Flying Delta

My planned itinerary -

Leave SA @ 10:40 am (CST) Monday, Dec 23
Arrive Atlanta 2:02 pm (EST)
Layover in Atlanta 1hr 35 min
Leave Atlanta 3:37 pm
Arrive Norfolk 5:13 pm
(Meet Dave, Lyn and Jaycie for 2hr drive to Southern Shores, NC)

What actually happened -

Sunday 22 - Checked in for flight online, got seat assignments, paid for 1 checked bag, printed boarding passes, went to Yellow Cab online; reserved cab for 8:30 pickup

Monday - got up @ 5 am, got ready, finished packing. Skipped breakfast. Cab arrived on time, at airport and through check-in, and at gate by 9:15.

Announcement that plane would be a few minutes late; started boarding at 10:30.
Plane began backing from gate at 11:10. 15 minutes later, pilot tells us there will be a bit of a delay taking off since right engine won't start. He announces updates every 15 minutes, most of the time saying nothing new to report. When he does have something new, first announces that the problem is caused by a faulty circuit breaker which keeps cutting the engine off seconds after it starts. They are going to try to clean it and see if that works. It doesn't. Next, he reports, they are going to try a manual start, bypassing the circuit breaker. This will involve a mechanic standing under the plane and opening an air valve. They are going to have to get permissilon from Atlanta to do this. Next reports have to do with waiting for the paperwork to go through before they can attempt this start.

At 1:40 the pilot reports that Atlanta is refusing to give permission for the jump start. They will have to replace the part, and since there is no part available in SA, it will have to be flown in from Atlanta. We are to deplane as the flight has now been delayed until 6: pm.

Back in the gate area, we all line up to see if we can make other flight arrangements. After standing in line for some time, and hearing horror stories about the lack of planes flying to many of the customer's final destinations, I am somewhat relieved to hear that I can get on stand-by for a flight leaving for Atlanta at 4:40, which will arrive at 6: 15, and a confirmed seat on a 9:44 flight to Norfolk, and that I'm being bumped into first class to make up for the delay. If I do not make the 4:40, I will be flying out at 6 on the plane that I was just taken off of. I will have a 45 minute overlay, during which I will have to take a train to a different concourse and walk down a very long corridor to get to my gate. Fortunately, I was the last person called to board the 4:40. I arrived in Atlanta at 8:05 and had plenty of time to get to my gate. The flight from SA to Atlanta did not have food service, but did have a bar, and one of my litle appeasement offers was a ticket for a free cocktail, so my first sustenance for the day was a gin/tonic and pretzels. Had a relaxing wait, once I got settled at my gate in Atlanta, and the roomy first class seat I had for the last leg into Norfolk made it easy to relax, finally - the gin/tonic was free, and I got an assortment of little snack packs of nuts and crackers to go with. Sat next to a very nice lady from Atlanta going to Norfolk to spend Christmas with relatives there, so everything settled down
Meantime, Jaycie was insisntent that she wanted to stay up to go with Mom and Dad to meet Grannie Annie's plane. They decided it was a better alternative than having Popop sit with her, since she was too hyper by this time to go to sleep easily. So Lyn drove the van through 2 hours of heavy rain, and by the time they got to the airport, Jaycie was sleeping soundly in her booster chair, so Lyn stayed in the car with her while Dave came in to help me with my bags.

And that's the other bit. I had been in phone contact with him off and on throughout the day, and one of the things he had learned was that the original flight, which had been rescheduled for 6, had now been delayed again and wouldn't take off before midnight. And guess where my bag was.... There had been another flight leaving SA at 5:50, apparently, so we were hoping that maybe the bag might have come on that flight, but it had not. So, while Lyn and Jaycie continued to wait in the car, we had to go to the baggage claim office to put a tracer on the bag. The office said it would be in Norfolk some time the morning of the 24th, so we made arrangements to have it delevered to the beach house. It arrived about 2:30 pm on Christmas Eve, with all of the gifts intact as well as my clothes. Meantime, we spent two hours of the wee morning driving from Norfolk to the house in a heavy, cold downpour. Dave was kind enough the next morning to take me to Walmart for enough emergency supplies to get through until that time, so the holiday was finally well underway, and worth the trouble.

My flight from Norfolk to Atlanta left precisely on schedule: 2:26 pm, and it landed a few minutes early, with a 2 1/2 hour layover which gave me plenty of time to take the train to the departure concourse and gate, and a comfy seat to relax in. I did have a bit of a concern re my status because I had a confirmed ticket, but no seat assignment, and the people at the desk were quite rude, but finally told me that I would be given an addendum to my boarding pass when we boarded. I was among tle last to board, but found my seat just as the pilot came on to warn us that there was a bit of a problem. The flight computer wasn't working. The couple in the seats next to me just howled. They said that their first leg had had a problem - pilot never said what, but after spending over an hour on the plane, they were told to go back inside the terminal and new flight arrangements would be made. They had done so, and got into Atlanta barely in time to make this last flight out for SA. They were not happy campers, but when I told them about my Monday situation, they were definitely sympathetic. I called Dave & he insisted that I not worry. If it was a computer problem, it would get fixed, and he was right. After about an hour's delay, we were able to take off, We arrived safely in SA about 9:30. and I was all the way home and hitting the bed by 11:00 last night.

Overall, the trip was certainly worth the hassles, but I cannot help but wonder about the number of delays, during the middle of the holiday season, that were due to malfunctions of the planes themselves.

Makes me want to stick to United. Have nearly always flown with them or Continental, and never ran into so many problems like these.

Just me, though.

I drove 24 hours to Michigan the first two days, one overnight in Cullum, Alabama where my door handle was broken with an attempted entry into my car at the Holiday Inn Express.  When I hit 80/94 outside Chicago, my windshield washer fluid froze as a truck threw salt slush across my window (I had the car "winterized" before I left at the Hyundai dealer - they missed the washer fluid - and I wonder what else).  I spent six hours on a three hour I96 drive into Michigan as I pulled off the highway every time a truck passed to clean my window with my bottled water and paper towels. 

However, until I hit 80/94, the drive was exceptional and I had no fatigue.  Two days and one night for 24 hours 1500 miles was pretty good, I think.  One day more than a typical flight - but this time of year flights often end up two days anyway.

The return 1500 miles was perfect, outracing the storms that followed behind. With mom, I spent three 8 hour days and two nights.

Cost:  484 for the two of us one way for gas and motels and food.

Might try flying next year...cheaper at least.

I made pretty much the same drive as my flight path once during the late 80's, from Texas to DC, going through Atlanta, with my mom and my daughters.  it was summertime.  We stopped for the night in Jackson, Miss.  Dropped Mom off at my brother's home in Kissimee, just outside Atlanta, and spwnt another night before heading up the Blue Ridge Parkway, stopping for an additional night along the way.  It was a gorgeous drive, and we had the time to relx and enjoy it.

Winter travel is a mess no matter the mode.  My particular concern with this trip was that it seemed to me that many of the problems were not due to the weather but to faulty equipment.  That gave me some concern.

As far as the cost goes, the trip was my Christmas present from my son, so it wasn't a factor for me personally.  I was sorry that he had to make that long drive in the rain at such a late hour, and that his careful planning for what seemed to be he best route for the money did not work out as well as it might have.

We stayed home for Christmas.  The first time in years we were by ourselves.

Flying was a big part of my business life.  People always told me how lucky/fortunate I was to travel.  They had no clue about the hassles of flying and the stress involved in making connections and in living out of a suitcase, assuming the suitcase arrived with the flight.

That is the main reason I no longer like traveling.  At least with driving, one has some control of the situation provided that the weather is kind, the car functions properly and there are no traffic jams.  Whatever mode of travel, there can be problems.  Best bet is not to travel on a fixed schedule.  Planning with flexibility can eliminate much anxiety.  I think we form opinions about Airlines based on a bad situation.  Where Ann finds Delta bad and Continental good, I have the opposite opinion based on events.  As for UAL, they were pretty good for International Flights until the last time I traveled with them.  My audio wasn't working and I couldn't even hear the announcements that was broadcast over the audio.  When I complained to the Steward, he said:"That's not the only thing that's not working on this plane."  The person next to me heard that and was in a state of panic. 
Off-the-cuff remarks can be harmful.

I'll take plane travel with all its hassles over car travel any day. Hate long car trips.

I look for direct flights, and will pay more for them than bargain flights that take me to multiple airports. I rarely have problems with direct flights. Multiple flights means multiple planes and multiple problems. Not worth the money.

Southwest is my favorite airline, with United a close second.

Southwest is our favorite also.

Unfortunately my route requires a change in Milwaukee, Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland or Detroit - all disasters in winter.  I missed my stepmother's funeral because of the Chicago connection one year. Fortunately, the memorial was the next day - I arrived in time to drive straight there - and I had a reading to give.  The day before, I allowed myself to become too upset in Chicago when it was hopeless from the weather to get to my destination, period.

I was just watching my congressman, Joachin Castro, being interviewed on TV.  I was reminded of his twin brother, Julian, who is currently mayor of SA.  If you happened to be watching the Demo convention last year, he gave the keynote address.

I was in the airport here for eight hours, and every few minutes, our esteemed mayaor came on to welcome everybody to our city.  At that time, all I wanted was to get out of the city, so, toward the end of those hours, I was wishing our esteemed mayor would just bleep off.

Things were different thursday night, when the first thing I heard as I deplaned was, "Hello, my name is Julian Castro.  Welcome to San Antonio..."  If he were actually standing there, I would have dropped to the ground and kissed his feet.

Off topic, but by 2020 or 2024, watch for the first Castro-Castro ticket, with one of the twins as the presidential candidate and the other as VP.  Our first hispanic president could be a double hit.

Sounds good to me, Ann.

Off topic - very nice photo Alice - like those shoes.

Thanks. Dave got them for me for Christmas.  I love shoes.