Unbelievable Airplane Fiasco – Still in Process!
[image error]I’m currently stuck in Atlanta for my second night, about 32 hours into what should have been an 8 hour trip.
One flight from Albuquerque to Atlanta – a second from Atlanta to Tupelo MS.
I don’t like Atlanta anymore.
The first flight was scheduled to leave at 1:40pm I assumed getting to the airport around 12:30 would be plenty of time. Unfortunately, it was.
After getting stuck behind a stroller that got jammed going through the radar box (Why did Delta try to send a Land Rover style stroller through the little radar box?), and an over-zealous security inspector who had to remove my nasal spray from my bag and send it in again, I rushed to arrive at my gate right at the loading time.
Only it wasn’t loading.
I didn’t notice at first because somewhere between the lady checking my boarding pass at the beginning of security, and removing my shoes, belt, camera, watch, glasses, change, false teeth and eye, and waiting for 20 minutes for the stroller to get unjammed from the conveyer belt, and then sending my stuff through, and having to get “wanded” after failing the weird circular X-ray due to my plastic Cottonwood Church pen in my shirt pocket, and having to have my bag unpacked, clothes wrinkled and searched and re-run due to my nasal spray being inside rather than in the baggie, I lost my boarding pass.
So, after getting re-dressed and running to my gate, I nervously went up to the counter and gave them my name. Mr. Delta didn’t even ask for a ticket or boarding pass – he simply printed another pass. Then he announced the 1:40 flight to Atlanta had a 45 minute delay due to a fuel door being damaged in flight. No problem, I made sure there was plenty of time between flights. My flight from Atlanta to Tupelo would not leave until 8:45. Besides, I removed the fuel door from my Wrangler by choice, who needs the things? They just waste time. Skip it and lets fly!
About 2:40 Mr Delta announced that whoever gives the Okey-Dokey to fix a plane had just done so, now they should start repairs, so they expected to be on our way around 3:15.
Around 3:40 they announced we would start boarding in half an hour.
Around 4:40 we boarded, only to wait for another hour while whoever gives the Okey-Dokey to say a plane is fixed signed the forms.
I arrived at Atlanta around 9:40pm. The next flight to Tupelo was for 4pm – tomorrow of course.
No problem, Delta put me up at a motel. Comfort Inn. Sounds comfortable. It wasn’t. But first I had to get to the motel.
Once Delta Dave gave me my comfort inn papers and directions for the 30 minute hike to the motel vans, I made my trek to the plethora of other Delta flyers stuck waiting for the motel van who never showed up. It took about 20 minutes for a Comfort Inn van to show itself. After looking at our tickets he said, “Oh, I can’t take you. I’m the Comfort Inn North van. You need the Comfort Inn South van to come get you.” But there is a God.
Another driver, more opportunistic and possibly running the risk of getting himself fired said, “Hell, I’ll take you guys.” He was from another hotel, and this older lady in our small group looked at me like, “Should we go with him?” He didn’t look especially trustworthy. At this point I didn’t care and hopped in. The rest followed. After illegally dropping some friend off somewhere in the opposite direction, he finally drove us to the bad part of Atlanta (is there a good part of Atlanta?) and dropped us off at Comfort Inn - South. We all lined up at the counter and slowly got our rooms.
By now it was after 11pm, the “non-smoking” room smelled heavily of smoke, the TV didn’t work, bathroom fan (after a day flying, an exhaust fan can be a necessity) didn’t work, and I hadn’t a meal since breakfast. Being too cheap to order pizza brought in, I went downstairs and asked the gal if there was fast food close. There was a 24-hour McDonalds just a few blocks away on the other side of the interstate. No problem, I needed the exercise. I got it.
As I walked through the Comfort Inn parking lot to the street it became obvious this wasn’t suburbia. Some guy came tearing down the street with a backpack at a full gallop. No one was chasing. I walked by a closed barbershop, all dark inside but something make me glance in. Someone was sitting in the barber chair watching the street. Weird. I saw no one else alone, everyone was in small groups. No cars had stock wheels or height. No one was wearing pants above their knees. Everyone was staring at transparent me as if the only pigment-challenged human they had seen before had been on TV.
I made it to McDonalds. At 11pm it was full, with an armed security guard inside. They didn’t ask me if it was for there or to go – they just gave it to me to go. After sprinting back to the hotel I realized I’d just walked inside the wrong hotel. By the time I make it back to Comfort Inn I was ready to kiss the floor, but then I remembered where I was.
The halls quieted down a little after 1am. The guy behind the counter let me know if I’d manually put the old TV on channel 3, then the remote would work the channels through the box. I got to watch Pickers on History Channel. Did you know switchboard operators used to keep the machines in their bedrooms for late calls?
Wanting to wash off the smoke smell this AM I took a shower. I was halfway through before noticing all the hair stuck on the side of the shower (a hair color not found on a Cooley), like someone had spent their shower time pulling out their loose hair and sticking it up high on the side of the shower to clean out later and not go down the drain. Only they forgot to clean it out later. Downstairs they had Oatmeal packets available for breakfast – no hot water or milk however, and coffee – with those thin “for cold drinks only” cups. I went back to my room and worked on my Sunday lesson, and waited until 11 to leave for the airport.
Thanks to Expedia and choosing the cheapest flight, my next flight was from Island Air – whoever they are. The Motel van driver had no clue, and Island Air wasn’t listed on the road or building signs. So, he dropped me off at the South Terminal where I asked some important-looking airport –type person in uniform where to go for Island Air. Thankfully he knew Island Air was part of Delta. So, I went to the North Terminal to the Delta counter to get my boarding pass. Things were looking good. That should have been a warning.
Unfortunately, the ticket wouldn’t scan, so I had to wait in line for an agent. She informed me that all I needed to do was to go to a self-serve terminal and scan my ticket. I kindly informed her that I had tried and asked her to help me. Sighing loudly, and then walking with purpose to make me look like an idiot, she brought me over to the scanner. “You put it in like this, so it will read the scanner bar.” Yes, I am an old jerk who can’t work a ticket machine. Rub it in.
The next thing she said was… silence. She wouldn’t say it wouldn’t work, but instead said, “Follow me.” Bringing me to an unused terminal she typed in a bunch of stuff but nothing seemed to work. “You will have to go through security and go to the gate to get your boarding pass.” She instructed.
“Will security will let me do that? I mean, will they let me through without a boarding pass?
“Yes, you can get through security with your ticket.”
So, I got in the eternal security line, made it up to the agent asking for my boarding pass and driver’s license, and got sent back to Delta. I so wanted to go back to the sighing, walking-with-purpose ticket agent, but decided I needed someone new.
I found a new agent, who couldn’t believe I’d been told to go to security. Then she tried to scan the ticket. Shock – it didn’t work. Then she too brought me over to an unused terminal – and said, “Well of course this won’t work. This is from Island Air!” She too looked at me like I was an idiot (felt like that a lot today) for coming to Delta with an Island Air ticket.
“Right. I was told Island Air is part of Delta.”
“Oh no, it has never been part of Delta. Let me see where you need to go.” After 10 minutes of asking around, she sent me back to "Charter Airlines who handles the tickets for Island Airlines" in the South Terminal. Back to the South Terminal I went.
After covering another quarter mile of airline counters I found no Charter or Island Airlines. I said a silent prayer and walked up to the first desk with no one at it – Silver Airlines. “Can you tell me where to find Island Air?”
“Sure, you are at it. This is Island Air.”
“Really?” I couldn’t believe my luck. Maybe prayer does work.
“ Yup, we changed our name from Island Air to Silver a while ago, but the printed tickets haven’t changed yet.”
UGH
So, I got through the ticket place in plenty of time for my 4pm flight, followed the signs to the video stripper security, where, after being video stripped I saw a guy who got off the Delta flight with me yesterday.
“Hey” - you whose name I’ve already forgotten cause I thought I’d never see you again – “how are you doing? What’s happened with your flights?”
“I’m OK. Last night I ran through the airport to the next flight going to my destination, and it was full, so they put me in a motel overnight. Got stuck in the Hyatt.”
“Stuck in the Hyatt?” Poor slob.
“Yup, thought that was OK until I woke up freezing in the middle of the night. No electricity. No lights. No hot water this am, no food, no heat. It seems there was a wreck that knocked out all the electricity in the area.”
God is good.
From there I ran to the escalator, then to the train, then to another escalator, up those steps to gate E-37 to read . . .
Flight delayed.
4:55pm is the estimated depart time as I write this. Just 55 minutes late. Not bad, but thought I should write this to remember all that happened.
Back on the computer - now it’s 6:07. At about 4:30 the guy at the counter told me we would be on the plane on time, or close – it was on its way. Then about 10 minutes later the screen above the counter changed the depart time to 6:00. I had a terrific meal on Delta’s bill, even added desert.
Lets see. I left home at noon yesterday. That’s 30 hours ago, minus two hours for the time change, so 28 hours ago. If I averaged just 60mph for food, gas, and bathroom stops, that would give me 1800 miles by car. IT’S ONLY 1130 MILES FROM MY HOUSE TO TUPELO (Mapquest miracles). No sleep, that’s true, but when you figure the stop at Comfort Inn into the picture, I’m not sure you could call that sleep either. But no worries, I’m almost to Tupelo!
Bad news. Now it’s 9pm. My flight was “delayed” until 9:30am tomorrow. If the flight is delayed until tomorrow – isn’t that cancelled? No, that would be too easy, as then they would give us new tickets and boarding passes. Now we get to fight with the counter people and security tomorrow with our out-of-date tickets and boarding passes. Anyway, as I’m writing I’m about 500 yards away from where I spent last night, but in another hotel. This one is called Drury – NICE! No hair in this shower. Maybe things are changing.
So, if my flight tomorrow is on time, I’ll arrive in Tupelo at 10am, that’s 9am NM time. Mapquest’s total driving time from my house in Rio Rancho NM to my sisters in Tupelo MS is 16hrs, 58 min. Call it 17hours. On Delta and Silver Airlines it will have taken me 45 hours IF we leave on time tomorrow.
Greyhound can do it in 23 hours, 20 minutes.
Amtrak takes 26 hours 5 minutes, but leaves you 90 minutes away for pickup, so call it 28 hours.
And now the Vikings are losing.
I sure hope I’m not adding to this tomorrow night.
Dan
