Last week a woman and her friend came into the agency after standing outside for several minutes staring at a large poster of Alaskan wildlife we have in our window, a big glossy advertisement for Alaskan cruises. I invited her to my desk and asked how I might help her. She said, very firmly, "I want to see a moose." Her friend giggled.
"Commendable," I replied. "Where would you like to see this moose?"
She said she had an Alaska Airlines coupon so she wanted to go to Alaska. I mentioned that it was kind of cold right now, but she didn't care. She rooted around in her pants pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper which she flattened out and handed to me.
It was a United Mileage Plus Visa card application.
"This is a United Mileage Plus Visa card application, not an airline coupon," I said with a straight face. She didn't seem particularly surprised, strangely enough.
"Really? It isn't? Hell, I don't need a credit card. I want to see a moose," she said and laughed. Her friend laughed. We all laughed. I sniffed surreptitiously for alcohol on her breath, but couldn't detect any.
She then asked me to redeem her Alaska Airlines mileage and slapped her card down. She was a little surprised when I politely said that needed to be handled directly with the airline, but she laughed some more. They walked out, stopping to admire the animal on the poster once more. They were very excited about the moose.
I didn't have the heart to tell her it was an elk.
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