Bee Travel
Ticket agents adept at impossible
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel
As a wild winter wind whips Western New York, we are reminded of January's fury. There was the (January) Blizzard of '77, and this year we have been blasted twice with wicked, damaging winds. I was thanking God that I had put my 83-year-old mother on a nonstop plane to Tampa the day before the storm, a matter placed squarely in the hands of fate, for this was not a date-specific trip. Rather, it was picking one date out of 365 - though my mother will be the first to tell you that, in her case, earlier is better.

Such fury, while exciting, tests us if we're traveling in it. It further tests the skills of frontline airport ticket agents, helpless to calm such winds, yet charged with finding in an instant substitute travel plans for planeloads of passengers who've had months to put such plans together. This reminds me of the story of a single United Airlines agent at Denver's airport who was rebooking a long line of inconvenienced travelers. An angry traveler pushed his way to the front, and said, "I have to be on this flight, and I have to be in first class!" The agent replied that she was sorry; others were in line in front of him. Unimpressed, he loudly boasted, "Do you have any idea who I am?" Without hesitation, she grabbed the terminal microphone, saying, "May I have your attention, please?" Her voice bellowing throughout the terminal, she said, "We have a passenger here at Gate 17 who does not know who he is. If you know who he is, please come to Gate 17."

I confess it has always amazed me how adept these ticket agents are at what appears (to me anyway) to be trickery - putting 200 percent of passengers (over two days) into 100 percent of seats (for one day - the next day), when a full day's worth of scheduling is disrupted. Given that some travelers abandon their one-day business trips and others find alternate transportation, there are still a lot of people vying for seats. With load factors generally hovering in the 60 to 70 percent range, how can they, with 30 to 40 percent of available seats, manage to absorb 60 to 70 percent of intending travelers?

It all works out because it has to, I suppose. With an inventory that flees with the tick of the clock, there is a tipping point for a traveler that at some point becomes non-negotiable. Had my mother been scheduled to fly on the 30th (the day of the windstorm), it would have become the 31st at best, though given the necessity of a nonstop flight, she may have been relegated to a flight two or three days later (nonstop inventory being severely limited). Despair would have set in, and she, like others in her situation, might throw in the towel, saying it wasn't meant to be.

That didn't happen this time. Divine Providence is to thank for steering us to book her on a flight the day before the wind whipped. Some things are just not in our hands. Thank goodness.

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globe-trotting as a member of the travel industry. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, NY 14231-0150.)