I don't even know this woman's name, but the 20 minutes I spent with her on the phone will not be forgotten soon. Calls like hers are the reason I do the job I do~