Oh Delta…why oh why? Once again I had an adventure ! After a fabulous time in North Carolina–great time with my BFF, Ann, and then a weekend with Aaron I settled in for the trip home. I was taking a flight to Minneapolis and then the little prop plane flight into Mason City so Chris could just pick me up there since he had been home all last week and we did not have a car at the Minneapolis airport . It was a good plan.
Flight from Raleigh boarded and seemed to be on track until they made us sit on the plane for 40 minutes while they got their weight numbers right or something. No big deal. I had an hour before my connection in MSP and they usually really try hard to make up that time since they want on time arrivals. Did not expect to be put in a holding pattern once we got close to MSP. And we held. And held some more. Then we landed and had to wait for the ground crew to come. Then I had to wait for all the people in front of me to get off. I had 10 minutes to get from C9 to B13. Sounds like bingo, doesn’t it??? The Delta rep at the gate told me they knew I was coming so I ran…and ran….and ran…and saw the plane pulling out as I collapsed at the gate. Sigh. I was famous for a moment as I heard my name called for final boarding call…never mind that they pronounced my last name like a country and a pepper.
At least the gate attendant was really apologetic when she came. Perhaps it was because I could no longer breathe normally (Oh how I wished I had started this weight loss thing a little earlier…I may have made it). Perhaps it was the glazed look in my eyes. Perhaps it was my comment that I was not surprised. I was automatically rebooked on the flight out in the morning so it was off to Gate C13 to pick up my hotel voucher and get on my way. A really long line awaited me and I made friends with the couple who missed their connection to Des Moines by 5 minutes, the woman who missed her flight to LaCrosse and the door was actually still open when she got there but they would not let her on, the family going to Las Vegas. We all commiserated as we waited for the shuttle to the hotel that was the greatest distance away from the airport. Whew. After 35 minutes it finally came and the shuttle filled up with Delta interrupted travelers. Unloaded, checked in, looked at the food vouchers they gave me that of course the dinner one was already expired since it was 11:30 pm and tried to unwind.
I had a nice room with a king bed but there was an eerie glow outside my window that despite the black out curtains I could not block it out.
Did I have a room with a view or what??
Morning came way too early and the next challenge was that the hotel hairdryer did not work. I have gotten pretty good at planning for the unexpected. I carry an “emergency ” kit in my carry on with all of the really essential things for being stranded but I had forgotten to put my curling iron in. No biggie—I can make it work with a hairdryer. The outlet was dead despite all my efforts so I called down to the front desk and she brought another one up. I plugged it in another outlet and went to town and made it work. Took the early shuttle to airport since it was so far away from the airport, got through security easy peasy and got ready to wait.
The flight to Mason City had a whopping 8 people on it so we all had to get reassigned seats so we could have the weight distribution right. One man tried to sneak up into the exit row before we took off but luckily the flight attendant caught him and sent him back. Whew!!! On those little planes that is pretty vital. Got to Mason City and to my clean shaven husband (yay…the beard is gone) about 20 minutes late and you guessed it—no luggage. I was told it would be rerouted automatically since I was rerouted but I guess it found a nice little corner in the airport or made some friends and didn’t want to leave quite yet. After doing the description and contact info I took Chris back to work and waited for them to call me. Which they did. The folks who work at the Mason City airport have always been really good to me and get the lost luggage where it needs to go. I appreciate their efforts. I went to the airport to pick it up myself since I was out running errands and life today will consist of laundry and more laundry.
Sky Priority means you get pretty yellow tags and supposedly your luggage gets unloaded first. I also think it means it gets lost first!!! Just kidding! Do you think Delta has Google alerts for mentions of those who are disgruntled???? If so they will see I have several posts relating to them.
Good news is that I am home and the laundry and unpacking was delayed a day. Today I work. Burning calories off as I get my life back in order. Promise the next post will be more upbeat and maybe about something interesting!!!
