(Halfway into a three hour and forty-five minute flight, a well-dressed and seemingly educated passenger rings her call button. She is frantic.)
Me: “Hi, how can I help you?”
Passenger: “I’m going to miss my connecting flight!”
Me: “No, we’re on time. All connections will be made.”
Passenger: “No! I’m going to miss my connection!”
Me: “All reservations are made so as to give you plenty of time to make your connecting flights, even if we’re a little late. But we’re scheduled to arrive on time today.”
Passenger: “Well, if we arrive on time, then I will miss my connection!”
Me: “May I see your ticket, please?”
Passenger: “I. Don’t. Think. You. Understand! It is a three-hour and 45-minute flight. So if we left Philadelphia at 9, then we won’t get into Denver until 12:45. MY flight leaves at noon. SO YOU SEE, I AM GOING TO MISS MY FLIGHT!”
Me: “Oh, oh…no…Denver is on Mountain Standard Time. We arrive 10:45.”
Passenger: “10:45?! How is that possible? Do you even know what you’re talking about?!”
Me: “Philadelphia is on Eastern Standard Time.”
Passenger: *blank stare*
Me: “Philly and Denver are in different time zones. There’s a two-hour time difference.”
Passenger: *blank stare*
(I try to explain to this 40-something woman the concept of time zones. When that doesn’t work, I explain that it’s not the same time everywhere in the world at the exact moment of every day. She doesn’t get it until I explain that that is why we have night and day.)
Passenger: “Oh. Whew. Thank you!”
