I have a sick sense of humor and prefer a laugh over droll business dealings. Unfortunately this is not good when dealing with hard core business people. For the most part they look at a smile and joking while doing deals as a sign of weakness and don’t take you seriously. With this in mind I developed a business strategy to help me in negotiations. I would bring in a third party that had nothing to do with the deal and this a story related to that.. I had a friend who had never been to Europe. I shall refer to him as AB. He was anal retentive to the degree that he would bring out a vacuum cleaner and clean the carpet during parties. He only ate roast beef and potatoes and only drank coca cola! I had some business dealings in London and asked if he wanted to join me–he agreed even though he was scared. The furthest he had flown before was NY to MIA and he had a great fear of flying. We were going to leave from Miami at 5 PM and fly directly to London on BOAC. When we arrived at the airport we were told that there was a delay and we should go home and that they would call us as the flight wasn’t expect to leave until much later in the evening. I started asking around and found out that a food truck had backed into the wing of the airplane and had damaged it. They needed to fly the part in from NY and we would be able to leave. I called a few times and got the update that the part had come in but they had lost it and the bottom line is that we didn’t leave until 5 AM. As the plane leveled off I noticed that all the flight attendants had disappeared. I searched and found them hiding in the galley (this was not the giant planes we now have but a Boeing 707). I asked what the problem was and they said that in the flurry of activity to get the plane off the ground, they had forgotten to load the food and beverages. All they had was water. It gets worse. With about 45 minutes to go before landing at Heathrow- we were scheduled to arrive at 6PM. I noticed more activity with the flight attendants.. I asked what the problem was now and they said that there was a strike at Heathrow and all the runways would be closed at exactly 6PM. The crew wanted the Captain to ‘step on it’ and get in a few minutes early to guarantee our arrival. Unfortunately the Captain was a by the book officer and would land at 6PM.. We prepared for landing and as we were inches from touching down, we pulled up and were informed that the airport runway was closed. We were going to Shannon airport in Ireland. Still no food and only water.. When we landed in Shannon, everything was closed (it was a Sunday) as they hadn’t expected anyone and buses had been brought in to drive us to a hotel. We boarded 3 buses and off we went. After driving for over an hour I called out to the driver asking if he knew where we were going.. He stopped the bus and got out saying he needed to ask. When he got back on the bus, he said all was well and not to worry. At this point of our travel, I started calling out to the other passengers with the point that the airline was treating us as if we were cattle and were just herding us to and fro. I got bitchy without food.. About a half hour later, the bus broke down. The driver got off the bus and ran away!! About 15 minutes later another bus in our caravan came by and we boarded to standing room only. We finally arrived at a small beach side resort that had been closed for the winter- the staff had put together a few sandwiches of lettuce and butter as there was no other food. They assigned rooms and I remember it was freezing. I got the bed under this little metal bar that was the heater for the room. I also immediately went to the bathroom and drew a nice hot bath.. unfortunately for everyone else that was it for the hot water. They next morning they told us they were going to take us to the airport but we couldn’t be sure the plane was going to leave because of the strike. Luckily it did and when we landed in London we were told that our bags were on a big truck and it was up to us to get them off. People jumped on the truck and heaved bags out.. So much for AB’s flight across the pond. I never flew BOAC again. I would fly from Miami to NY to get TWA or PAN AM..rather than the ‘direct’ flight from Miami.
Later I will tell of the negotiations..which I will call…No Coke..
