I forgot to tell you about last week!

I just realized I never told you of my 'fun' trip last week!! OMG - it was an experience!

It started out as what was supposed to be a simple, short one night trip for a couple of meetings. I left Indy on Wednesday morning, which to those in the area know was having a decent snowfall. But that wasn't a problem, other than having to get the plane de-iced. I was supposed to fly from Indy (IND), to Memphis (MEM), and finally into Ft. Lauderdale (FLL). Simple enough and since it was the first flight to MEM that morning, should've left on time. Well, welcome to the world of traveling... where nothing goes as it should go.

I didn't realize it at the gate, but I quickly caught on once I boarded. The gate agent was scurrying around before we boarded, mumbling about how 'something' was wrong, but she didn't know what. They still proceeded to board us. Once everyone was on board, the pilot got on the intercom and announced there would be about a 15 minute delay because of a fuel pump issue. Now I'm not going to argue that - it needs to be fixed. But why'd they insist on still boarding us 'on time'? No biggy - I've learned you just take things as they come. But I couldn't help but have that worry in the back of my mind - I only had a 39 minute layover in Memphis. That's short by normal standards. But I proceeded to be positive cause they can usually make up 15 minutes in the air.

Well, that 15 minutes quickly turned into 40 minutes. And we still had to de-ice. I had all but given up on being able to catch my connection. By the time we took off, we were leaving an hour behind schedule. At this point, I was plotting whether or not to try to get a flight into West Palm Beach (PBI), instead, since I was obviously going to not make it to FLL on my originally scheduled flight. Decisions, Decisions. And when the pilot got on the intercom again and told us our arrival time was now going to be 9:45am (20 minutes AFTER my connection was schedule to leave MEM), my only thought was "maybe this is the plane going to FLL and/or my FLL plane is seriously delayed..." Deep down, I knew better. But it was nice to give myself a glimmer of hope.

We land in MEM, and I'm one of the first off the plane, only to come into a chaotic mess of agents ready and waiting for us (which was nice to see instead of nobody giving a damn about us being so late). I did, indeed, miss my flight. No surprise. What DID surprise me, though, was the fact that they already booked me on another flight, a Delta flight (I HATE DELTA!!!) through Atlanta (ATL), which put me into FLL 3 hours after my original arrival time. I give them an "A" for effort in trying to still get me where I needed to go, or at least where they THOUGHT I needed to go. But I would've liked to have had to option to choose to take that flight or opt for another flight somewhere else. And now I had to go through ATL??? Ugh... Oh, and the best part - it was leaving in 15 minutes from the next terminal over! Good thing I wore comfortable clothing and shoes that day!

So I book it over the the next terminal, run up to the gate agent and ask for a seat assignment. I was booked on the flight, but not given a seat assignment, which if you know Delta, you know that means you're about to be screwed. (This is why I hate Delta) So here's your advice for the day... If you're ever booked on a Delta flight and not given an seat assignment for some unknown reason, CALL THEM and INSIST on getting a seat assignment! If you do not have a seat assignment, you're the first person to be bumped since Delta is NOTORIOUS for overbooking their flights! I learned that lesson the hard way about 3 years ago. So back to the story... I got my seat assignments and proceed to wait for my zone to be called (they had already started boarding when I came up to the gate). As I stand there, I call my co-worker and let him know what happened and let him know he's have to handle the meeting on his own. He's well capable of that, so I'm not worried. As I'm doing this, the Delta agent opens the flight up to Stand-By's, which there's maybe a half-dozen. Then the shit hit the fan.

Other Northwest passengers come up to the gate (remember, I was out of the plane first and probably at the Delta gate before the plane fully emptied). They ask for seat assignments, just as I had, and the gate agent tells them the flight is closed and that no more Northwest passengers could be accommodated!! Wow... glad I hauled ass over here. I watch, in disbelief. Maybe she's just waiting until it's boarded to be sure there are seats are available. In the meantime, they call the last zone my zone, and I board. All I could think was that really sucks. One of my row-mates boards after I do, and I tell her my ordeal and she says they Northwest passengers were getting even more irate when she came down the jetway. They even had to call security on one guy cause he starting cussing and threatening the gate attendant! Holy Crap! So they really did CLOSE the flight! I think I was one of the only Northwest passengers to make the flight! I can't believe Delta didn't even try to accommodate these people, knowing the plane had just landed! And this is who Northwest is selling out to (maybe)???

So I get to ATL, where I have about an hour to kill. They did give me a food voucher, so I used that and got a free lunch out of the ordeal. Still couldn't believe what had happened in MEM. The kicker was the flight to FLL from ATL was one of those huge 767's that seats 2-3-2 across, and it was half empty! Go Delta! Way to schedule efficiently. Why did you guys go bankrupt again??

So I finally made it to FLL around 3:30pm. Three hours late. Thank goodness I actually did a carry-on that day. I normally check my bag (stupid liquid rule!), but with it only being one night, and the fact that I had a tight schedule to make my meeting, I made the necessary adjustments to do a carry-on. Who know where my bag would've ended up otherwise!! I was only going down for one night, and I barely made the connection in MEM with the new itinerary. My bag never would've made it amidst the confusion of a new itinerary AND a new airline. Plus, I was driving to Orlando that night, so it's not like they could've dropped it at my hotel when/if it did come in - I would've been 4 hours away by the time it got to FLL and I don't think they could've caught it in time to re-route to Orlando (MCO). And I was flying out of MCO the next afternoon! So yeah... carry-on was a very good idea for this trip!

So there you go. My fun travels from last week. Through all of that, I didn't even get mad or upset. I was just a little disappointed. I think it could've been handled a little better overall. And I did convey that in an email to Northwest. We'll see what they come back with in return.

UPDATE: I got an email from Northwest this afternoon... they were generous enough to give me 15,000 worldperks miles. That's halfway to a free flight (essentially, they 'refunded' my one way trip via miles)