Plan C… The Hail Mary
The one thing I love about Costello is how dang inventive he is. Due to how quiet and reserved he is with people outside his inner circle, you would never know. But, to those who are close to him… he’s freaking hilarious and has more moxie than one person should have.
In an earlier post I mentioned my New Years Eve Theme Parties. And well, Costello always shocked people with how far outside the box he was willing to go. For my “Heroes of the Red Scare and Cold War” party, where most people arrived dressed as world leaders and celebrities, Costello arrived as the ‘Duck and Cover Turtle’…
I can see you… you’re processing it. ‘The Duck and Cover Turtle’… what is… AH!
Do you have it yet? Have you ever seen the old safety commercials from the Cold War? The ones where all the kids get under their desk to save themselves from the A-bomb? Well, do you remember the animated character that hosted those commercials and taught the kids to get under their desks? AHHH… yes, that’s right! The ‘Duck and Cover Turtle’. It was flipping Brilliant!
The following year at my “Villains of the Bible” New Year, Costello took a slightly different approach when he showed up as Jesus. His response to the shocked looks as we walked through the door? “What? I was a biblical villain! If you’re a Roman! You people need to lighten up! Where’s the water, I have a party to start.”… 100% and completely WRONG! But that’s Costello.
So, how far outside the box did he go with the stroller? Well… he pretended to be married… with a kid… and one on the way… okay, be pretended to be me.
When the ticketing agent told him it would be $50.00 to check the additional item he told them this whole sob story about how his wife was flying and son were flying on another carrier… and he wasn’t even supposed go on the trip because he couldn’t get out of work… but then he was able to get out of work, but not until after his ‘wife’ had already booked tickets… anyway, with the grace of a con-man, Costello circled his story back to the stroller. “She left yesterday and Delta wanted her to check the stroller at the gate and there was no way she could have made it through security pregnant with a three years old and this. It’s not even a real stroller, it’s a cart for a car seat… which Delta agreed to check… but they wouldn’t take this because strollers have to be checked at the gate… and… listen I wasn’t going to argue with Delta or my angry pregnant wife… it just wasn’t going to happen.”
Now, one key factor to this story is that Costello was standing at a US Airways counter… in Atlanta… blaming Delta for being unreasonable while also painting himself to be the loving, helpful, and flexible husband. This is classic Costello maneuvering.
He gave a plausible story, which endeared him to the woman behind the counter, which also involved Delta, the king of Atlanta, playing the part of the villain. US Airways, being a member of Star Alliance has no affiliation with Delta... and when in Atlanta… this is a recipe for getting what you want… within reason… and that’s what Costello got.
The woman behind the counter of course felt for him regarding his fictitious wife, however, her hands were tied… she couldn’t comp the cost of the extra piece of checked baggage without calling attention to herself from management. However, as soon as Costello mentioned Delta… the woman behind the counter proposed an alternative solution.
She gave him a gate check tag for the stroller, “If I give you this here, you can check the stroller free of charge as you board the plane and they aren’t going to hassle you about anything at the gate. Just leave the stroller by the entrance of the plane as your board. The down side is that it won’t be checked the whole way to London; you’ll need to pick it up as you leave the plane in Charlotte… I’m sorry, that’s the best I can do.
Costello smiled… “You can do that? Thank you so much.”
EVIL!
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