If you’ve ever wondered where my stunning obliviousness comes from, I believe the answer has presented itself in the form of my mother.
Mom called me up this afternoon, asking when my flight back to Chicago was. I thought this was an odd question, since she had told me she was planning to leave Saturday night.
She had made such a big hoo-hah when I told her I wasn’t leaving til Monday evening, but she had repeatedly told me that she hadn’t booked her tickets yet before I booked mine, and was awaiting my word on when I was going to book hers.
I had given her an estimate of flying in Wednesday or Thursday and leaving Saturday night.
She never told me she had booked her flight, and if she had, I would have made arrangements to come back Saturday night as well, partly to avoid two extra days in Connecticut, but mostly to avoid the ensuing blow up over “I thought you said you were gonna leave Saturday!”
But situation being as it was, I had figured out that I would stay with my aunt Louise for a couple of days and then come home.
So I asked my mom why she was asking, and she told me: “When I was reading my flight info off to Louise, I realized, instead of booking myself a 6:20pm flight, I accidentally booked a 6:20am flight.”
This despite the fact that Southwest:
1. Puts available flights in chronological order from earliest to latest when offering you options.
2. Gives you at least two “Are you sure these are the flights you want” screens before making your purchase.
3. Lets you print out your flight info and email it to yourself.
My mom even printed the damn info out and didn’t notice it!
This certainly explains a whole hell of a lot about my occasional utter obliviousness to detail…