How To Build Brand-Loyalty.

I was reminded by Tony's new post of a time about six years ago when my husband came home from a business trip, encountering complications.

(It amazes my husband that I can't remember to pick up the dry-cleaning, but I can remember the exact words he used thirteen years ago to introduce me to a pseudo-ex-girlfriend. Once he mentioned during an argument that it seemed like I remembered every bad thing he ever did. I pointed out I remembered EVERY thing he ever did, good or bad. That kinda creeped him out. Thats really neither here nor there, just worth a mention to reassure you I have excellant memory skills IF it involves him. He is, after all, my favorite obsession. Some sports-freaks remember obscure stats ... I remember anything/everything related to my husband. He's gotten used to it, kinda like I'm a really good Jeeves. )

This particular time, I was home in Portland with a toddler and pregnant with our second. He HAD to make a trip to Boston, alhough I can't sleep if he isn't there. So, knowing I wasn't sleeping well, he started the cross-country trip home without waiting for the next morning. I called Delta's automated system to confirm that the flight was on time before driving an hour to the airport to pick him up. It told me that the flight was cancelled. Panic sets in.

I called Delta customer service. They can't actually help me, other than to confirm that the flight made it as far as SaltLake before being cancelled. Respecting customer privacy, they can't tell me where he is. Finally, they yield and confirm that he was on the flight to SaltLake. Its concievable that he made a connecting flight to Portland, or not, but they can't tell me because they're not allowed to divulge passenger list info. At that point, I might have been hysterical. "Do I drive the airport or not? I'm pregnant, its an hour away, I have on pajamas, what should I do?" Some conferring and the cusomer service people say "If I were you, I'd definitely stay home. Thats all we can tell you." Ya gotta love Delta for going that far. They really wanted to be helpful, and I'm pretty sure they didn't think a terrorist would be ranting about pajamas and how long it takes preganant people to get dressed and put the toddler in the minivan. I LOVE Delta for breaking that info-rule. It saved me a lot of grief, because yes I would SO have driven to the airport on the off chance he made that one connecting flight and that would have been in vain.

Meanwhile, in SaltLake, my husband gets gets off the plane and realizes everyone missed the last connection to Portland. He's beyond clever. Theres a whole plane of people in line at the Delta counter, but he works the phone to call directly into Customer Service and ends up making a crazy mad dash through the airport to just barely make the last call for the last flight to Seattle, where he could rent a car and drive home in just two hours! Everyone else spent the night in SaltLake, he got home only an hour later than he had planned. I still got plenty of sleep for the first time in six days, thanks to his willingness to travel into the night, and his ingenuity, and the people at Delta telling me to stay home in my pajamas. I love Delta!