"Your emergency is NOT my emergency"

That’s my boss’s favorite quote. When someone forgets to tell her something, or give her a heads up about something she needs to do, she does not stress herself out when they tell her at the last minute. She simply says, “Your emergency is not my emergency. I’ll get it done when I can.” I should really have that attitude towards more things.

Today as we checked in for our flight this guy came rushing up from behind us, and was making his way down the row of self check-in terminals asking everyone, “Are you done? Can I use that? I’m going to be late for my flight!”

Thank heavens he finally found one after he asked us twice.

You know that even when you “self check-in” you have to wait for the Delta agent to put the sticker thing on your bag so it goes to the right destination. So, when she walked up and called my name, I answered, and she leaned down to put the sticker on my bag. She slid the gate claim tickets to Josh, and says, “here are your baggage claim tickets.”

The guy steps up from the kiosk beside us and says, “Are those mine? I need your help, I’m going to miss my flight and this won’t let me check in!”

So, the Delta agent says, “No, sir, those are their tickets. I’m helping them right now.”

“But I’m going to miss my flight! I need you to help me!”

“Sir, we have an order here. They were first in line, then this young lady (pointing to the girl next to us), then that couple over there. You were the last one to come up here, and I’ll help you when it’s your turn.”

“But I’m going to miss my flight!”

“What time is your flight, sir?”

“3:09” (I should point out that it’s 2:42 at this point)

“Sir, it might be too late. I’ll help you when it’s your turn.”

Well, at that point our bags were good to go and we had our boarding passes, so we left.

Josh looked at me and goes, “She was a lot nicer than I would have been. I think I would have said, ‘Your emergency is not my emergency, you’ll have to wait.’” I agree, I probably would not have been as nice as she was.

So, kudos to the nice Delta ticket agent at the Knoxville Airport today.

And, for the record, we saw that guy boarding his plane just a few minutes after we made it through security.

p.s. as I'm blogging, I'm sitting in the Detroit Airport. Our flight leaves at 9:30 for Bangor! :)