Fellow Travelers & Tour Directors,
In my years of tour directing I’ve come experienced many medical emergencies with my clients. This past Thanksgiving a true ‘thorny’ experience occurred which turned into a beautiful ‘rose’, all because of one Continental Airlines employee, Janet Lindley, the HUB manager at Houston’s airport.
One of the persons attending my holiday San Antonio trip experienced a medical emergency and had to go to the hospital there. After spending the night in the hospital, they were released to join the group again. We had all been up most of the night, myself, the hotel staff and the emergency response staff. It shouldn’t have happened, the release, but with it being Thanksgiving the hospital was short staffed, the person’s insurance could not be verified (no one was in insurance offices for this on Thanksgiving-medicare, and private) and they were released, still not feeling very well.
I recommended they return home to California and started calling the airlines. Working with Continental we were able to get a reduced flight home but it would have to connect in Houston. The airlines assured me they would care for the person, and made arrangements for someone to actually meet them at the gate when arriving in both Houston and California. My client was was having increased medical difficulties and when they boarded the connection caused problems for the flight crew when they were taxing to the runway. Opps…this is a federal offense. The plane returned to the runway and was met by airport police and Ms. Lindley. They do have a procedure for this…a trip to the local jail. However, Ms. Lindley thought there was something medical occurring as the person could not communicate well, and checked the files, seeing it was indeed a medical emergency. Not only did she call me, while I was on the coach with my group, believing this person was safely home, she made arrangments to have the person taken to the hospital, kept in touch with me, volunteered to go to the hospital and visit and even take clothing, as the luggage had gone on the California. I was able to make the calls to the hospital and get the medical information needed to them to provide the appropriate care.
Thanksgiving is traditionally a very busy time for airports, and this was no exception, that it was snowing unusual in itself…and a nightmare at the airport! Ms. Lindley was a true ROSE, a fabulous employee, an exceptional person…and even worked to honor the ticket for the return when the person was released over a week later. Sometimes angels… and roses appear where one least expects them!
Jo-San Arnold
Tour Director
P.S. For those in the travel industry, I did write to the CEO of Continental Airlines to tell him what an exceptional employee he had and they sent me back a nice response.