Danté's Inferno

Here’s today’s travel adventure.

It actually started last night, stopped and got dinner, turned in the
rental car and checked into the Tampa Airport Marriott for a few hours
of sleep.

Woke up at 04:00, took a quick shower then went downstairs to check-in
at Delta and that’s where the adventure started

For some reason, still under investigation, my reservation couldn’t be
found at the check-in kiosk. So, I broke out my laptop and checked to
make sure that I listed OK and it looked good to me. A ticket agent
asked me what was wrong, so I told her what was going on and she said
she’d take a look. Well, simultaneously, some a-hole next to me started
screaming at the ticket agent that was helping me because 4 people went
ahead of him and he had been waiting 7 minutes! Oh, the horror He was
screaming in my ear, wanted everyone’s names, requested red coats and
managers and kept screaming at the girl helping me out! So, they pretty
much ignored him, which made him even madder. What a great experience to
have at 04:30 in the morning!

So, she found me in one of their other reservation systems and took my
bag, handed me back my cell phone and ID. I didn’t realize it but she
went ahead and checked me in but somehow missed that I wanted to be on a
higher priority ticket but couldn’t hear me over the the a-hole that had
to wait 7 minutes!!!

So, 2 families that listed at this higher priority got on the 06:00 to
ATL, but I didn’t! Mind you, I didn’t know that I was at the wrong
priority since I didn’t see how she checked me in!!!

However, I did get on the 7:15 flight to ATL, which was stuck on a
ground hold, so we arrived to ATL late. Since I was in the back of the
bus (757) it took forever to deplane, so I got the the gate for CLE at
9:20, but that flight was delayed (it was supposed to leave at 9:20 but
was delayed until 9:35) but there were no gate agents to be found! I
couldn’t find anyone with Delta to let me on the plane even though
their automated system said I was cleared!

So, having missed that flight, I called into Delta Res and that’s when I
found out that I wasn’t on the higher priority, but no explanation of
why I couldn’t get on the CLE flight. I got listed on the 12:50 flight
to CLE and got on that flight. In the meantime, Joanie was calling their
help line to see why they couldn’t find me (this happened on the way
down, too, but we thought it was a one-time glitch. She was on hold for
3 hours and basically they told her they didn’t know why I wasn’t
showing up and they would open a ticket!!!!

Hope your day was less adventuresome
Danté