Okay...before i type anymore i want to go on record saying i did start this earlier this week but time got away from me. What with all of the TV watching, hair appointment, running, TV watching. so i will finish now (since im sitting in Chilis at the Minneapolis airport).
Fast forward to mid-July/ late August. I received another email from Travelocity about the flight change and needing to call them right away, etc etc etc. so I finally do. And they tell me that the flight from Green Bay to Atlanta was changed by, seriously, 10 minutes and now I was not going to make the connection in Atlanta. Fine, I say. When is the next flight from Atlanta to Key West? Well, it leaves Atlanta at 3:30 and gets to Key West at 5:30. Yeah, sorry dude. That's not going to work for me. My traveling companion is meeting me in Atlanta and we are on the same flight. Is there an earlier flight to Atlanta from Green Bay? I swear I was being nice to him. Ok, maybe not super nice but I wasn't yelling yet. Well you can leave GB at 5:45 am through Detroit and get to Atlanta at 12:30 pm. Are you franking kidding me dude?? You are missing the point. The flight to Key West leaves at 9:41 am so why the hell would I want a flight that gets to ATL THREE hours after my flight to Key West?? At that point, I was done being nice. So long story short, I get him to let me talk to Delta and we decide to book me on a flight from GB to ATL the night before so I will make the flight the next morning to KW. Lucky for me, I have a gazillion hotel points and I got a room for free in ATL.
Now...I would like to tell you that was the end of the horrible experience with Delta but c'mon now. I may overreact but to overreact at that would be a bit much, even for me.
So Aug 22nd arrives. The day I am to fly from GB through MSP to ATL. I was in lower Michigan that week for work so on the 22nd, I drive 7 hours from lower MI to the UP, drop one bag at home, pick up the other and drive 2 hours to GB. The flight from GB was delayed just a few minutes, which is fine. But that means that I have to hurry to my gate in MSP. For the record, MSP is not laid out well and you have to walk a mile between some concourses. So fine. I rush to my gate in MSP. We board. Things are looking good. Oh wait...I spoke too soon.
Planes completely boarded. Boarding door is closed. We are sitting.
"Uh, folks this is your captain speaking." --- NEVER A GOOD SIGN
"So it appears as though there was a maintenance issue earlier with this plane and the maintenance department deferred it which is normal. However, the deferral only lasts until midnight and we are scheduled to arrive after midnight. So we are waiting to hear from the higher ups as to what we are going to do. I apologize folks. This is a case of mis-management and I wish I cold tell you that rarely happens with this company. But it happens all the time".
Okay, seriously?? Did he just diss his own employer to a crowded plane? That does to bode well for us.
So we sit on the plane for God knows how long while they wait to hear from management. Now, as someone in a management/leadership position, I am never quick to bash those in same positions. But you need to call those m-fers and wake their asses up and tell them to figure this shit out. Because, oh by the way, the option right now if we don't leave is to leave in the morning. After all I went through to get to ATL in time for the 9:41 flight, there is no other option but to get there tonight. I'm not lying or joking or pulling your leg or any thing like that.
After about an hour or so, they let us get off the plane while they figure this out. After who knows how much longer, they tell us we are leaving but on a different plane so we have to go to a different gate. Fine. No problem. So we FINALLY leave. We arrive on ATL at approximately 2:30 am Eastern time. By the time I get to the hotel (that's an entirely different story because the cab driver was a moron), and get to my room, it's about 3:15 am. I have to wake up at 7:00 am to get back o the airport. Remember when I said I used points to get the room? Yeah, thank heaven I did because if I had paid $100 for 3 to 3 1/2 hours of sleep, I would have been livid. Okay...more livid. Livider??? Is that a word??
So I get up and am getting ready and I get a text from Bill. His plane taxied away from the gate and then they discovered..........YOU GUESSED IT!! A MAINTENANCE PROBLEM!
At that point, I decided that after my trip to Memphis (this weekend) I was finished with Delta.
But we remain optimistic and hope that they fix it in time to get the flight to ATL in time for the 9:41 flight that, again, I worked so freaking hard to be on. So I get to the airport and we are texting and I'm at the gate waiting with fingers crossed. They start boarding and I'm still hoping. And then this guy that is NOT Bill sits in Bill's seat. Hmmm....this doesn't look good.
Billy's plane landed literally 2 minutes after they closed the boarding door. So he didn't get to Key West until 5:30 pm. I was not a happy camper.
Now I'm not gonna lie. Once I got on the beach with a cocktail in hand, it lessened the pain a little bit. But not enough to make me hate Delta less. And then the return trip happened (see previous post).
So there you go. That's my war with Delta. I tweeted my previous post and put in on Facebook. I'm pretty sure someone at Delta read it because I used their twitter handle in my tweet. Of course, I'm also sure nothing will come of it.
I refuse to say anything about my current flight because I'm not to my destination yet. Stay tuned for updates.
In the mean time, here's some shots from Key West.
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