Monk, Airport and 192nd flight for 2007

Today celebrated my 192nd flight for 2007, and the last one this year. I drove from Rockford, Iowa to Minneapolis, MN 160 miles through the best of midwest winter to return the Avis rental car. United called me twice while in Minneapolis, MN (lucky me...) to advise my plane had been delayed (shocking). Upon late arrival at Denver's DIA, our gate was occupied so we got put in the penalty box for awhile.

At the bottom of the escalator at the train to the main terminal, in front of me, there was a young man who seemed completely lost, frazzled, tossed his 6 tickets and 2 airline envelopes back and forth, looked both ways at both trains (to C or to Baggage), and I asked him if I could help him when I got down the escalator. Here's what happened in the next hour :) My good samaritan act... He had come from Chicago and on way to San Diego. Luckily his 7:15pm plane was delayed til 11:20pm (United had alot of issues the past few days, many in Denver with weather and flight crews in wrong places). He started at 8am this morning and it was 9:15pm. His bag ended up in Denver, which he apparently had to retrieve and check in again. I said "follow me" to get his bag. He was completely frantic, panic stricken. I just smiled and said "I'll help". My new friend's name is Aaron.

We got off the train, went to the Baggage/Lost Bag Claim office where 10 people were in front of us. Looking at the line, I talked to him and said he should ask to get to the front of the line due to time. He had to find his bag, and go back through security and get back to the later delayed plane. Of course his ticket had the dreaded "SSSS" (meaning "search me a couple times and if I am dumb enough not to know you are going to search me and I have something, send me to jail").

So, he asked me if I would do the talking. Ok - what the heck. What's a few more minutes when it's the last flight of the year? I smiled and asked the line, "Is anyone else here catching a plane in an hour tonight or are your bags just lost or something"? :) Everyone did laugh, and my new friend Aaron moved to the front of the line. I then went to look to make sure his plane still was delayed and at what gate it might be leaving. I came back to announce it was still late, which was a good thing, and the crowd cheered for Aaron.

At the bag counter, no bag. The nice man took 12 minutes looking for a bag in the back and said "did you look around carosels 12 through 16 as we haven't had time to store bags". Ok, I ask Aaron "What color is your bag". You got it - "it's black" (oh joy...........that will be easy ;). We look another 12 minutes and poof - he finds the bag. We race up to checkin for simply checking a bag. The time is now 9:53pm. Aaron says "I am a monk from a monastery in Zurich. I don't do this, it is so hard so thank you, thank you". (I don't think my jaw dropped but it might have been close. He didn't exactly have a robe on.)

At the bag check kiosk, Aaron discovers he is booked on 3 flights and the fabulous automated checkin thinks he's actually leaving January 5, 2008! Amazing. We cannot get a bag check ticket from this machine. I get on the phone with United, talk to a real person at the kiosk and she says "find a real person at the airport". Of course the real person I found was a fake real person as he shrugged his shoulders and said "go wait in that line for that lady". Not good. So I send Aaron to one line and I get to another line that looks sorta like it might happen. Jackpot! We get an opening. A NICE person with empathy and looking out for the customer in us travelers! Aaron gets his bag to the bag mover at 10:15pm.

What I forgot to mention is that Yes, I wanted to be going home to shovel the 10 inches of snow in my yard. Alas, I had to see this through and walked Aaron to the security line. He hugged me, gave me his email, and invited me to a fabulous tour of the monastary when I am next in Zurich, Switzerland. He did tell me I was truly an Angel as a monk is not used to this sort of thing and it was very hard for him to figure all this out. Now I have 2 reasons to get to Zurich (Nicole and Aaron)! I think this is the link to the monestary - seems very popular!

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsiedeln_Abbey