The Email
9.05.2004
Here's the email I am talking about:
A friend has been a travel agent for 30 years. She says, of her 30 years of taking reservation requests from government officials, we are all in trouble particularly at this time. Here are a few choice reservation
questions from these bright people.
"Senator Tessie Oreta asked for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window.
I got a call from ex-Mayor Joey Marquez, who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, then he interrupted me with, 'I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but
Capetown is in Massachusetts.' Without trying to make him look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, 'Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa.' His response ..(click).
Congressman Mark Lapid called, furious about a Florida package we did for him and tv star Kris Aquino. 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 Sen Ralph Recto's wife who asked, 'Is it possible to see England from Canada?' I said, 'No.' She said, 'But they look so close on the map.'
Senator Lito Lapid once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, 'I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between the gates to save time.'
questions from these bright people.
"Senator Tessie Oreta asked for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window.
I got a call from ex-Mayor Joey Marquez, who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, then he interrupted me with, 'I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but
Capetown is in Massachusetts.' Without trying to make him look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, 'Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa.' His response ..(click).
Congressman Mark Lapid called, furious about a Florida package we did for him and tv star Kris Aquino. 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 Sen Ralph Recto's wife who asked, 'Is it possible to see England from Canada?' I said, 'No.' She said, 'But they look so close on the map.'
Senator Lito Lapid once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, 'I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between the gates to save time.'
Senator Jinggoy Estrada called last week. He needed to know how it was possible that his flight from Detroit left at 8:20 a.m. and got into Chicago at 8:33 a.m. I tried to explain that Michigan was an hour ahead of
Illinois, but he could not understand the concept of time zones. Finally, told him the plane went very fast, and he bought that!
Illinois, but he could not understand the concept of time zones. Finally, told him the plane went very fast, and he bought that!
Congressman Ronaldo Zamora called & asked, 'Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?' I said, 'No, why do you ask?" He replied, "Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I'm overweight. I think that is very rude?' After putting him on hold for a minute while I 'looked into it' (I was actually laughing) I came back and explained the city code for Fresno, CA is (FAT), and that the airline was just putting a destination tag on his luggage.
Former presidentiable now tv star Eddie Gil called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, he asked, 'Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?'
I just got off the phone with Senator Bong Revilla who asked, 'How do I know which plane to get on?' I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, 'I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these darn planes have numbers on them.'
VP Noli De Castro called and said, 'I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola, FL. Do I have to get on one of those twin engine planes?' I asked if he meant fly to Pensacola, FL on a commuter plane. He said, 'Yeah, whatever!'
Congressman Dilangalen 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 that 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 four times and everytime they have accepted my American Express!'
Senator Miriam Defensor called to make reservations, 'I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York.' The agent was at a loss for words. Finally, the agent said, 'Are you sure that's the name of the town?' 'Yes, what flights do you have?' replied the lady. After some searching, the agent came back with, 'I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Rhino anywhere.' The lady retorted, 'Oh, don't be silly!
Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!' The agent scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, 'You don't mean Buffalo, do you?' 'That's it! I knew it was a big animal,' she said.
Now you know why Government is in the shape that it's in."
--- All of the above remain to be verified, and I am not certain if these are true in fact - These government officials can be too busy to place these calls themselves - unless the agent is preferred of course. Point is, it doesn't matter if its true or false - what is shocking is that these jokes are passed and we can all laugh about it. It could mean only two things: one, it is very funny in that we accept it is all very possible, and two, that we just shake our shoulders and say --- well what the hell --- it's been like that all along. Are we apathetic?
posted by Jdavies @ 9/05/2004,
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The Author
J.Davies
Jdavies lives in Quezon City, Philippines and has been blogging since 2002. A brand manager in a leading technology company and a freelance new media/web strategy consultant, he has refocused his blogging from personal, political & sociological observations, to marketing-related efforts and Internet trends that are relevant to his career and branding advocacies.
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This blog is a depot of thoughts and observations on marketing trends which remain personally relevant to the Author as far as his marketing career is concerned. Having evolved from the personal blog of Jdavies, much of the earlier work contained herein are laced with personal speculation, political views, and similar advocacies. These posts are being kept for posterity's sake and for no other reason. No effort is being made to claim that the author will not contradict himself from his previous positions or that such advocacies are absolute.
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