Thank You, Thanks Again, and Please No!

This week has all the potential to be “one of those” travel weeks… and for many of you, it has been already.  Cancelled flights, weather delays, long lines – none of the things you want to deal with in February (or any longer month).  I felt my patience already wearing thin before it even grew dark on Sunday so I decided to invoke the power of two little words to see if they could help my week – “thank you”.

When I got to the airport hotel on Sunday night in the nasty cold rain (that would soon turn to sleet), I decided that on Sunday and Monday I was going to make a point to say a sincere “thank you” to everyone I encountered in my travels that day.

To the man driving the airport shuttle….

To the lady working the line at Starbucks at the terminal….

To the gate agent….

And so on….

What surprised me was how taken aback some people were.  By a simple thank you.

At Starbucks when I said “thank you for being here today – I know its probably warmer at home but I appreciate it!” the lady paused and looked at me like “are you kidding?”  When she realized I was sincere her comment back was “thank you for being a customer… I love my job and I’m glad there are customers here so that I can work”.

The gate agent looked at me suspiciously, like it was a backhanded piece of gratitude and I was ready to yell at her for the plane being delayed.  But then she softened when she realized it was just a simple thank you.

I recognized a couple of things on Monday.

1. I don’t say thank you often enough.  And I don’t think people hear thank you as much as they should (not sincerely, versus just a tossed off “thanks”.

2. Working towards gratitude made me calmer.  I never felt my blood pressure begin to rise despite the stresses of the day.  I stayed in a zone of productivity and acceptance, despite delays and weather across my journey.

And also, it may be why I have an unsolicited purse-full of my favorite dark chocolate sea salt caramels from the Delta snack basket.

On the subject of thank yous, I went over to check my balance at Thanks Again and realized I have not seen any points lately for airport parking or Uber rides (or other random airport expenditures). Why? Well it turns out when I lost my debit card back in September, I never input the new number for rewards.

Ouch.  Big ouch!  That’s easily 1,500 miles I’ve missed out on.  Maybe more.

That also means I’ve been missing out on dining programs too!  Amazing how one dumb mistake months ago could continue to have ripple effects!

And speaking of gratitude, I had a good laugh when I first saw a video posted by Tiff over at Heels First Travel yesterday.  Please tell me I do not sound like that when I talk about travel.  (I’m scared that the answer is that I do!)