Frank and Anne's (Not So Excellent) Adventure with Delta Airlines (Part 1)

It all started innocently enough. I got an email from Delta (who "merged" with Northwest) that some of my Skymiles (transferred for Northwest) were going to be expiring in the near future. So, we decided to use them for the family vacation with Anne's sister's family in Kansas City, MO (with a car trip to Springfield, MO for the Happy Pig Collectors Club Convention). Anne tried to book the tickets, but didn't have enough Skymiles to book for both herself and myself. She could find no easy way to use both of our Skymiles during the booking. (The only way that we could find was to transfer the points from my Skymiles account to her Skymiles account, but only if we paid a fee). So, she called the 1-800 number and spoke to someone who eventually booked two separate reservations and told Anne that she would have to pay the taxes and fees. It came out to about $70, and when Anne asked if it was $70 each or for both, was told that it was for both. That was a pleasant surprise, considering that my "free" trip to Washington D.C. a few years ago via Airmiles was over $200 per person in taxes.

Then we thought nothing of it until a day (or possibly two) before the flight. I got a confirmation email from Delta asking us to check in, and which had our assigned seats for both legs of the flight. One of us was in 11C and the other in 11D for the first leg.

On the day of the flight, we showed up at the airport about 1.5 hours before the flight is supposed to leave. We figured that's enough time because the Delta line is usually quite short, and this time around was no exception. I handed in all the required documentation, and then watched the agent at the check-in desk struggle with trying to check Anne in. After a few minutes, I asked her what the problem is. "Your wife's ticket was not issued".

"How can that be when we got an email saying she is in seat 11C?" I asked. The check-in agent merely shrugged. At this point, Anne took over, and I spent time trying playing with Aiden near the front of the check-in line. The check-in agent let Anne use the phone at the counter to call the Delta Helpdesk. She was put on hold until another check-in agent notified Anne that it looks like she got disconnected. When she called back in and mentioned that she was disconnected, they blamed it on her "cell phone". At this point, I took Aiden to have him *ahem* aired out.

When I returned, she told me that apparently, they only charged her credit card for $70 once, and it was actually $70 per person. (And, oh, by the way, due to FAA regulations about checking in an hour prior to the flight, we were no longer able get onto our original flight). Anne also told me that she was this close to buying two tickets to Kansas City for $2900 each (no refunds allowed). The check-in agent had her credit card in hand, and had started the order when Anne was told by the Delta help desk that they had resolved the issue.

Then we had another problem. The flight we got booked on was scheduled to leave in 30 minutes, and the line through US Customs/Immgration was exceedingly long because of "computer problems". We made it through in about 45 minutes. Luckily, the flight was delayed and we reached the gate just as they started general boarding. Unfortunately, in our rush to the gate, we forgot that we were forced to take off Aiden's monkey leash/backpack to put through the x-ray machine, and ended up leaving that behind. (Luckily, there are Wal-mart's in the US, so we were able to easily replace it).

We landed in Memphis with about a half an hour layover, and no idea of where our next gate was. Anne took Aiden to *ahem* air him out, and I went to look for the gate, which took all of 3 seconds (after I found the flight monitors). When Anne came back, I told her, "Good news and bad news. The bad news is that the flight has been delayed by two and a half hours. The good news is that the gate is right next to us .. and they will be bringing out the snacks at 8 pm". We went for dinner, and by the time we returned at around 8 pm, we noticed that all the stores and restaurants were closing, even the Starbucks.

So, we sat and waited, and put Aiden to sleep and waited. By 9 pm there was still no snacks. Somewhere in all the waiting, the flight got delayed by another 30 minutes. I took a walk around the terminal with Aiden, and heard lots of four letter words directed at Delta, as well as promises to never use them again. When I returned from my walk, they announced that the flight had been canceled, but there's nothing we could do at the moment, because it's not official until they get everyone rebooked, but at least the snacks had arrived. A few minutes later, they announced something to the effect of, "Good news, everybody. We have a hotel room for everyone. Just go down to a different gate to get your hotel vouchers". Anne headed off, as I was the one that managed to get Aiden to fall asleep in my arms. About 45 minutes later, there were whispers that contrary to what was announced, they were out of hotel rooms, because they had actually canceled 4 flights that night. (I heard from other passengers later on that the hotels rooms were literally disappearing as the check-in agents were checking for hotel room availability). Then they announced that the gate everyone was lined up at was being closed and we had to go to the check-in counters at the front of the airport.

Anne came back to get me, and was now beyond frustrated - the one person that people who've known her since at least high school that was thought to be unflappable was in tears. Luckily, there was still an agent left at the original departure gate, because she was able to actually hook us up with a hotel room, and tell us that our flight is at 7 pm the next day, or at least one of them is. Remember when Anne was forced to split the reservation into two? Well, that means Delta didn't know that we were supposed to leave on the same flight, hopefully in seats next to each other. The gate agent managed to fix that up and get us on an American Airlines flight for 7:30 am, but we still had to go to the front check-in and get a FIM (Flight Interruption Manifest), which apparently is a piece of paper that we have to give to American Airlines so that they will give us an actual boarding pass.

Anne is lined up at the front check-in, and I sat around listening to the horror stories. A group of people had come back from the Holiday Inn that they were sent to because it was full. They have to wait in line again to get a different hotel. Another group were told by Holiday Inn that they were indeed full, so, no, they wouldn't be sending the shuttle to pick them up. Around this time, Delta was paging for all agents to go to the front check-in counter, as the line was getting longer and longer.

Anne finally made it to the front of the line, and explained that we need a FIM. She was told to go down to another counter because the agent at the counter had no idea what we were talking about. So, off we went, and at the next counter, we got someone who actually knew what we were talking about. However, she couldn't really help us, except to call somewhere else, and she was promptly put on hold.

Finally (yes, I know I am using that word a lot), we were told that everything is okay and handed the FIM, except that it was only for Anne (again, due to the splitting up of the reservation). So, the agent was back on hold trying to get my FIM. While on hold, she was chatting with another agent who had just showed up. They were now chatting and laughing. Suddenly, more and more agents started to show up (about 30 - 45 minutes after the original page and with the original lineup mostly gone). There was more chatting and laughing, and I'm told later by another passenger, the filling in of overtime forms. To make matters worse, as we were waiting for my FIM, we are told that the 50 additional hotel rooms they found have all been taken, but our check-in agent assured us that as long as we had our hotel voucher, we should get a room. She then handed me my FIM.

So, off we went to the hotel they found for us. The taxi drivers were making a killing that night. We got four taxi vouchers for $30 per person. Our driver didn't even bother to turn the meter on. When we arrived at the hotel, the taxi driver asked for two vouchers, and gave us a promise that "his friend" would come back first thing tomorrow to take us back to the airport. His friend turned out to be him. So, he made $120 for a round trip that someone told me is about $36.

And awaiting us at the hotel? Another line, and near the front of the line, was a family I recognized. They had left at least 30 minutes before us. When we got to the front of the line, a couple came back to the front desk and asked, "Is there another room 215? There's already people sleeping in the one we went to". We did get our room around 2:00 am, and had about 10 minutes to enjoy the beautiful view of Memphis (and complain on Facebook) before we set the alarm for 5:30 am, and tried to get some sleep.

And ... fade to black with "to be continued" ...