Friday, January 28, 2011

I dislike Delta.


If my flight doesn't go out tonight, I might have to give up on going to Spain. I'm currently sitting in the JFK airport, where I have been living for the past two days, trying to kill time until my flight leaves in 8 hours. I was supposed to be in Spain two days ago and if I don't leave tonight, I don't know if I'll ever get there because there is supposed to be another snowstorm coming tomorrow.

I’m going to try to sum this up as best I can. On Wednesday, I flew from Sioux Falls to Minneapolis (which was a nice 35 minute trip.) Then my plane that was supposed to leave Minneapolis was late coming in and something was wrong with it so we had to wait 3 hours for the “glue to dry.” Comforting, huh? Then my flight from JFK to Madrid was canceled due to the weather conditions. However, they were able to book me for the last flight out of the airport that night at 11:30 to Paris and then I would go from Paris to Madrid. Well, we all boarded the plane, I watched all of “Dinner for Schmucks” and part of “The Town” when they said they closed the runway for the night. So we sat on that plane for THREE HOURS and it didn’t even take off. Then we get off the plane and everyone is SO crabby because it’s 2 am so they call hotels around the area and they said that they would get everyone hotel rooms. Well, the van I got into (an hour later) went to a hotel in Manhattan. It took almost two hours to get there because of the road conditions and the fact that it was nowhere near the airport. And the driver was swerving everywhere and we had to turn around a couple times because he got lost. Oh, and he also hit another car while making his u-turn because he missed the hotel drive-up. I thought I was going to die. By the time we got to the hotel, it was 5 am. The bright side of that whole situation – the room was the nicest hotel room I’ve ever stayed in and we got a free restaurant breakfast buffet. :) 

I got up the next day thinking there would be another shuttle to come pick everyone up. Well, the bus wasn’t coming until 2 pm and my flight was at 4. So I had to find a way to the airport without having to pay 50 bucks for a taxi. So the very nice gentleman at the hotel desk printed directions for me to the train station and which stop I needed to get off at and transfer to the AirTran to take me to the airport. I got off at the wrong stop and I must have looked out of place because the lady who was working the train yelled out the window, “are you going to the airport, miss?” and opened the doors back up for me. (Thank goodness! I probably wouldn’t have lasted two seconds in that neighborhood.) I think a total of 4 different people had to help me just on my trip from the hotel to JFK. 3 of the 4 gave me looks that said “how do you not know that?”
 
So I get to the airport… and I was told to go and wait for my baggage (from the Paris flight the night before that didn’t go out.) The guy said the baggage would come around 1:00. It was 3:00 and the baggage still wasn’t there. Then I heard a lady say that this flight will most likely be delayed… and I was NOT going to deal with anymore flight delays. I only had an hour to catch my flight from Paris to Madrid and I didn’t want to get into Madrid any later than I already was so I went and changed my flight to the direct flight to Madrid which didn’t leave until 8pm. Well then our luggage came, and mine didn’t show up because of all my schedule changes. So it took another half hour to track my luggage. Then I had to go to a completely different terminal to check into a different airline! Aggghhhh.

Then last night, we were on the 8:05 plane, and only one runway was open because of the past weather conditions, so we were waiting our turn in line to leave. We were second in line, when the pilot noticed something was wrong with the valve. So we turned around and headed back to the gate. They decided that they needed to replace a part and the only way we would be able to leave would be to find a different aircraft, or order the part from La Guardia because JFK didn't have it in stock. They made us get off the plane, and we waited about 3 hours and they said we could board again. In the meantime, I went to go find a phone charger because my phone died right before we tried taking off the first time. I went and bought a $30 charger that didn't even work. Then I paid $7.50 for wireless because I needed to get a hold of my mom and the directors of the program. So we boarded the plane and got out to the runway again. THIS time, we actually started to take off... we accelerated and everything. Then the pilot had to stop because there were "electric buses" in the way. So we went in a big circle and tried it again. Same problem happened. Went back to the gate and the pilot said we all needed to get off and they would pay for our hotels. Once again. They never even said what was wrong with the plane!

So through all of this, I have received 2 free nights hotels, 5 meal vouchers, SOME free transportation, a $100 credit to Delta airlines, and a free long distance phone call to my mom.

I JUST WANT TO BE IN SPAIN!

2 comments:

  1. What a complete nightmare! But I'm going to assume that no texts/fb posts means you actually made it out of NY?!
    My aunt and cousin had a similar experience when trying to leave Italy last year. First there were plane issues then there was a volcano...

    Anyways, miss you already!

    p.s.
    I got a blog. :)

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  2. Ahhhh yes I made it! Finally!! I heard about that volcano last year... I know of someone who was stuck in Spain for 3 weeks trying to get back to London!

    I miss you too and I'm glad you got a blog! :)

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