A Delta Connections flight, operated by Pinnacle Airlines, was canceled out of upstate New York late this week. Big deal, you say, the Northeast was hit by (yet another) big snowstorm at the end of the week; lots of flights were canceled. Well, this is true, but weather wasn’t a factor in this particular instance.

Mechanical problems? Drunk pilot? A bomb threat? An unruly passenger? You’re getting warmer, but, no, none of these was the reason the Rochester-to-Atlanta flight was dropped. Instead, as the plane returned to its gate after a passenger suffered a panic attack, a “spat” apparently broke out between two female flight attendants. The pilot, in ”an abundance of caution,” according to a Pinnacle spokesman, made the decision to cancel the flight. The 75 passengers said they were told they had to get off the plane because the stewardesses were fighting (can you imagine hearing that announcement coming over the speakers?!), and they were found alternate travel arrangements.

We’ve all heard all kinds of stories, some of them quite bizarre, about altercations aboard planes that have led to flights being diverted, emergency landings and the like. This is the first I can recall where a fight between crew members led to this kind of action. The airline spokesman said this was a verbal, not a physical, argument; but apparently it was of such a scale that the pilot felt it was best to ground the flight. I really find that remarkable, as well as dismaying.

Of course, we don’t know (and probably never will) the whole story and its background. Perhaps the captain had flown with these attendants before, perhaps there was a history of unpleasantness between them, and perhaps he had had enough and felt drastic measures were necessary to put an end to it. (The two attendants have been removed from duty pending an internal investigation.) But doesn’t it bother you that two individuals who work in the service sector could not be professional enough to carry out their duties in a civilized manner? Their personal animosity and the captain’s means of handling it inconvenienced a great many people. Ironically, their behavior, in the pilot’s mind at least, was a threat to the safety of that flight — safety which it is their assigned duty to secure.

It leads me to ponder, as I have occasion to do too often these days, the increasing lack of public civility on display everywhere, from the U.S. Capitol to city council meetings, from the grocery store check-out line to . . . the airport. Sometimes it seems that people take their social cues from Jerry Springer instead of Emily Post. I know from reading the many letters to Global Traveler and blog comments here that our readers, many of whom travel the world and interact with a variety of cultures, practice and understand the value of courtesy and respect for others, even when others’ lifestyles or opinions don’t align with their own.

Maybe that’s the solution: Folks who have become too insular and self-centered need to get out and travel more. They need to mingle with their fellow human beings from all walks of life and practice the art of getting along with those different (and yet oh-so-alike, fundamentally) from themselves. That’s assuming, of course, that their flight to a new destination isn’t canceled due to dueling flight attendants.

– Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader

Okay, show of hands, please: Ever felt compelled to re-make your hotel room bed? Odd question, I know, but personally I have been in that position a number of times in a variety of cities and hotels over the years. And you might be surprised when I say that I am not referring to stays at inexpensive interstate inns, but 3-star and better properties and fine resorts.

Am I just an overly particular guest with a fetish for a perfectly made bed? Absolutely not! I will admit that, due to the training of my nurse mother, by the age of eight I could make a bed with hospital corners snug enough to pass muster with a drill sergeant. That is merely to say that if a child can accomplish that task, certainly trained hotel staff should be able to as well. However, I don’t require such perfection in the beds I sleep in now; I just want a bed where the sheets aren’t sliding off the mattress or disproportionately distributed to one side or the other.

Perhaps I just notice it more because I usually travel with my husband, so we’re sharing a bed, and two bodies tugging at the covers are certainly going to reveal any flaws in the bed-making more quickly and obviously than one. Sometimes the trouble is apparent from the moment the spread is pulled down, sometimes it isn’t until part way through the first night, and sometimes it’s after housekeeping has been through to straighten the room after a night or two.

What’s the big deal? A lot of times, the bottom sheet is barely tucked in on one or more sides and becomes all bunched up, leaving one lying partially on the mattress pad and uncomfortable from all the lumps and bumps. In other cases, the top sheet has been arranged with plenty of overhang on one side while it barely covers the top of the mattress on the other, or it hasn’t been secured at the foot of the bed so that one’s feet are exposed to the air or a scratchy blanket. I don’t know about you, but when I’m traveling and sleeping in a strange bed, I don’t need additional annoyances or discomfort to make my rest less peaceful.

I understand that housekeeping staffs are often short-handed and have an enormous amount of work to accomplish in a short time span. And I comprehend the economics of using flat rather than fitted sheets. I still don’t think those excuse a poorly made bed — especially at those finer hotels and resorts that pride themselves on customer satisfaction and service. It takes only seconds to spread the linens evenly on the mattress and securely tuck them in (no more than it takes to just randomly shove them in, as I’ve observed most seem to have been), and that is certainly preferrable to guests having to do it themselves when the bed becomes an uncomfortable, messy tangle.

– Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader

I don’t particularly enjoy reviewing a favorite restaurant negatively, but the purpose of a review is to accurately inform potential customers, and it also allows the business a chance to improve.

My boyfriend and I frequent New York City’s Cafe Centosette on Second Avenue and Tenth Street for weekend brunch. The menu, intimate space, bar and outdoor seating have always been enough to keep us coming back for Sunday brunch — and the service was always up to par.

Until last weekend, it had been some time since our last brunch at Cafe Centosette, so we were both excited to dine there. I ordered the western omelet with egg whites, and my date ordered the vegetable omelet with sausage. I don’t particularly like ham in my omelet, so I made a simple request — substitute sausage for the ham. The waitress told me it would be okay to do this, and she left to promptly place our orders.

I was a bit disappointed when our waitress brought me an omelet with ham in it, but this happens. I was a waitress in high school and throughout college, so I know the stress that comes with the job. Yes, sometimes orders do get mixed up. It is how the problem is fixed that really matters. When I addressed the situation with the waitress, she had an opportunity to make good. Unfortunately, on this particular day, Cafe Centosette seemed to fail in all aspects of service.

Here is a little Food and Beverage 101 — when a customer informs you that you’ve brought them the wrong order, you immediately take it off the table, no questions asked. I know people who break into hives as a reaction to the steam from cooked shrimp. Customers can be allergic, temperamental, or just plain picky — get the order out of their face.

Instead of doing this, the waitress questioned me and said she didn’t hear my request. Then she left me with my plate while she went to check with the chef. Instead of replacing my order, the chef brought me a side of sausage. By this time, I was really aggravated, my food was cold, and I still had the wrong order. I regret deciding to just stick with what was in front of me, but I was tired of trying to spell it out for everyone. The waitress came and apologized after I told her it wasn’t what I ordered. She offered me a complimentary dessert, which I did not want. At this point I just wanted people to stop coming to my table with the wrong items!

The experience doesn’t end there. When we asked for the check, we were charged for everything. And after talking to the manager and waitress twice, they only removed the side of sausage from the bill — a whopping $2.50. I was most disappointed when the manager, who should care about customer service more than anyone else, could not have cared less. I’ve never wanted to walk out on a meal so badly. We didn’t walk out. We kept our cool and paid for both meals, mainly because we were tired of continuously asking someone to fix something. At this point, I just wanted to get the hell out of there, so we did.

I can safely say I probably won’t go back there again. And I hope the manager of Cafe Centosette considers customer service if he would like to keep his frequent customers, and perhaps they should reevaluate their service training for the sake of keeping a healthy business.

– Courtney Centeno, account executive

Recently, I was in downtown Minneapolis.  We were going to attend the Minnesota Twins game against the Chicago White Sox on Sunday afternoon.  We wanted to watch the UFC Pay-Per-View on Saturday evening. We asked our hotel’s concierge where we could find the UFC PPV.  She suggested a couple of bars close to our hotel.  Then, she did the unexpected.  She asked us, what is Pay-Per-View?

This drove me crazy.  First, how could she suggest places if she didn’t even know what it was?  Was she just throwing out random places?  Actually, two of the three she mentioned didn’t even have TVs. Secondly, while I can’t say a concierge should know everything, the UFC Pay-Per-View was a pretty big event.  The main event featured Brock Lesnar, a much-hyped former NCAA champ at the University of Minnesota.

We wandered the streets a bit and found the 8th Street Grill, a very nice sports bar, within blocks of our hotel and showing the PPV.  As the evening passed, several other people wandered in, all saying the same thing — they had been looking for a place to watch the fight.  Jermaine Dye and Brian Anderson of the Chicago White Sox joined the fun after their game.

Aside from my complaint about the concierge, I have to say that somewhere there was a lack of communication.  I don’t know where the responsibility lies, but between the UFC, the PPV provider, the hotels and the restaurants, somehow the information should have been readily available.

It was a bungled situation, a missed opportunity.  People shouldn’t have to search hard to find out such information.  When I rule the world, things will be different.

–John Wroblewski, distribution specialist

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One of my favorite movie lines of all time is from Cool Hand Luke: “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” As intoned by the nasty chain gang captain, it really meant, “For some reason you have failed to follow my rules, and now you will be suffering the consequences for not attending more carefully to my message.” I’ve used the quote often, but usually not (I hope) with that same subtext. I’ve said it to my husband, my kids, my siblings and even my students when I felt the frustration of sensing that I was not making myself clearly understood.

That quote was running through my head today as I surveyed the landscaping work in progress in our unfinished back yard. This is the first time I’ve been able to build a garden from scratch, and I’m not willing or able lay sod or to install an irrigation system, retaining walls and a patio. So we hired a young man and his landscape construction firm to do all the work. David lives just down the street and has worked on several of the yards in our neighborhood, so we’ve been able to see the good work he does. After talking over what we wanted to do and walking through the space to establish where things were going to be placed, we signed a contract and waited for the work to begin. I think it was right about there where the failure to communicate (adequately) started.

 Although I’m a neophyte at working with landscape and construction workers, I’ve heard and seen enough to understand that it isn’t always possible to stick to a hard-and-fast schedule. This is a busy time of year for outside work (even in the slow housing market), and there are several tasks to be accomplished, each with several steps in the process and often with different crews working from day to day. Still, I did expect that at the very least I’d be given a head’s up the day before someone would be showing up to work, and then that someone actually WOULD show up and accomplish something. I also thought that when they were done for the day (whether at 10:30 am or 4:30 pm), someone would knock on the door and let me know they were leaving, let me know what had been done and what the next step would be. Right now I’m sure those of you who are more experienced than I with this sort of thing are probably shaking your heads and saying, “Geez, she IS an innocent, isn’t she?”

Luckily, I work from home and am here most of the time, so I’ve been able to step outside and correct where the line of a rock wall will run or how far out I expect a flower bed to curve. I stood outside today, though, looking at my lower-than-I-expected rockery and the underwhelming depth of the topsoil in the beds and wondered if the guys figured they were actually done with those projects or were going to return to finish up . . . at some point. (I fearfully suspect the former.) Will I be home to catch them when they return so I can express my concerns and make sure I get what I want before they move on to something else?

And so, my sense that “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” I need to communicate to David my concerns and also my expectations for future communication on his part. As is the case almost always, the failure falls on both parties’ shoulders, and the solution will also rest with both. It’s a scenario that each of us faces, whether at home or in business or social situations, over and over again. The key, it seems to me, is recognizing the need to express our wishes and concerns clearly as soon as possible instead of “letting it slide” but continuing to let the issue fester and grow.

I guess I have a phone call to make first thing Monday morning!

–Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader

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