Rule # 25: When the clock strikes midnight a new day begins.
THE STORY:
I had a group from Milwaukee going to Jamaica a few years ago. The group decided to take a non-stop flight from Chicao’s O’Hare airport and charter a bus from Milwaukee.
The trip was a three night package from Thursday – Sunday. The flight was scheduled to depart from O’Hare Thursday morning at 6am. Therefore the check in time for the flight was 4am. The bus from Milwaukee was scheduled to depart @ 1am Thursday morning. We sent flight confirmations and bus departure information to all of the travelers. The bus information indicated the following: “The chartered bus will depart promptly from (address) at 1am on Thursday, November 1.”
Well, all but two passengers departed on the bus from Milwaukee. Friday morning my office received a phone call from these two passengers stating that they arrived at the location in Milwaukee and the bus never showed up. They were actually early and had waited beyond the departure time. We were a bit confused beacuse 1) it’s Friday morning not Thursday morning and we were wondering why they waited a full day to contact us and 2) they could have possibly attempted to get to O’Hare on their own to avoid missing the flight to Jamaica.
After a long and confusing conversation we discovered that they actually showed up at the rendevouz point on Friday, November 2 at 1am. We kindly explained that the departure was the day before on Thursday, November 1 at 1am as indicated on the letter. Of course, we double checked the letter to verify the information. This is when they explained to us that our letter was misleading and should have read “Wednesday night into Thursday morning” because “when you say Thursday, at 1am it is understood as Thursday night into Friday morning”
Rule # 25: When the clock strikes midnight a new day begins!
Ja’Vonne Harley
Co-Host, The Traveling Eye
Owner, Advantage International, LLC