Plane Travel During Covid-19

Last week I was travelling from Durham, North Carolina to Oakland, California, via Nashville, Tennessee. These are my observations: 

Durham Airport 

Highly recommended that all people (passengers, airline crew, and airport workers) wear a mask and a glove at the airport. Only about 20% of the passengers wore a mask. All airline crew wore a mask. All airport workers wore a mask and gloves. No passenger, except one idiot, wore gloves. That was me. 

Nashville Airport

Same story as in Durham Airport. 

Inside the Aircraft 

All passengers were seated either in the window seat or aisle seat. Middle seats were kept vacant. Flight Stewards were lucky. During this Covid stuff, passengers will not be served any coffee or tea or soft drinks or alcohol or food. Only purified drinking water. However, the airline I traveled served us snacks along with water. 

Flying time Durham to Nashville is one hour and ten minutes. Nashville to Oakland is 4 hours and 25 minutes. Boring flights. No one spoke to other passengers. 

Oakland Airport 

Highly recommended that all people (passengers, airline crew, and airport workers) wear a mask and a glove at the airport. Everyone was wearing a mask. No one except airport workers wore gloves. 

Taking Advantage of the Situation 

Airlines. Stopped providing coffee, tea, and soft drinks. But did not reduce the price. 

Restaurants. There is an Indian restaurant in our area. Their lunch package includes rice, naan, 2 side dishes (veg or non veg), salad, sweet, raita, and pickle. I went there yesterday to take out a lunch package. Price is the same. But no salad, sweet, raita, and pickle. I asked the guy why these items were not included. He said corona virus. I asked him the connection between these 4 and the corona virus. He did not reply. Only the Indian smile. 

Charity scam. Got couple of calls for donations. Some total stranger, out of the blue, asking for money over the phone? No way.

Hoarding,  50% of the shelves in any departmental store are empty.

Customer Service?

It is a known fact that, in general, customer service is one of the best in USA. If you want to return a purchase even after using that for a month, no question will be asked. You can cancel an order at anytime you want. Even if they have shipped it, they will take it back.

But, of course, there are exceptions. I recently came across one.

I was looking for a steal wok ring.

The price at Walmart was $7.99 with free shipping charges. I looked at a store named Webstaurant. The price was $5.29. It was my mistake I did not check the shipping charges. I ordered the item at 11 pm a few days ago. Within 2 minutes of my sending the order I checked the order confirmation and it said the shiping charges are $18.53. I was shocked. Could not believe shipping charges of $18.53 on a $5.29 item.

I immediately called the company. Since it was almost midnight, no one was working. Therefore, I wrote an email canceling my order.

I received an email the next morning at 7 am informing me the order has been shipped. I could not believe it. They have a huge announcement that most of their employees are working from home due to Covid-19. Was wondering who went to their office before 7 am and shipped my purchase immediately on a priority basis.

I wrote them an email regarding that. They replied that since the order has been shipped, I have to pay the return postage charges. In addition, I have to pay 30% restocking fees.

I immediately called my credit card company and disputed the charges. Credit card companies are very customer friendly. They said they will make a stop payment on that.

I checked with Federal Express thru whom the company sent my item. They said I can refuse to accept that item and they will return it to the sender. Supposed to be delivered on June 1. Will wait and see.

I then checked with that Company’s customer reviews. Many of them have similar complaints. Exorbitant shipping charges. When called them, they were told the order has been shipped.

Lesson learned: If an item is very cheap, check the shipping charges. Read the customer reviews before ordering anything from a vendor.

You Have A Problem?

This morning Democratic Party Presidential Candidate Joe Biden told a black radio host: “if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” I was stunned by that statement. I think it is an insult to any thinking person. 

This one statement from Biden makes Trump’s efforts to win again in November very easy. Trump’s campaign will take Biden’s message to every nook and corner of this country. I cannot wait to see the debate between Trump and Biden. It will be fun and entertaining. 

What would be the reaction in India if Mr. Modi said: “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for BJP or Congress Party, then you ain’t Hindu”. 

Or

What would be the reaction in India if Mrs. Gandhi said: “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for Congress Party or BJP, then you ain’t a Moslem”. 

No one should vote based on their race or religion. 

I am sure CNN will try to bury this news with some other useless information. 

And, Fox News will never let people forget Biden’s message. 

I think the bigwigs in the Democratic Party are looking for a candidate to replace Biden during their convention in Wisconsin in July.