Grendalynn
Self Proclaimed DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2005
- Messages
- 1,717
Well... I don't even know where to begin.... I am so DAMN Angry with DELTA Airlines right now I could scream - 
- if only I wasn't so darn tired from SLEEPING IN AN AIRPORT. Did I mention I am 4+ months Pregnant? AND have 2 young children?? I am so spitting mad still that I have to vent... 
As most/some of you may know, yesterday there was a "Safety Breach" (AKA Bomb Scare) at the Atlanta International Airport. This caused delays all day for flights in and out of Atlanta. We were scheduled to depart from orlando International for Atlanta at 6:42PM... Then it came on the monitor that flight 256 would now depart at 8:10PM... While it seemed like it took forever for someone to explian why this was happening and if we would make our connecting flight in Atl for Boston, someone got out their Laptop and realized what the real issues was. All of our options were gone, the other direct flights were booked and we had no option but to sit and wait for the delayed flight.
Eventually it was set that the flight would depart at 8:10, then 8:15 PM. We were assured by the man at the Delta desk in the terminal that all flights should be delayed equally and we should have no problem making our connecting flight in Atl. All flights were delayed going in and out of atlanta. We were scheduled to have a 1 hr and 52 min or so lay over which ended up being in our favor as we may be able to mak e the flight to Boston afterall, or so I thought.
Yay! We were finally loaded and ready to start taxi-ing to the run way...
The captain came over the intercome several times explaining the sitauion and that we were going to be ahead of the new schedule and the arrival time and such was being displayed on the monitors throughout the cabin. Doing the simple math we were going to make it!! Nope! 
All at once a whole slew of people raced on the plane! Where did they come from?? Not sure where they were, the bar maybe?? Seemed to be a lot of folks there when we got a bit to eat - some I recognized hurrying to find their seats!
It was quite obvious that the flight had been delayed and the new departure time gave everyone plenty of time to hang out and within the terminal and wait. But no! By the time these stragglers got on the plane, found their seats and fought the steward/esses to find an appropriate place for their carry-ons, it was 10-15 minutes later!!! Not sure why DELTA let them load at all? We would have made our flight if those people had payed better attention and were where they were supposed to be!! Then we sat on the runway for another 7 to 10 minutes. Finally we took off...
The captian never oncec ame over the loud speaker to tell what our ETA was or what the schedule might be for those wo were to make connecting flights... I once asked a stewardess what gate was that we were coming into, because I knew where I needed to go and wanted to look it up in that trusty magazine in the back of the seat. She was NO help, rude actually. Said she didnt know. Then, for those who were getting off the plane, it took what seemd like FOREVER to unload their stuff for it was spread through out the plane! There was never once an announcement made for those to sit who had time to connect and let others off who were cutting it close. It was a free for all!
So we finally get our one carry-on down, scooped up DS3 who had konked out for the night, as its now 10:01 PM and grabbed their little black back pack of entertainmnet and book it for the other terminal. We finally get out and booked it for the other flight. Nothing like running full speed with 32 lbs of dead weight. We got there and --> THE PLANE HAD LEFT 10 MINUTES AGO!!!! The 10 minutes that was wasted with the stragglers from god-knows where, the sitting and fighting over where to put their bags and then the fighting to get off the plane! But 10 Minutes??? AND it was the LAST flight of the night!! So.. there we are, 2 small boys (3 & 7) stranded in the Atlanta Airport.... I went to the DELTA desk looking for some answers. The lady wanted me to feel bad for HER and the BS that she had gone through that day. She was not willing to give us any sort of compensation for this aggravation. Its a security issue, so its not her fault, no comp tickets or refunds or anything like that. It would not have made it better but it would have helped a little! 
Get a room you think?? Ahh the perfect idea - the lady at the DELTA desk
gives us a print out of all the area hotels. Mind you that a lady on the Plane mentioned that she had tried to get a rooom from Orlando and said most everywhere in Atlanta was sold out!! Great! 
So anway, I call and finally find a place with rooms.... we found one with some left!! YAY.... I call and ask the Operator to reserve a room, she says there are plenty and not to worry, no need to reserve one with a credit card. "OK great - saves us some time" I thinkto myself. So we head to ground transportation, Island C. And if you arent familiar with the Atlanta Airport, the arrival terminals and the baggage claim/transportation are as far apart as you can get... its now pushing 11 PM and our youngest has konked out for the night. DH is lugging his dead weight across the airport. DS7 is lagging behind. Me and my pregnant belly are pulling our carry-on and bag o' goodies for the boys where ever we go. We get to the Transportation depo... I was told there was a shuttle, so where is it?? We wait and wait and wait.... No shuttle. I call the hotel back, the shuttle just left the hotel, should be back to us within 10+ minutes.... we wait and wait. No shuttle. 
:
Finally the shuttle arrives... a whole bunch of us pile on the bus
, then a man says, "Everyone off - this bus has room for the UB40 band only!" By this time I was steaming mad! Its pushing midnight and God only know what time we will get to the Hotel. So I call the Hotel for assurance that we will have a room still, they have 5 rooms left but "they will set one aside for us" 
Yeah right - by the time we catch shuttle #2, it would be 1AM before we got there, then the way our night was going, there would be no rooms available when we did get to the hotel, that is who knows how far away??
So DH and I weigh the options... get to the Hotel with an anticipated room (if its even being held for us) around 1:30 AM, check in and in bed by 2am only to rise at 4/4:30 and have to be back at the airport to get our tickets and thru security at 5/5:30 AM for our 6:20 flight?? Or tuff if out at the Airport. At this time DS7 is sleeping on his feet and we are all super grouchy. So we head aaallllll the way back into the terminal, find some nice squishy, but not so squishy, chairs. There were a lot of folks hunkering down there for the night as well. Many older folks and many with small children such as us. We we make our little sleeping area out of 5 mismatched chairs, tuck inall the valuable things so they aren't heisted during our "rest" .
We get the boys settled in and covered up with the towel I packed in the cary on, "just in case". The A/C was on full boar I think, so I struck off the the DELTA desk in search for the dark blue blankets I had seen here and there. I got the last one. I was suprised at how much traffic there was through that particular area. The usual Safety Recordings about "not leaving bags unattened and please have your Photo ID and boarding pass ready"... were still being played in 4 minute intervals over the loud speakers. People making early AM flights and night workers going about their business.... So its 1:30 AM or so, the boys are finally settled in with our 1 DELTA banket and go off to sleep, so DH and I try to doze off....
Then the night crew starts up the gas powered floor washers!! At one point I felt and smelled the wind from the exhaust on my face!! And they do not flinch at the little children, senior citizens or rest of us trying to get some shut eye!! This went on for over 1 hour!! With shutting off and turning on the machine several times! So I give up after about 1 good hour of sleep, bythis time my stomach is sore from sleeping in weird positions, lifting the carry on bag, carrying DS3 and so on and so forth. I wake up just in time to witness the most amazing thing - I dont even have words for it!! The guys with the floor washers start hollering at the sleeping people to "get up!!" as they had to move the chairs back to where they are "supposed to be"!! These are families, small children, old and young, that are just trying to get a lil shut eye!! One poor lady had just gotten her, what I would say was a, 1 year old to sleep after hours of struggling, and got yelled at to move, "Wake Up! Wake up!" and clap their hands.
THEN!! as the chairs are being moved back "to where they are supposed to be" and people are putting their shoes on and collecting their belongings to follow their "beds", other people swoop in and grab them up!! Finally we had it! We grabbed the kids and our stuff and went to get our tickets and go through security.
We make it up to the terminal where we were to board and make ourselvs beds on the floor. We found a nice cleaning lady who mustered up 3 or 4 blankets and we all collapsed on the floor. To all the past and presently Pregnant ladies out there, I am not sure if you have done it or remember what its like to sleep on a hard, solid surface for a while?....with NO Pillows and no padding... It SUCKS - it ABSOLUTLY sucks (to put it nicely)!!! I was very sore for most of the morning and thought I would have to make a trip to the Doctors when I got home. So Finally 6AM came and everyone started flooding into the Terminal. The boys woke up and we packed our duds up and asked to load the plane with the first zone. We were supposed to load with Zone 7, but I had had enough of Atlanta International airport. The snooty lady at the DELTA Desk said we may board if we felt we had to.... So we did. Thank the Lord our baggage was waiting for us at Logan, because if I had to fight to get my lost luggage, I was going to lose my mind!!
I have flown extensively in my 29 years on the earth, domesticly and Internationally and have never experienced the chaos and "sorry about your luck" attitude that did last night and this morning. DH said he would never Fly again! Needless to say, I will be going to bed early tonight and will be taking it easy for a few days! Thanks so much to those of you who read all of this; Not sure if anyone can learn anything from this, but I feel a hellll of a lot better for sure! Maybe someone out there can sympathize with me... Thanks for listening!
- if only I wasn't so darn tired from SLEEPING IN AN AIRPORT. Did I mention I am 4+ months Pregnant? AND have 2 young children?? I am so spitting mad still that I have to vent... As most/some of you may know, yesterday there was a "Safety Breach" (AKA Bomb Scare) at the Atlanta International Airport. This caused delays all day for flights in and out of Atlanta. We were scheduled to depart from orlando International for Atlanta at 6:42PM... Then it came on the monitor that flight 256 would now depart at 8:10PM... While it seemed like it took forever for someone to explian why this was happening and if we would make our connecting flight in Atl for Boston, someone got out their Laptop and realized what the real issues was. All of our options were gone, the other direct flights were booked and we had no option but to sit and wait for the delayed flight.
Eventually it was set that the flight would depart at 8:10, then 8:15 PM. We were assured by the man at the Delta desk in the terminal that all flights should be delayed equally and we should have no problem making our connecting flight in Atl. All flights were delayed going in and out of atlanta. We were scheduled to have a 1 hr and 52 min or so lay over which ended up being in our favor as we may be able to mak e the flight to Boston afterall, or so I thought.
Yay! We were finally loaded and ready to start taxi-ing to the run way...
The captain came over the intercome several times explaining the sitauion and that we were going to be ahead of the new schedule and the arrival time and such was being displayed on the monitors throughout the cabin. Doing the simple math we were going to make it!! Nope! All at once a whole slew of people raced on the plane! Where did they come from?? Not sure where they were, the bar maybe?? Seemed to be a lot of folks there when we got a bit to eat - some I recognized hurrying to find their seats! It was quite obvious that the flight had been delayed and the new departure time gave everyone plenty of time to hang out and within the terminal and wait. But no! By the time these stragglers got on the plane, found their seats and fought the steward/esses to find an appropriate place for their carry-ons, it was 10-15 minutes later!!! Not sure why DELTA let them load at all? We would have made our flight if those people had payed better attention and were where they were supposed to be!!
Then we sat on the runway for another 7 to 10 minutes. Finally we took off... The captian never oncec ame over the loud speaker to tell what our ETA was or what the schedule might be for those wo were to make connecting flights... I once asked a stewardess what gate was that we were coming into, because I knew where I needed to go and wanted to look it up in that trusty magazine in the back of the seat. She was NO help, rude actually. Said she didnt know.
Then, for those who were getting off the plane, it took what seemd like FOREVER to unload their stuff for it was spread through out the plane! There was never once an announcement made for those to sit who had time to connect and let others off who were cutting it close. It was a free for all! So we finally get our one carry-on down, scooped up DS3 who had konked out for the night, as its now 10:01 PM and grabbed their little black back pack of entertainmnet and book it for the other terminal. We finally get out and booked it for the other flight. Nothing like running full speed with 32 lbs of dead weight. We got there and --> THE PLANE HAD LEFT 10 MINUTES AGO!!!!
The 10 minutes that was wasted with the stragglers from god-knows where, the sitting and fighting over where to put their bags and then the fighting to get off the plane! But 10 Minutes??? AND it was the LAST flight of the night!! So.. there we are, 2 small boys (3 & 7) stranded in the Atlanta Airport.... I went to the DELTA desk looking for some answers. The lady wanted me to feel bad for HER and the BS that she had gone through that day. She was not willing to give us any sort of compensation for this aggravation. Its a security issue, so its not her fault, no comp tickets or refunds or anything like that. It would not have made it better but it would have helped a little! Get a room you think?? Ahh the perfect idea - the lady at the DELTA desk
gives us a print out of all the area hotels. Mind you that a lady on the Plane mentioned that she had tried to get a rooom from Orlando and said most everywhere in Atlanta was sold out!! Great! So anway, I call and finally find a place with rooms.... we found one with some left!! YAY.... I call and ask the Operator to reserve a room, she says there are plenty and not to worry, no need to reserve one with a credit card. "OK great - saves us some time" I thinkto myself. So we head to ground transportation, Island C. And if you arent familiar with the Atlanta Airport, the arrival terminals and the baggage claim/transportation are as far apart as you can get... its now pushing 11 PM and our youngest has konked out for the night. DH is lugging his dead weight across the airport. DS7 is lagging behind. Me and my pregnant belly are pulling our carry-on and bag o' goodies for the boys where ever we go. We get to the Transportation depo... I was told there was a shuttle, so where is it?? We wait and wait and wait.... No shuttle. I call the hotel back, the shuttle just left the hotel, should be back to us within 10+ minutes.... we wait and wait. No shuttle. :Finally the shuttle arrives... a whole bunch of us pile on the bus
, then a man says, "Everyone off - this bus has room for the UB40 band only!" By this time I was steaming mad! Its pushing midnight and God only know what time we will get to the Hotel. So I call the Hotel for assurance that we will have a room still, they have 5 rooms left but "they will set one aside for us" Yeah right - by the time we catch shuttle #2, it would be 1AM before we got there, then the way our night was going, there would be no rooms available when we did get to the hotel, that is who knows how far away?? So DH and I weigh the options... get to the Hotel with an anticipated room (if its even being held for us) around 1:30 AM, check in and in bed by 2am only to rise at 4/4:30 and have to be back at the airport to get our tickets and thru security at 5/5:30 AM for our 6:20 flight?? Or tuff if out at the Airport. At this time DS7 is sleeping on his feet and we are all super grouchy. So we head aaallllll the way back into the terminal, find some nice squishy, but not so squishy, chairs. There were a lot of folks hunkering down there for the night as well. Many older folks and many with small children such as us. We we make our little sleeping area out of 5 mismatched chairs, tuck inall the valuable things so they aren't heisted during our "rest" .
We get the boys settled in and covered up with the towel I packed in the cary on, "just in case". The A/C was on full boar I think, so I struck off the the DELTA desk in search for the dark blue blankets I had seen here and there. I got the last one. I was suprised at how much traffic there was through that particular area. The usual Safety Recordings about "not leaving bags unattened and please have your Photo ID and boarding pass ready"... were still being played in 4 minute intervals over the loud speakers. People making early AM flights and night workers going about their business.... So its 1:30 AM or so, the boys are finally settled in with our 1 DELTA banket and go off to sleep, so DH and I try to doze off....
Then the night crew starts up the gas powered floor washers!! At one point I felt and smelled the wind from the exhaust on my face!! And they do not flinch at the little children, senior citizens or rest of us trying to get some shut eye!! This went on for over 1 hour!! With shutting off and turning on the machine several times! So I give up after about 1 good hour of sleep, bythis time my stomach is sore from sleeping in weird positions, lifting the carry on bag, carrying DS3 and so on and so forth. I wake up just in time to witness the most amazing thing - I dont even have words for it!! The guys with the floor washers start hollering at the sleeping people to "get up!!" as they had to move the chairs back to where they are "supposed to be"!! These are families, small children, old and young, that are just trying to get a lil shut eye!! One poor lady had just gotten her, what I would say was a, 1 year old to sleep after hours of struggling, and got yelled at to move, "Wake Up! Wake up!" and clap their hands.
THEN!! as the chairs are being moved back "to where they are supposed to be" and people are putting their shoes on and collecting their belongings to follow their "beds", other people swoop in and grab them up!! Finally we had it! We grabbed the kids and our stuff and went to get our tickets and go through security. We make it up to the terminal where we were to board and make ourselvs beds on the floor. We found a nice cleaning lady who mustered up 3 or 4 blankets and we all collapsed on the floor. To all the past and presently Pregnant ladies out there, I am not sure if you have done it or remember what its like to sleep on a hard, solid surface for a while?....with NO Pillows and no padding...
It SUCKS - it ABSOLUTLY sucks (to put it nicely)!!! I was very sore for most of the morning and thought I would have to make a trip to the Doctors when I got home. So Finally 6AM came and everyone started flooding into the Terminal. The boys woke up and we packed our duds up and asked to load the plane with the first zone. We were supposed to load with Zone 7, but I had had enough of Atlanta International airport. The snooty lady at the DELTA Desk said we may board if we felt we had to.... So we did. Thank the Lord our baggage was waiting for us at Logan, because if I had to fight to get my lost luggage, I was going to lose my mind!! I have flown extensively in my 29 years on the earth, domesticly and Internationally and have never experienced the chaos and "sorry about your luck" attitude that did last night and this morning. DH said he would never Fly again! Needless to say, I will be going to bed early tonight and will be taking it easy for a few days! Thanks so much to those of you who read all of this; Not sure if anyone can learn anything from this, but I feel a hellll of a lot better for sure! Maybe someone out there can sympathize with me... Thanks for listening!
I'm amazed you didn't just break down in tears. I hope that once the steam has stopped coming out of your ears (from the experience you had, that may take several days!!!) 
We ended up stuck in Atlanta overnight a year ago when we were trying to fly to Phoenix. We had weather-related delays in Pensacola and were actually routed through Orlando back up to Atlanta to try to keep us on track with our current schedule. Needless to say, it didn't work. 
