But Mother Nature says I don't think so!. So I woke up this morning thanking god it was my last day of work for two weeks. I was looking forward to missing breakup, getting some sun and a shot or two of tequila in Mexico. Then Mother Nature decided to piss on my parade.

As many of you know we have been having on again, off again issues with a volcano (Mt Redoubt) about a hundred miles south of us. For the most part it's been a non issue. when it did spurt the the wind was blowing the other way and we didn't hear about it unless it was in the news.

Then today dawns. The one day in almost a year I have flown anywhere the fscking volcano decides to erupt with the wind blowing toward anchorage. So flights canceled. trip delayed by one day. Not that big a deal especially since we could change our tickets for no cost due to the volcano. We had booked a cruise to Mexico but aren't leaving until Monday so that is OK.

Here's the rub. We had very carefully orchestrated meeting our 16 year old niece at the airport so she could go with us. It's her spring break. Our tickets were with Alaska Airlines who was very helpful and understanding. Her's were on United and Delta. What do you think they said, go ahead guess. I will even wait a minute and let you think about it so you can do a little research on google and get an informed opinion.


ok? Ready? Yup you guessed it. Since her flights were not directly effected by the volcano and even though she is a minor flying unaccompanied to the largest city on the west coast and our flights were delayed by a day. They wanted us to pay to alter her tickets. Greedy, uncaring, unwavering corporate bastards. God forbid they give up a few hundred dollars of profit for a good customer experience and possibly gain a little customer loyalty in the process. Instead they chose the greedy corporate route and tried to squeeze ever last drop of blood out of a turnip that had already been wrung out.

This is why in my opinion bailouts won't work. Every company that does stuff like this really ought to go the way of the dinosaur and be given a chance to do what they are so intent on doing anyway and fail. Good Riddance. Maybe, just Maybe what rises from the ashes of these asshats is a company that actually understands that a little patience and understanding goes a long way toward gaining a good reputation with the customer base and might actually cause costumers to have a little loyalty.