A Lesson in Patience and Perseverence with DELTA

So, after I posted my last blog post I left work about an hour later and headed to the airport.
There is a bus that goes from Grand Central (by my office) right to JFK, so I often take it when I leave from the airport from work. I got on the bus. No problem.

So, I got to the airport at about 5:45. (flight left at 6:55). Normally that's plenty of time. I checked in at the kiosk and got in line at the bag drop so I could drop my bag and head to the security line. Since it's JFK and stupid, I ended up being in the line until 6:20. At that point, I motioned for a Delta agent (lady #1). I let her know that I had been standing in line for the past half hour and that I need to quickly drop my bag off because I had to get through security and not miss my flight. She takes one look at my boarding pass and says, "It's too late."
I sort of waited for her to continue, but that was it.
I responded - "Um, I'm sorry but I've been in line for a half an hour just trying to drop my bag off. It's not too late. I need to get on this flight. If it was too late, the kiosk that I checked in at would have informed me of such and not let me print my boarding pass."
She just stares at me.
"What am I supposed to do?" (I'm getting really irritated) "Can I just take my bag through security and throw away my liquids?"
"No, you're bag is too big," she replies, "You'll have to get on a different flight."
Right...
So, I ran to the First Class window (as lady #1 instructed since there was no line) and spoke to another woman (lady #2) who was extremely unhelpful. She basically told me since it was the last flight of the day and there were no connecting flights that would be work that I would have to purchase a new ticket. She told me to go to jetblue since I bought the ticket on hotwire....huh?
Well, unfortunately I bought the ticket on delta.com so I seriously have no idea where she was getting this information. So, I just walked away after dealing with her, cause she was clueless.

So, I got on the phone and called Delta's 800 number. I spoke to someone there (lady #3)(finally!) and explained my situation. She informed me that since I was at the airport that it would be better to speak to an agent at the airport. (After being on hold for 10 minutes.) Grrr....I waited for the lines to die down and got in line again to talk to someone else. (Enter lady #4). I spoke to her for about 30 minutes, basically back and forth about why I missed my flight and I had her look up all the other options. At the end of the conversation she had convinced me that I needed to have a ticket re-issued since there were no other options until tomorrow and the cheapest it would cost is the $150 change fee. She would be happy to put me on the same flight tomorrow. By this point, my emotions had overcome me, I was tired, sad, mad and knew that I wasn't going to pay the money since I had gotten such a good rate on this flight. I told her I'd decide tomorrow.

I had called Dereck and went outside to wait for him. I had to call Kelly and Cathy to let them so they weren't waiting for me and had myself a good cry.

On the way home, I couldn't get over the injustice of it all. I have missed a few flights in my day and have NEVER been treated so poorly especially when it wasn't my fault!! So, when I got home I called the Delta 800 no. Again. I spoke to a woman (lady #5) and explained the situation. She told me what the "policy" was and that they don't make exceptions...I asked for her supervisor. (Gentleman #1). I spoke to him and told him the same story and made it perfectly clear that it was NOT my fault. I had been at the airport in plenty of time, I have flown out of JFK before, I understand the procedures. Why was I allowed to check in, if in fact I was "too late" as Lady #1 said? After some pleading he finally said. "OK. I'll make the switch for you to fly on the same flight tomorrow."

Kind of stunned, I thanked him, had some dinner and went to bed.

The next day I went to work. (Everyone thought I was going to be out so that was weird.) Left work an hour early than I left on Thursday just to be sure and hopped on the shuttle bus. It felt like Groundhog day! We encountered some traffic, but I still figured I had plenty of time. Next thing you know, I feel the bus slowing to a stop. I looked out the window and could see the exit for the terminals up ahead, but knew we had not reached it. I hear the bus driver talking on his cell phone in Chinese and hear other passengers exclaiming to one another, "the bus broke down"....

Of course it did.

I waited on the bus for about 3 minutes where I was running scenarios in my head...what to do, what to do...I was secretly just hoping the bus would be un-broken and take me to my gate...no such luck...

So, I got off the bus, with a few of my fellow passengers and proceeded to WALK to the terminal.
With my bag.
On the freeway.

Oh what I sight I'm sure I was. Luckily it wasn't too far and I made it a terminal, hopped on the airtran and got to my terminal in about 25 minutes. Not bad. Take that, fate.

So, I was still OK on time, went to the kiosk to print my pass (again de ja vu) except there was no record of me.

NO RECORD OF ME! (I screamed this in my head).

I proceeded to the shortest line and waited. I got to the front, I gave my ID to lady #6 and started to explain the situation. She wasn't buying it. She was like, we DON'T just change tickets without payment if YOU miss your flight. I felt like letting her HAVE IT. But, I remained calm and explained to her that if she could just read through all the notes, there had to be some mention in there of me talking to Gentleman #1 last night. Nope. So, she calls over the manager. (Gentleman #2). What a joke. He was on his walkie-talkie and not even listening to her as she was explaining to him my situation and just shakes his head no and walks away.
So much for customer service, huh?
So, lady #6 just shrugs and tells me there's nothing she can do without payment for re-issuing this new flight which at this point has jumped to like $400. So, I call the Delta 800 no again and speak to lady #7! She says that she also sees no record of this alleged "free flight" she called it and that I would have to pay the difference. I asked to speak to a manager. Lady #8. She had me on and off hold as I told her the story, she looked through the notes, etc. for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, lady #6 kept giving me the evil eye and told me to please stand aside so she could help other customers.
Finally, lady #8 came through for me! I really thought it was a lost cause and I was going to have to pay the difference, but somehow it all worked out. I made lady #8 stay on the phone so that when I talked to lady #6 I could have back up if need be.
When I walked back over to lady #6 she seemed so mad that I was actually RIGHT! She was so rude and just basically threw the label on my bag that I had to just pause for a minute, look her directly in the eye and say, "Thank you so much for taking the time to help me deal with this unpleasant situation." (or something like that). She was probably embarassed but instead looked at me insincerely and said, "You're welcome." Punk. Apparently it take speaking to 10 people to get anything done!!! Ridiculous.

But, my bag was checked and I was on my way! The line was long through security and literally when I got to my gate they started boarding like 5 minutes later. Boarded the flight taxied about an hour and a half and then the rest of the flight there was uneventful. I think I fell asleep the minute I sat down on the flight and after sleeping about 30 minutes, woke up to the captain saying...we're making good progress only 30 more airplanes ahead of us...come on!

I'll write about the lovely time I had in Denver in my next post. But for now onto the return flight.

On Monday morning Kelly, Dave, and Charlotte got all ready and took me to the airport. I talked to Dereck that morning and he said that NY had gotten about 6 inches of snow. Meanwhile it was 70 degress in Denver, so I figured we'd be fine and that it should be cleared up by the time I got in at 4pm. So, I checked my bag, went to my gate and waited until about 9:50. the flight left at 10:25, so I ran to the restroom in anticipation of getting ready to board. When I came back, I saw that my flight was CANCELLED. Oh, NOW they're going to tell me. How crazy is that? Why would they let all those people check in?

So, I call Delta and lady #9 informed me that they have re-booked me on the same flight tomorrow. I call Kelly, call my work, go downstairs and get my bag. I stopped by the Delta counter just to confirm (lady #10) that all was ok and she informed me that I did have a seat on Tuesday's flight and she gave me a meal voucher. (Sweet!)

Lovely Kelly and Charlotte came and picked me up and we had our extra day, so it was actually kind of great. I was a little hesitant heading to the airport on Tuesday morning again, but all went well and my flight was fine, it was just a long day. I got home Tuesday night at like 6:30! But, better safe than sorry and I'm sooo glad I didn't give in and pay for the flight. Wow, what a mess. So at the end of the day, I probably won't be flying Delta if I can help it.

More to come about the actual fun part of the trip!