‘Missing’ Louisiana DJ Located Safe and Sound

Lover's of musical theater in Lafayette, Lake Charles, and Shreveport might be familiar with the tagline from the Tony Award winning musical Dear Evan Hansen, " #You will be found". And in this day and age of cellphones, wi-fi, and social media you might think being "lost" would be impossible to do. But one Louisiana DJ or radio personality if you will managed to be "misplaced" from everyone to friends, family members, and even Homeland Security.

The story started to unfold about two weeks ago when Lafayette, Louisiana radio personality, Bruce Mikells, that's me by the way, left for a trip to southeast Asia. But this is less about that journey and more about the two most dangerous letters in the world today, A.I. Yes, Artificial Intelligence or lack there of contributed to some very tenuous hours and the cancellation of airline reservations not once, but nine different times during my journey.

Is Artificial Intelligence as Good as Human Intelligence?

In this case I would answer that question with a resounding, NO. Here's what happened. My travel plans included a flight on United Airlines from Houston (IAH) to San Francisco (SFO). Following that was a connecting flight from San Francisco to Singapore.

Since we arrived in Houston several hours before our flight, which I highly suggest you do any time you're traveling to an international destination, we found there was an earlier flight to San Francisco. We opted to fly standby and were given seats on the earlier flight which was also operated by United Airlines and their "Star Alliance" network of carriers.

As we touched down in San Francisco we pulled up our United Airlines app to get gate information on our upcoming flight to Singapore. We were quite surprised to see that our flight to Singapore and all of the return flights were no longer listed. We sought out and found the United Airlines customer service agent and presented our problem.

People Can Say the Dumbest Things

The United Airlines agent at Gate 15 in San Francisco pulled up our reservations and said to us, "You were a no show on your flight from Houston to San Francisco". To which we replied, "the fact that I am standing here in front of you in San Francisco would suggest that information is incorrect". We showed the agent our standby boarding passes and our luggage tags with bags checked through to Singapore.

The agent, after about 30 minutes and several phone calls to his superiors, reprinted out tickets, boarding passes, and restored our itinerary. We were assured the issue was "fixed". We have had great luck with United as a carrier so we took them at their word and boarded our flight to Singapore.

What Happens When AI Gets Bad Information?

The App sent a notice that we missed our flight. And, since we have family members connected to our App they got that same notice. Unfortunately, by this time we were in the air heading for Singapore when the phone calls and messages started coming in from our family members who were inquiring about our safety and security. So, we didn't get any of those messages of concern for almost a day. The Singapore flight is about 19 hours, so that's a long time to be in "airplane mode".

Once we landed in Singapore, it's airport code is SIN which made me laugh, we turned on our devices and discovered a litany of missed phone calls and messages. If you've ever had a loved one go "missing" you can appreciate the angst this must have caused. We contacted family members and assured them all was well, or so we thought.

While traveling several days later in Vietnam we checked our UA App so we could plan ahead for our return trip to the USA. Much to our surprise only two of the three reserved flights were posted. The first leg of our return trip was with United's "Star Alliance" partner ANA (All Nippon Airlines) based in Japan. We called the agent for United who informed us that all was well "on their end", but they couldn't assign us seats on an ANA flight. But we were ticketed for the flight, so not to worry.

The following day we checked our UA App again and what was fixed was "unfixed". So, we repeated the phone calls and went through the process again only to be told that the only way we could get seat assignments was through the ANA ticket agent in Kuala Lumpur which is where our return flight would originate.

We were first in line at the ANA counter at 0500. The agent took our passports and scanned them. Right away, we knew all was not well. The agent told us our reservations had been cancelled because "we were a no show" on our IAH to SFO flight. Again, the fact that we were standing right in front of them was our "proof" that we had made the flight.

After clearance by not one but two senior ticket agents from ANA we were issued boarding passes and our bags were checked through to Houston. However when we approached the gate to board the plane, the passes were deemed "invalid'. Which set up another half hour discussion among ticket agents, senior ticket agents, and probably Malaysian Security officials too.

Since we had made screenshots of the previous "fixes" and we had a printed version of our E-Ticket we were allowed to board the aircraft. All in all we had to resubmit our travel documents and provide proof of payment nine different times. But at least we made it back home to the United States.

Can You Fly Internationally Without Anyone Knowing?

If you fly United Airlines and their "Star Alliance" partners you can. Not only were we "not on the plane" but our luggage was. Which based on my limited knowledge of Homeland Security is a big no-no for an air carrier. So TSA/Homeland Security if you have questions about my experience, I'd love to tell you more because I believe in keeping air travel safe for everyone. In this case United Airlines and their "Star Alliance" partners failed.

So to the many of you who reached out via text, email, social media, and perhaps carrier pigeon, we are safe and back home. I apologize that a snafu in Artificial Intelligence had you worried. By the way, this would have been my second time to be "dead according to Facebook" so I already know what that funeral looks like.

What Can We Learn From This Experience?

I would say never fly standby if it is part of a multi-leg trip. Always take pictures of your boarding passes and hang onto the paper slips or the digital ones, you never know when you'll have to provide proof that the airlines made a "faux pas". Also, the words "Star Alliance" at least in airline terms must mean "it's not our fault". Since neither ANA or UA was willing to offer an explanation of why our travel arrangements were interrupted, changed, and cancelled so many times.

One other thing if I may, always be nice and polite when speaking to an agent either on the phone or in person. I truly believe they were attempting to help us and in the cases of Jonathon and Apple with United Airlines they were most courteous in not solving our problems. By the way, if you're UA I can give you dates and times of the phone calls since you "record them for training purposes".