![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Delta-Email-2019-05-03.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAnd this was Delta’s reply:<\/p>\n
I was snippy.\u00a0 When scanning my boarding pass as part of Main Cabin 1 to get on the plane, I got pulled aside to have my passport checked.\u00a0 Apparently scanning it online when I checked in yesterday and this morning at the airport wasn\u2019t sufficient\u2026 or the various databases aren\u2019t synced or something.\u00a0 But I was annoyed that this was the THIRD time my passport had to be scanned\u2026 and I lost my place in boarding.\u00a0 With visions of my carry-on not fitting in any remaining overhead bins and having to be \u201ccourtesy checked\u201d to my final destination \u201cfor free\u201d (ugh), I slouched over to the gate agent and showed her my passport.\u00a0 For the third time.\u00a0 And I know I was a snippy, snitty, whiny, awful, arrogant, annoying traveler.\u00a0 But I was annoyed and felt like once again an airline saw me not as a person, or even a customer, but as cargo that could be shoved, dropped, flipped, and mangled as if I were a suitcase in the hold.<\/p>\n
So I was a jerk to this gate agent.\u00a0 And even as it was happening, I knew I was being a jerk but also being human I didn\u2019t give a flying fig.\u00a0 It was only after I had boarded and found an overhead bin that I could toss my bag that I took a breath and realized this poor gate agent was only doing her job.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t her fault that the faceless airline bureaucracy was awful.\u00a0 This wasn\u2019t Nuremberg for goodness sake; it was perfectly acceptable in this case that she was just following orders.\u00a0 And I shouldn\u2019t have been a jerk.<\/p>\n
In my head, I was composing an email to Delta to explain that I\u2019d really like to apologize to the gate agent working flight 811, LAX to JFK.\u00a0 As I was doing so, a frazzled woman had to get into the middle seat next to me.\u00a0 She had missed her flight in the morning because her son had overslept and hadn\u2019t picked her up and with a last-minute uber ride she was only able to check her luggage but not get to the gate on time.\u00a0 This after having paid for the mileage multiplier and upgrade to business class.\u00a0 Now she was saddled with a middle seat way back in Basic Economy\u2026 and with a later flight delayed all the more so on the tarmac, she was really pushing it to make it from JFK to Penn Station for her 8:55 PM train upstate for a wedding.\u00a0 She was having a day.\u00a0 And as I heard asking the flight attendant if there were any open seats a bit farther up if only so she could deplane sooner to try and make her train, I thought of Karma, of consequences, of the small random acts of gestures and kindness that might make the world a bit better.<\/p>\n
I offered her my aisle seat, telling her it wasn\u2019t much but was at least better than a middle seat.\u00a0 She was clearly touched and appreciative that anyone would offer anything on a day of mishaps and declined\u2026 but we struck up a conversation.\u00a0 She really had been having a day and a half.\u00a0 Her wireless Apple headphones were dead and she didn\u2019t have the adapter to plug them directly into the mini-jacks.\u00a0 I had a spare set but they were from AirChina and had the two-prong interface rather than the single one.\u00a0 She wound up having to pay $2 for a pair.\u00a0 Amidst her charges for upgrading, she had also pre-paid for WiFi on her flight\u2026 but for some reason, that didn\u2019t carry over to this one so she had to re-purchase WiFi access to get some work done that had come in at the last minute.\u00a0 The Uber ride had cost her $135 to get to LA\u2026 and even with that exorbitant fare she didn\u2019t make the flight.\u00a0 Despite the setbacks and frustrations, she was incredibly nice and a strong proponent of karma herself; I felt like if any good karma came my way from the smallest of gestures in offering her a seat, I would prefer it go right back to her to make sure she makes her train.\u00a0 If this were a TV commercial, it\u2019d be like a Discover card karma credit plan with karma back savings.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Every so often you come across people who remind you that the world is not a cesspool of selfishness and a depressing land of obliviousness.\u00a0 Shay (surname redacted) is one of those people who is a good soul having a bad day.\u00a0 I like to think I\u2019m a good soul\u2026 but I know I\u2019ve had bad days.\u00a0 And sometimes all it takes is a brief moment, the tiniest of efforts to try and break a bad day\u2019s cycle and turn it around.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure I did much for Shay other than provide a knowing nod and a friendly ear \u2013 sometimes that\u2019s all we need.<\/p>\n
Between her vodka and cranberries and my Diet Coke, we chatted about life and (mis)-adventures.\u00a0 She\u2019s an entrepreneur with a wonderful children\u2019s book on loss and grief\u2026 and ways kids can cope and find comfort in the future even in the face of tragedy.\u00a0 She\u2019s also working on a vegan restaurant idea that struck me as a terrific venture.\u00a0 But I\u2019m kinda her target audience \u2013 delicious vegan burgers with street-style grilled onions and veggies?\u00a0 I\u2019ll take four.\u00a0 We likely won\u2019t ever see each other again (I having abandoned social media wouldn\u2019t even know where to look for her, albeit I did scribble down her name for trivia purposes \u2013 more on that in a moment).\u00a0 And yet I like to think in the four or five hours we were stuck on an airplane together, we both helped one another find balance in the universe.\u00a0 In this chaotic world of rising despots, threats to democracy, and bloody headlines the likes of which I can\u2019t recall in my lifetime, it was a good reminder that just because so much of the news is negative and antagonistic and vitriolic, doesn\u2019t mean we the people need to be.\u00a0 We can rise above.\u00a0 We can strive for the world we wish was for everyone.<\/p>\n
But a quick word on trivia.\u00a0 I can\u2019t even remember how this came up \u2013 maybe it was because she was supposed to be up in business class and instead was stuck with me in steerage.\u00a0 But she asked me if I knew what the word \u201cposh\u201d meant.\u00a0 I gave some lame definition about high class and high maintenance excess or something or other.\u00a0 And she said, sure, sure\u2026 but did I know what it meant?\u00a0 Apparently \u201cposh\u201d is like \u201csnafu\u201d in that it\u2019s actually an acronym that\u2019s taken on meaning itself.\u00a0 Shay had to text her mom to double check as she only remembered the first part \u2013 \u201cPort Out, something\u2026 something.\u201d\u00a0 Her mom was sleeping back in LA though was due to hit happy hour at 3 PM (a detail which I loved hearing) so she knew she\u2019d be up soon and could reply to us soon enough.\u00a0 Apparently the whole thing is \u201cPort Out, Starboard Home.\u201d\u00a0 It refers to the preferred cabins on British ships sailing east \u2013 the theory being that the sun fell on the port side on the way out and on the starboard side on the way home, thus you wanted your cabin there for each leg of the journey.\u00a0 So, while it refers to uppercrust living, it also has an etymological significance I never knew.<\/p>\n
I wondered what \u201ckarma\u201d might be in such a scenario and the closest I can come up with is \u201cKevin\u2019s Acting Rotten, [but] Makes Amends.\u201d<\/p>\n
This post and all that came before serve as my attempt to make amends.<\/p>\n
Oh — and Shay \u2013 a pre-your-friend\u2019s-wedding toast: I hope you\u2019re long settled on the train before the conductor calls \u201call aboard!\u201d\u00a0 And may your last minute eBay bid net you that vegan food truck that\u2019s for sale in Florida.<\/p>\n
Also — please don\u2019t be too hard on your son \u2013 we occasionally let out moms down!\u00a0 But hopefully we make up for it before too long.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Post Script — I hurriedly tapped out an email to Delta about the flight crew and it was filled with typos as I was trying to get it off before they shut the cabin door on my connecting flight:<\/p>\n