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LOA at the Airport…twice!
Submitted by: Steven M
Australia/Hong KongI was flying back from Hong Kong(HK) to Brisbane via Sydney. It is a long trip due to the stopover in SYD and once I had landed I would only have about 1 hour until by connecting flight departed. When I arrived in SYD I had only had 2 hours sleep on the plane and the last thing I need was a long delay in customs. “Your wish is my command”. That is exactly what I got. When I landed seven(7) other flights had been diverted to SYD and arrived at the same time, the line was about two hours long for customs. This was not good. At that moment I remembered the story in the book about the kid at disney land. I closed my eyes and visualised walking past everyone and out the door. No less than 2 minutes later a customs officer walked straight up to me, looked at my decleration card, and then told be to proceed directly to the exit. I was amazed. Then to my further amazement, the officer just walked away and went directly back to her office. She didnt even look at anyone else.
My second airport story happened two months later. I was flying from BNE to HK and because my father is a pilot I get discount tickets, so naturally I chose to fly business class (why not when its cheap). When I checked in at the counter the lady told me that all staff had been bumped back to economy. I was a bit annoyed but what was I to do. I accepted the ticket and proceeded to the waiting lounge. While I was there I was day-dreaming and found myself imagining sitting in a business class seat. Not just seeing it, but I could almost “feel” it. I was startled out of my day-dream by the airport PA system calling my name. I went to the counter and to my surprise, they upgraded me to business class. Amazing! In all of my experience with staff travel (19 years), I have never been upgraded after being downgraded. It has taken me nine months but I am finally understanding in a practicle sense how this all works. Big thanks to Rhonda and the team.