delta airlines

I decided to visit my family in La Verne, California the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. There are several airports in the Los Angeles area, with Ontario International Airport being the closest one.

I booked Delta flight 4756 from SLC to ONT the morning of Christmas Eve. Other than sitting next to a young lady who wreaked of perfume that can only be described as BUG SPRAY (it was awful!), the flight down there was uneventful.

The trip home, however, was quite the adventure. I booked Delta flight 4754 from ONT back to SLC.

I arrived at ONT on New Year’s Day at 11:00, which was two hours before my flight was to depart. I figured since it was New Year’s Day the airport would be crowded. Wrong! ONT is usually DEAD! Hardly anyone has even heard of that airport, not a lot of people fly in and out of there. It’s a wonder that airport is even still in business.

Anyway, I check in and go through security, which took maybe 15 minutes. There was nothing to do except sit and wait. We finally boarded and Lindsay, the flight attendant, ran through the safety briefing. Shortly afterwards, the pilot announced that at least one of the tires on the aircraft was completely flat. Terrific. They had all the passengers exit the plane and told us a mechanic should be there in about 45 minutes to fix it, and that it shouldn’t take more than about 10 minutes to change the tires.

Well… 3 hours later… the mechanics FINALLY showed up. I guess Delta doesn’t have any mechanics at ONT? These guys drove in from LAX. Once they arrived an announcement was made, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the mechanics are here. This should only be a 5 minute fix for them to change the tires, and we’ll be on our way shortly.” I knew that was a lie! It was at least 45 minutes later before another announcement was made. “They’re just now signing off on everything, it shouldn’t be much longer… ”

We FINALLY boarded the aircraft. Lindsay ran through the safety briefing again, and we started taxiing towards the runway. We got about halfway out there and the plane came to a stop. We sat there for a while and then the pilot announced, “Uh… ladies and gentlemen, because of the delay in getting the tires fixed, I am now past my flying hours for this evening. I’m not legal to take off, so we’re going to have to return to the gate. You may retrieve your bags at the baggage claim…” What I found odd about this was why did they depart from the gate in the first place if they knew they were over their allotted flying hours? Was there no other pilots they could get to fly the plane? It didn’t seem to make any sense.

So… everyone gets off the plane AGAIN, and by this time there were several moans and groans. The baggage claim area has 4 carousels, but the place was dead. It took quite a while for the bags to FINALLY show up. After I retrieved my bag, I headed over to the ticket counter. Wouldn’t you know it, NOW the place was jumping and there was a long line of people. Ugh!

I finally got up to the ticket counter and spoke with David. “The next flight out of here is tomorrow afternoon at 4pm.”

“Are you serious??!!”

“Well, if you don’t mind going to another airport, we can probably get you home sooner. We have one leaving LAX at 6am, and another one at 10am.”

“I’ll take the 10am flight, but what do I do in the meantime?”

“We’ll get a shuttle to take you out to LAX, and we’ll have you stay at a hotel at LAX.”

At that point, I thought, “Well, that doesn’t sound so bad… ” David was extremely apologetic for everything that had happened regarding the delays and interruption of travel plans. He provided me with a voucher to stay at the Radisson Hotel, along with two meal vouchers at the hotel, $10 each, one for dinner and one for breakfast.

When the shuttle dropped me off at the Radisson Hotel at LAX, I went up to the check-in counter. The desk clerk was rather snooty. I showed him the hotel voucher. “Hmmmph… We can’t accept that, sir. Delta never contacted us about any of this.”

“So what does that mean?”

“I don’t know, sir. You’re on your own. You might want to go over to that desk over there and speak with the concierge. They might let you contact Delta to work out some other arrangements…”

At that point I asked, “Well what about that young man over there? He was also from the same flight I was. Are you going to turn HIM away, too?”

“He is? Hmm… just a moment, sir.” He walked behind this partition and chatted with one of his managers, then he returned. “Well… we are going to go ahead and let you stay.” He crossed out the $10 on the meal vouchers and changed them both to $7. (What?!!) He gave me my room key and sent me on my way.

I put my bag away and headed back down to the lobby. By this time, I was starving as I hadn’t had anything to eat since morning, and had expected to be home by 3pm that day (it was now about 8pm). The hotel had a small lounge and a restaurant. I decided to try the restaurant. When I got the menu, I just about choked. The cheapest thing on that menu was about $25. YIKES! Well, since I was hungry, I figured I’d use the meal voucher and then pay the difference. The head waiter or Maitre d’ said, “Oh no, no, no! Don’t even worry about that! We just want you to be happy!”

“Are you serious? I don’t want to cheat anybody.”

“Oh, no problem, sir!” I must say at that point I was pretty impressed. And that was the best meal I’d eaten in quite a while! The food and service were superb! When I went to leave, however, the waiter handed me my check! I ended up paying for the meal anyway! I didn’t contest it because I didn’t feel like making a huge scene. I thought the situation was a bit appalling, but also amusing. Five star prices, at a 3 star hotel? OK, whatever. I don’t think that $7 voucher even covered the gratuities!

The next morning I went to get some breakfast. They had this little deli or bakery section in the lounge. The cheapest thing I could find was what looked like an Egg McMuffin from McD’s. I asked for that and a glass of milk. “That’ll be 10 dollars, sir.”

Ummm… if anyone from Delta is reading this, you MIGHT want to consider providing meal vouchers that would actually cover the cost of eating at the hotel! What’s the point of a $7 or $10 voucher if the cheapest thing on the menu is more than that?

The flight home from LAX to SLC was about 30 minutes late departing. The flight itself was uneventful, but one of the flight attendants was downright creepy-looking. Her hairdo can only be described as “Wicked Witch of the West Meets a Flock of Seagulls.” It was jet black, the sides were combed up into points, but the top was flat and cut like a butch. Weird! At least I didn’t have to sit next to someone who wreaked of “bug spray.”

Anyway, I finally made it home. What a way to begin the new year!

- The Gummyroach

Tagged as: delay & cancellation, delta airlines, flight attendant, holiday, hotel, odor, pilot

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