Airports are often busy places with lots of people working, but most of the workers in the airport itself don’t actually work for an airline, but for some type of third party.

The employee in this story worked for a car rental agency, but a customer kept coming to her demanding that she check him in for his flight, even though that would be impossible.

After the passenger missed his flight, he demanded that she give him a car immediately, but there weren’t any available, so he was left stranded.

Yes, I work in the Airport. No, I don’t work for the airlines.

Some background:

There are lots of different jobs at an airport.

I work for a rental car company in a very small airport. Literally, the airport consists of one room with TSA working as a partition between the entrance to the airport and the gate to board the plane.

The front desk of the rental car company is rather large with the company name on it. It’s also the first thing travelers see when the enter the airport, whether it’s coming off the plane or coming in to board the plane.

I’m sure this happens all the time.

So, I’m used to people coming in and thinking we’re an all-knowing information booth for the airport, regardless of the large yellow wall behind me or the big letters on the desk.

Typically, the information that people are looking for is easy enough for me to answer (i.e. when does Alaska Airlines open, what do I do about parking, where is TSA, etc.).

She seems more than happy to help when she can.

All the questions are a bit annoying since the airport is only one room and all it would take is for someone to walk five steps in any direction to get to the right location, but it is what it is.

Also, it is worth mentioning this: it is FAA regulation that airlines have to close down 40 minutes prior to departure. After that time, you cannot check in for your flight and you cannot get a boarding pass.

No way around FAA regulations.

And that is on all systems. You cannot check in on your phone or electronic kiosks with less than 40 minutes before departure. To be clear, this is done for Homeland Security reasons and is not due to staffing issues.

Once the 40 minute mark passes, all staff and passengers have to go to the secure side of the airport and cannot come back until after the flight takes off.

At larger airports, these regulations are either not as well known or not a huge problem since going through security usually causes people to check in for their flight with an hour or two to spare.

Small airports are a whole different story.

But at our little hole-in-the-wall airport, people frequently come in with less than 40 minutes until their flight because TSA takes less than 5 minutes to get through, regardless of the fact that Alaska Airlines sends email updates to let you know to come in 2 hours before your flight.

With all that being said, let’s move on to the actual IDWHL moment:

All seems pretty normal so far.

A customer approached my desk to pick up his rental car. I go through all the paperwork and send him on his way. He comes back a few days later to turn in his car and catch his flight.

It is pretty standard with our customers that they are usually pretty avid travelers and have their travel plans perfected to a T.

She gave him a heads up, but it doesn’t sound like the passenger cares.

So, the customer hands me the keys to the rental, a print of a receipt, let him know that Alaska Airlines closes soon and that if he needs to get his boarding pass or check a bag, do it soon. Customer grunts and carries on his way.

I’ve done my part, so I’m getting ready for the customers that are coming in on the next flight. I hear an Alaska agent make their stereotypical 5-minutes until the desk closes announcement. I keep doing my thing.

Being short staffed is never fun.

Now, usually there are three people working my booth. But due to some complex staffing issues that aren’t worth getting into, I was the only one working that day. Additionally, it was one of our more high-volume days.

So, I was alone, doing a three person job by myself, and attempting to get all the cars I needed ready.

As I finish getting the last car ready that I needed (the car the customer just returned) I come in from my parking lot to see the customer standing at my desk.

Why is he back, and why is he on the phone.

He’s talking on the phone, making it difficult to talk to him and find out what he needs, obviously upset that I wasn’t at the desk constantly. The entire exchange goes like this:

Customer (to the phone): yeah, I can’t find anyone that works here.

puts itinerary down on the desk in front of me

Ahh, no. That’s not even possible.

Customer (to me): check me in.

Me: sorry sir, but I don’t work for the airlines. I just do the rental cars.

Customer (to phone): hold on a sec, she’s being dumb.

No, she works for the car rental agency.

(To me): what do you mean you can’t check me in? You work for the airport, don’t you?

Me: Yes, I work in the airport, but I don’t work for the airlines. If you need a boarding pass, you need to talk to the airlines.

Customer: there’s no one there.

Correct. Just as she warned you some time ago.

Me: yes, so they have to close 40 minutes prior to departure per FAA regulations. You’re going to have to wait until they come back after the next flight takes off.

At this point, the inbound flight has landed and my customers are lining up behind the man at the counter. But the man wasn’t willing to accept my information.

Yeah, that’s the problem sir.

Customer: but I’m supposed to be on that plane.

Me: yes, so unfortunately without a boarding pass, there is nothing anyone else can do. You will have to wait for an agent to come back and get you rescheduled on the next flight out.

Nope, that’s not going to happen.

Customer: well, go to the back and get one of them for me. I’ll wait.

goes back to talking to someone on the phone that’s been pressed to his ear the entire time

What is so hard to understand about this?

Me: I’m sorry sir, my booth is completely separate from the airlines. There’s no way for me to grab someone from the back.

Customer (to the phone): sorry, hold on. It seems like nobody here can do their jobs.

You aren’t going to catch the flight. That option has passed.

(to me): if you can’t get anyone, then how am I supposed make my flight?

Me: unfortunately, you have missed it. You will need to wait for an Alaska agent to come back and re-schedule or call the 800 number on their podium.

Well, that would be an option, but….

Cust: this is just ridiculous. Give me my car back. I’ll just drive to the other airport myself.

Me: unfortunately, I can’t do that either.

Yup, other people have reserved the car already.

I go on to explain how I didn’t have the availability to send a car one-way and how I had to honor my reservations in the order that they’ve come in.

So, everyone piled up in line behind him needed to get their cars first. However, if he was willing to wait for an hour, I could take care of all the customers in line and go out and clean a car to get him to his destination.

Of course he didn’t like the idea, but that is the only option.

He didn’t like that idea either, something about how he would miss his connecting flight if he waited an hour. But, the drive to his next destination would take 3-hours anyways, so he was going to miss his connecting flight regardless.

Cust: you have two options. You are either checking me in for this flight right now, or get me someone who can.

This poor girl, why doesn’t he realize there is nothing she can do?

We go back and forth for another 5 minutes about how I can’t do anything for him, but he wasn’t going to leave until I did something.

At this point, the customers behind him start getting irritable. It’s 7PM, they just want to get into their rental cars and go to their hotels.

Wow, very demanding.

Cust: handing me his phone please explain to my boss how you refuse to let me on this plane.

Me: I’m not refusing to let you on, I just don’t work for the airlines.

Maybe the boss will realize the guy is an idiot.

So I take the phone and explain the situation to his boss.

Me: unfortunately, your employee missed their flight. It didn’t matter that I told him to check in, that the airlines made announcements, or that any other airport would have had this same problem. He was more concerned with his phone than with his travel plans.

Good for her, she should not have to deal with someone like this.

I hung up the phone, passed it back to him, and ushered him out of the way and towards the direction of the airlines desk where he spent the next 30 minutes crying and blubbering to try and get on the flight that had already taken off (the next flight wasn’t until 5AM the next day).

Thankfully, the rest of the people in line were abnormally nice to me. I think they must have heard how rude the man was being.

At least the rest of her day went well. Dealing with people like this would get really old really quickly.

Let’s see if the people in the comments have anything to say about it.

This commenter is too funny.

Right, surely he understands that the airline and car rental team are different.

Wow, this is extreme.

Yeah, what was he thinking?

I bet the boss was not happy at all.

It’s like speaking to a brick wall.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.