Here we go with the terrible travel trip.
Thursday
5AM: Wake up to pack.
8AM: Arrive at airport.
10AM: Flight to Philly is delayed due to weather. One hour. (That’s fine, I can accept this.)
11AM: Flight is cancelled due to plane not being able to turn left. (Swear on my soul.)
11:05AM: Myself and the other 100 of us are taken off the plane and given a $6 food voucher (like this will really help me) and a piece of paper basically saying to call the help desk to be rerouted.
11:30AM: I have my new flight schedule. MSP to CVG to PHL. Will arrive by 9PM. (I’m fine with this.)
1:10PM: I am outside smoking and bitching to anyone who will listen about how crappy my day is. I check my boarding pass and realize in horror that I have misread it. I read the 4:30 arrival time for CVG to mean that the flight leaves MSP at 4:30. I realize that the flight from MSP leaves at 1:35.
Between 1:10 and 1:30, I got to the gate using my handy first class boarding pass from my original cancelled flight. The front desk lady rips me a new one and I disappoint the poor bastard who was waiting on standby to take my seat, another unfortunate Philly traveler from my morning flight. I prepare to take my seat. I KNOW how people look at those who are late. I take my seat at 1:34 with no dirty looks shot my way. Something is wrong…
1:35PM: I ask the person next to me (yet another unfortunate Philly traveler from the morning flight) what is happening. He informs me that maintenance has been looking at the plane for a while. I sit there for an hour.
4:30PM: I arrive at the Cincinnati airport. I have a 3 hour layover (I even had the guy next to me on the plane help me read my boarding pass because as we learned earlier I apparently cannot do that anymore), so I decide to see what gate I’m assigned to. In red letters I am informed of the words “Cancelled.”
4:45PM: I finally locate the Help Desk. The woman informed me that I could stay at a hotel at a discounted rate and travel to Philly in the morning. I told her shove it (she was a b****). Instead I decided that I was sick enough of Delta and that I was just going to drive. I called up the Renn in Columbus and booked an overnight stay there.
5:00PM: Arrive at baggage claim. MSP airport neglected to put my bag from my original morning flight onto the Cincy flight. Oops. I am given an overnight kit with a Sky Team t-shirt big enough to fit a circus under. Gee…thanks.
5:30PM: I arrive at the rental car agency. I give her my sob story. She hooks me up with over $300 in fees waived. Awesome.
6:00PM: I am on the road. Familiar with the territory. Excited to go to Columbus because I have the need for a drink. A few of them at this point.
6:30PM: Driving I-75N into Ohio… this interstate always comes to sudden halts so I give the guy in front of me plenty of room. The cars come to a complete stop. I come to a complete stop safely behind the person in front of me. I am a good considerate driver unlike the jerk who did not give me this consideration and rear ends me. Yup.
6:50PM: I am pulling back onto the interstate. That is just how fast KY works to file an accident report. My car has no dents – just a scrape and the Cadillac sign fell off. Big whoop. The other guy’s car is drivable but not looking great with the hood doing the accordion deal. I ended up driving the car back to the rental place and they told me I could keep it and drop it off in Philly if I still wanted it. I just had to call to report the accident before dropping the car off. If that car treated me that good with a rear ending like that… I want this for my ten hour drive to Philly come Friday morning.
9:30PM – 1AM: I arrive in Columbus. I find my favorite drinking buddy there unexpectedly. My horrible travel story earns me a few free drinks and some shots.
Friday
8AM – I wake up feeling like SHIT.
9AM – I am on the road. I decided not to wear the circus-size Sky Team shirt and instead chose my clothes from the day before even though David had spilled my drink on my shirt (that jerk).
1PM – I finally think I can try some food. It tastes good – beef jerky in the bag. Yummy.
4PM – I call the rental agency to report the accident.
7PM – I finally arrive at PHL airport. My bag is waiting for me.
8:30PM – My friend arrives at the airport to pick me up.
Then my vacation started. Yes – my vacation. Doesn’t that make this story a whole lot worse? Only took me about 36 hours to get from MSP to PHL.
Delta stands for: Doesn’t Ever Leave The Airport.
– Angie Lahr
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Good story….
A large chunk of this story has nothing to do with Delta. And even of the part that does, part of it was your fault (for misreading the boarding pass), and the first delayed/cancelled flight seemed to be handled fairly well. I think some of your frustration is a bit misdirected here. I also think calling people b****es and telling them to "shove it" is a bit harsh, considering you don't tell us why you think she was a b****.
Driving a rental car while hungover also sounds questionable, lol.
I don't get a few things in your story.
First, you misread your boarding pass. You are human, I get it..We all make mistakes. But not really an airline issue there. You actually seemed to get rebooked and rerouted pretty fast.
Second, why was your flight from CVG to PHL cancelled? If it's because of weather, then yeah, they aren't going to pay for you to stay in a hotel. If it's maintenance or plane-issues, then you should have been offered a hotel room.
Third, What I really don't understand is why you pass up a discounted hotel room (they are called distressed passenger rates, and are pretty good deal sometimes) and instead pay to rent a car to drive to Columbus? With a one-way rental and gas, that must have been a little expensive. Seems like it would have just been cheaper to stay in CVG a night, take the early flight the next morning and then make it to you destination a lot earlier than driving.
Sucks you had two flights cancelled. That's not fun. But it sounds like you just made your own trip a lot longer by renting a car. At least you got some good drinks out of it though.
Nice writeup, can you post any new update please? I'm going to flight with Delta next time.
http://www.nice-airport-transfer.fr/
Who packs three hours before they have to leave. You must be a Gemini!!!!
My husband… (oops, hopefully he won't read this).
I have always had pretty good experiences with Delta. US Airways/ American have been the worse for me. I still find it hard to believe there are no TV/ entertainment on most of AA trans-continental 5 hour flights. Come'on it is 2015. http://www.rwhobbies.com
If you are charged by an airline with an unwarranted billing for no-show / flight cancellations / itinerary changes, send us the details.
If your case is found justified as a class case, we will do our best to find funding to represent it in court.
http://www.iatpa.net