The following are actual stories told to travel agents
(and you wonder why US citizens generally score less than the rest of the world
on geography)...
A client called in inquiring about a package to Hawaii. After going over
all the cost info, she asked, "Would it be cheaper to fly to California and
then take the train to Hawaii?"
A secretary called in looking for hotel in Los Angeles. She gave me
various names off a list, none of which I could find I finally had her fax me
the list. To my surprise, it was a list of hotels in New Orleans, Louisiana.
She thought the LA stood for Los Angeles, and that New Orleans was a suburb of
L.A. Worst of all, when I called her back, she was not even embarrassed.
A man called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was
wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view
room. I tried to explain that is not possible, since Orlando is in the middle
of the state. He replied, "Don't lie to me. I looked on the map and Florida is
a very thin state."
I got a call from a man who asked, "is it possible to see England from
Canada?" I said, "No." He said, "But they look so close on the map."
A nice lady just called. She needed to know how it was possible that her
flight from Detroit left at 8:20am and got into Chicago at 8:33am. I tried to
explain that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she could not
understand the concept of time zones. Finally I told her the plane went very
fast, and she bought that!
A woman called and asked, "Do airlines put your physical description on
your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to who?" I said, "No, why do you
ask?" She replied, "Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag
on my luggage that said FAT, and I'm overweight, is there any connection?"
After putting her on hold for a minute while I "looked into it" (I was
actually laughing) I came back and explained the city code for Fresno is FAT,
and that the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.
I just got off the phone with a man who asked, "How do I know which plane
to get on?" I asked him what exactly he meant, which he replied, "I was told
my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them."
A businessman called and had a question about the documents he needed in
order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded
him he needed a visa. "Oh no I don't, I've been to China many times and never
had to have one of those." I double-checked, and sure enough, his stay
required a visa. When I told him this he said, "Look, I’ve been to China 4
times and every time they have accepted my American Express."