Forty-odd hours later, I'm home.

[starlady]

In the event, I never got anywhere near LAX. My bag changed planes there, though! 

Let's back up. I checked in Sunday morning for my flight, but on impulse Sunday night I rechecked my flight status and saw that my PHL-MSP flight had been cancelled and that Delta had rebooked me for the same flight on Wednesday (I still have not received any communication about this from them; if I hadn't checked my flight status I'd have been totally screwed). Given that it's snowing in Philly now and will be snowing tomorrow, I decided to rebook myself on a 6:15 flight from Philly to SJC via MSP on Monday morning. Having gotten up at 3:30 and gotten to the airport at 5:00, we were sitting on the plane waiting to push back when the captain informed us that there was something wrong with the aft door. Forty minutes later, it transpired that the emergency chute was broken, there was no replacement in PHL, and the plane wasn't going anywhere. I stood in the rebooking line for 90 minutes and the woman in front of me got the last seat on the PHL-SFO nonstop flight that afternoon, so I decided to take the seat Delta offered me on the other plane they'd found that was going to MSP and, rather than be sixth on the standby list for that evening's flight to SJC, get a guaranteed seat on the Tuesday morning flight. I spent yesterday and last night hanging out with friends in Minneapolis, it was great except for the fact that I didn't have my checked bag (it went to SJC last night). It snowed the entire time I was there and no one flipped out, it's almost like snow is a normal thing that is possible to deal with! Are you listening, Atlanta!?

Ahem. When I got to the gate in MSP after booking it through the terminal due to delays in security, there was no plane to be seen; eventually they got it out of the hangar and we de-iced and left and got to SJC about 40 minutes late. I wasn't actually angry about any of this until I walked into the Delta baggage office and it turned out that for some reason my bag had gone out on American and the Delta people were too fucking lazy to get it, with the result that I had to take the shuttle to the other terminal to claim it myself and consequently missed the only CalTrain of the hour, so I sat in the rain at Santa Clara for 45 minutes. Eventually, though, I got back to the east bay and my roommate kindly picked me up from the BART station and when I sat down at the dining room table the chair broke under me and I fell on my ass on the floor and I laughed and laughed. It's good to be home, which is what I said when I got into Minneapolis, and it's still true. 

Unfortunately, since there was no four hour layover in LAX, many things I had intended to accomplish are still unfinished. I am going to tackle some of them after dinner. 

All in all, this was one for the record books, even in my jaded accounting. 

Comments

[recessional]

*laugh* To be fair to Atlanta: snow is a thing that is possible to deal with (relatively simply) if you are in a place where it is economically reasonable to have a large number of snow-specific devices and the trained personnel to run them the whole winter long, because you will, in fact, get that much snow.

Otherwise known as, the teeeeny airport in the town I grew up in ignores snow. YVR, over in Vancouver, FLAILS AND SCREAMS OMG. The difference is exactly that. I suspect Atlanta is much more like YVR.

[starlady]

Oh, I know. The airports I grew up with really can't deal with snow either. But it was just really funny to me, in that bitter sort of way, that it probably snowed at least 3 or 4" in Minneapolis while I was there, and no one blinked an eye.

[(Anonymous)]

Or you could be like my hometown, and base the current year's budget on the previous year's.

In a year like this is turning out to be, this means they budgeted for one medium sized storm the entire season, with no contingency plan, despite being within Snow Belt distance of one of the great lakes.

Now we have a choice between a totally crippled downtown, or an exorbitant last minute removal contract. 'Fiscal responsibility' doesn't do what it says on the tin.

[snarp]

(I still have not received any communication about this from them; if I hadn't checked my flight status I'd have been totally screwed).

Delta: They Do Crap Like That. (I'm suggesting this to them as their new motto.)

Glad you got home!

[starlady]

I am glad too!

I miss Northwest so bad, seriously. To be fair to Delta, almost all of the people I have dealt with, particularly this time, are very nice--but they are just institutionally incompetent, I can't even tell you the last time I had even one flight segment go off without a hitch. It's not like I'm going to stop flying them for various reasons, and that's my choice and I take full responsibility for it, but I really was angry about the bag thing. Mine was not the only Delta bag in the American office, either.

[epershand]

Wow, just.... wow. I'm so glad you made it home at last!

[starlady]

I'm so glad too, seriously.

It wasn't actually that bad, though the sleep deprivation and perpetual ravening hunger that I get when I take the really early redeyes aren't fun. I always try to keep my expectations at rock-bottom, but apparently "I will get to California today" was not actually rock bottom, yesterday.

[via_ostiense]

Wow, what an adventure. I'm glad you got home in one piece!

[starlady]

Me too!!

[rushthatspeaks]

Whoof. I am glad that eventually got sorted.

[starlady]

Me too. I was biking around today just profoundly grateful to be here. And for once I don't have any future itineraries already booked, for which I am also strangely glad.

[larryhammer]

That's ... an impressive journey. Just not the good sort of impressive.

---L.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was a real adventure. I mean, I could have had Delta rebook me for today from Philly, but given the snow it just seemed better to go to Minneapolis for a day, and it was great to see people.