10 Minutes In Travel Hell By Guest Blogger Jennifer Maher

The Con

I was on a trip recently and had an early morning flight to catch (7 a.m.) so I scheduled an airport shuttle.  Expected time of arrival was 4:45-5:00 a.m.  Fine.  At 5:02 I tracked my shuttle on-line, it was eight miles away, not so good.  At 5:06 I checked again, pick up was listed as complete, so not good.

After waiting on hold, customer service told me the shuttle driver had canceled my pick up for some unexplained reason, but had called me a cab which should be there in about 10 minutes.  Okay.

At 5:30 I called again, customer service said they hadn’t been able to get a cab over to me (really?  In L.A.?) so a new shuttle had been dispatched, I could expect it in about 10 minutes.

5:45, I got an automated call telling me my shuttle would be arriving in, wait for it, about 10 minutes. 

6:00, I called again to check on the status of the shuttle, the operator was watching the driver on GPS, he was about two and a half miles away.  The operator figured the shuttle would be there in about 10 minutes, and he was!

I could tell you about the frantic ride to the airport, trying to get through security (x-rays and swabs for explosives, no scanner for my boarding pass) but it would take about 10 minutes, and who has THAT kind of time?

— Jennifer Maher