Delta

The Trip To Nowhere

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I am writing a summary of my trip to nowhere from the 16th. It is a slightly edited version of the letter I wrote to Detla complaining about the horrible trip. On Thursday September 16, 2004 I was on flight 404 from LGA to Atlanta. I was to transfer there and go onto Las Vegas Nevada for a mini vacation to visit my friends Sean & Kelly.

The flight left over an hour and 20 minutes late. We then slowly moved down to Atlanta. We were told by our flight crew we would circle Atlanta due to the weather. We did this for at least an hour, probably more. We were told several times we were on “final approach”. We never landed in Atlanta. A few minutes after we were told one more time of our final approach into Atlanta we were told due to fuel issues we would be diverting to Knoxville TN.



Arriving in Knoxville we proceeded to sit on the jetway for over 4 hours while Delta tried to get a fuel truck to refuel our plane. We were not allowed off the plane, nor was any food provided. During this time the flight crew did their best with the situation, but we were given no information other than we should have news in 20 minutes, or this or that should take 20-40 minutes.

We finally left Knoxville around 7:30PM en route to Atlanta. Once there the weather was still bad, or so they said. We made at least two abortive landing attempts in Atlanta and then the pilot decided it was not safe to land. We were rerouted to Jacksonville Florida. We landed around 9:30 – 10PM. The times are becoming blurry at this time since we were on the plane for at least 7 hours. In Jacksonville we were told the flight would be meet by ticket agents to help us with our travel issues. When we got off the plane there was no one at the gate to help. Several of the people on the plane finally found a baggage agent and she had no idea that there was a flight diverted. We were given mixed information for the next hour and half to two hours. Only one PA announcement was made, and that was an hour after we landed. How do you expect people to know what is going on if your airline doesn’t do what they say they will do, and no one is around to provide any consistent information.



I was finally able to get my luggage after 2 hours of not knowing what was going on. Are you going to blame the 2 hour delay on getting luggage off the plane on bad weather?



When asked the flight attendants they said that delta would probably help us our with overnight accommodations since we were diverted twice that day. On the ground we were told that delta does not accommodate people due to weather. That’s great. Under normal circumstances I can understand that. Why then were we diverted twice and other flights made it into and out of Atlanta with no problems, or some delays when we were diverted twice. If I was warned of potential problems I would never have gotten on the plane in NYC.



With no help from Delta I found a hotel and had to pay for a room for the night. The next morning I arrived at the airport and was told I was rebooked on afternoon flights to my final destination of Las Vegas. Up until that time no one told me anything. By the time Delta would get me to Vegas I would have already wasted half the time I had with my friends. That was the whole purpose of my trip. Instead of wasting even more time in the air for very little time in Vegas I asked to just get me back to NYC.



I understand to a point that weather can cause problems. When I am trapped on a plane for 7 hours with no options, diverted to 2 different airports and had to spend the night in a city that was not my destination with no help from Delta, I am past understanding about weather.



I used to travel for a living. I have had lots of delays and problems due to weather, mechanical or personal issues. This is by far the worst experience I have ever been through. This is from a person who has flown through countless blizzards, storms, etc. At what point does an airline stop hiding behind the excuse that they don’t have to do anything for you due to weather? I am just glad to be home.

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The Travel Blog

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As I write this (no idea when it will be posted) I am around 35,000 feet. I am on the first leg of my Vegas vacation. It is short, but I hope to rest, and party a bit. So far no rest was possible. I sometimes forget why I stopped traveling for a living. Going away on a short vacation always reminds me. this trip is no different. Due to the hurricane my connections in Atlanta caused me huge delays. my flight left about 1:30 minutes late. I will miss my original connecting flight. Thankfully I got a page from Delta about the delay and called before I went to the airport. I was able to call and get confirmed on a later flight out of Atlanta to Vegas. problem 1 fixed. Problem 2 was that since I made a change on my plans I had to goto the ticket counter instead of the self service check in. it took allot longer but I was still early for my trip.

I had time to kill so I tried out the Delta Crown Room. In all my travels I never used airport clubs, and as I said I am well traveled. When I was at IBM my boss was going to take us to one on a few occasions, but we never ended up there. With my Amex card I get free admission to a few of the clubs, so today I decided to try it out. All I can say is, NICE. comfy chairs and a bar awaited me. T-Mobile hotspot access also was nice. I had to pay for that, but it was worth the $9.99 for the full day of usage. I only had time to download my mail before they called my flight, but I had stuff do to on the plane. I also plan on using the day pass in Atlanta during my layover.

Since I planned ahead I even got my aisle seats. The rescheduled flight is a good seat also. The customer service people were cool. After you have been flying allot you get to want things done in a specific way. I will freely admit I am a travel snob. I for example am grateful that the 2 dogs in little cages 2 rows in front of me are quiet now. they weren’t when I started this flight. Now I said planning ahead is good. Lets see if my plans hold water for the entire trip. They say best laid plans fall apart at step 1. Hopefully my next flight will not be delayed that much, and I can catch a decent dinner at the hotel tonight. My plans for a late afternoon swim or spa session is dead now that I wont be getting in until 8PM ish. I hope to do either or both of those things tomorrow while I wait for Sean to finish work.

Now that I have told you about my woes today, I can go backwards and tell you how this trip started. Before the flight I went to breakfast with my dad. He was still having issues eating after gum surgery, but we went to his usual breakfast place. My mom was busy doing something and passed on food.

I stayed over at my parents last night since the first night of the Jewish new year was at their house. Carrie, Mike, Morgan, Donny, Herb, Na, Loren, Andrew, Tina/barry and their kids Lindsey and Cory were over. It was crowded since my parents don’t have their new dining room set yet. Their old one is sitting comfortably in my apartment.

We got to play with Morgan, so the night was perfect. She even was giving out hugs and kisses without being asked. I love my niece. she is becoming talkative. it is very cute.

TRAVEL UPDATE: Sorry in this blog I jump around allot, but I am still stuck on the plane. We are over Georgia somewhere. We are in a holding pattern into Atlanta at this time. We have been circling for maybe 20 minutes or more and they say we will be doing it for another 30 before we can begin our final approach into Atlanta. This flight is way longer than normal since the flight crew also said before we started circling that we were moving slower than normal to avoid circling allot. Eventually I will get there.

Stressed Out, Going Away

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I have been really stressed out recently at work. Some friends recently pointed that out to me. I have been feeling run down, but didn’t know that it was showing. Turns out it is. I need a vacation. I think/hope that will make things a bit better. On that note I will be off to Vegas next week for a few days. I am going to hang out with my friend Sean, and his wife Kelly.

Hopefully 1 night at a nice hotel getting the 5 star treatment, and then 3 days of hanging with friends that I don’t get to see too often will calm me down a bit. This trip is made possible by the Delta SkyMiles points I earned at Datastream. Delta ripped me off on the amount of points needed for a ticket since it was a short notice trip. That is the new thing airlines do. But at this point I didn’t care. I still have tons (and I mean tons) of points to use on travel.

Sean And Kelly’s Visit

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It sucked, they are a bunch of pain in the ass’s. No really, I am just kidding. I always wanted to play a prank on the blog. I know sean reads this, so hey Sean. I am kidding! Feel the love:)

I actually had a great time. I need to get together with them more often. I want to go out by them sometime after I move. I think it is time to cash in some Delta Sky Miles.

They had a cool rental car with GPS, that worked. I had a blast. I want to write more, but sleep awaits…

Vacation Planning

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I have to start looking at vacation places. I have my max amount of days I can accumulate. I haven’t been away since last June when I went to barbados with my family. I was thinking of taking a long weekend and going to New Orleans to visit Jayson. I wanted to go April 16 – 19, but the airfare was really expensive. I thought Jet blue’s prices were consistent. That they didn’t go up as the date of travel got closer. I was wrong. It was like $400 for a round trip ticket to New Orleans that weekend, but if I planned something in May it was $220. Delta who I also like to travel on wanted almost $300 and I would need to transfer in atlanta. Now the atlanta airport brings back memories of my travel days at Datastream but I would rather have a direct flight that was cheaper, and oh lets throw in some free TV while I am at it. Jet Blue I am sold.

I really do need to plan a real week long vacation. I have too many travel ideas. I can think of like 5 different places I want to goto. I need to pick one and go. Maybe this summer?

Vacation, Day 6 Saturday

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Vacation is over for me. My family is staying till monday but I am off. It was a great restful vacation. I didn’t do a lick of work. I am glad I got the chance to rest. I had to leave early (1pm) for the airport so I didn’t get any pool time today. The airport trip and check in was uneventful. That is always good. They changed the plane so my seat got changed. I asked for another change since I got put in the back, and I didn’t like that. I asked for something closer to the front of the plane. The next thing I know I am in business class. I guess this plane had more biz class seats than the last one and they didn’t know what to do with some extra passengers. Whatever, I got bumped up. I wasn’t one to complain. I got worried when the flight attendant asked if I was originally a biz class ticket and I answered no. Turns out that because of the confusion they thought that I paid for biz class and were going to put me in first class. I think I looked respectable or something. I don’t know why she asked me and not the other people sitting around me. Well I have an idea, but I won’t write about it. I try to dress biz casual when I travel, so I can look decent and vie for an upgrade. it worked today. if it wasn’t for my big mouth telling the truth I might have had a double upgrade. I am a snob because Delta Biz elite is much nicer than American’s Biz class. Oh well. I write this while I am in the air on the way home. Just watched the in flight movie “two weeks notice”. it was ok. The steak for dinner was good though. the jack Daniel’s and coke I had was better!

I hope customs and cab hunting at JFK is ok. Then this would have been a good day. I got “randomly” screened before I got on the plane. I never understand those. They make me take my shoes off, and inspect my PDA, but don’t even look at my laptop, belt or wallet. My wallet even set off the metal detector and they didn’t look at it. I am not complaining, I just don’t understand security. I think it is just a show to make people think they are safe. I guess it is good if it calms the mass’s. I guess what they say is true “ignorance is bliss”.