Ban on Delta

First, I have to say that Mike and I just spent a fabulous weekend watching my friend get married in San Antonio. This wedding was beautiful, as was the bride, and she pulled out all the stops. Aside from having our hair and make up done, she was the calmest bride I have ever seen. She told me, "Don't worry about it!" when her bustle broke, and just continued to dance up a storm. The band was fantastic, the food delicious and the flowers beautiful. But, you know, Mike and I can't go anywhere without some sort of crisis following us, and this one hit at 10:50 when we attempted to leave the St. Louis airport.

I booked our tickets January 23rd (I know this because we went through every step of the ticketing process during this fiasco) and thought everything was fine. I used a voucher that I received when I generously gave up my seat and stayed in ATL for a night rather than heading home after a trip. The rest of the ticket price I put on my credit card. I received 3 different confirmation emails with confirmation numbers so I figured we were in the clear. Who would think that we wouldn't have a seat on that plane?

Now, Mike has never been known for his promptness, and has missed a plane or two, but never on my watch. My family was that annoying group of five that got to the airport two hours early and ran around until the plane boarded. So, somehow, usually with a little bit of conflict, we get to the airport on time. It is a struggle, but I have come to expect it, and I think we have both bent a little bit in the other direction. The problem this time, was neither of us packed the night before. We were exhausted and promised to pack in the morning. I woke up and started packing, and eventually Mike did the same. Remember the rule that you must check in within 30 minutes of your flight? That is not a joke.

35 minutes before the flight I was dragging suitcases out of the car and stumbling up to the outside ticket counter. I was immediately told that the time had run out and I was no longer in the system. However, I felt that something was amiss. I ran inside, knowing that I had 5 minutes left and asked to speak to someone at the front desk. I thought my face showed my anxiety, but I was maneuvered over to those stupid kiosks where I "could finish up." Once I put my credit card in to validate that it was me, nothing happened. I called for the lady who pushed me to the kiosk and explained the problem. We went through everything. Punching in the flight number, the credit card again, the confirmation number....nothing worked. By this time, Mike has finished parking the car and I am about to have a fit.

The kind kiosk pushing lady had us come to the counter in attempts to figure out what was wrong. She kept typing on the computer and shaking her head. I kept checking the clock, knowing we still had to go through security. Finally, I asked her to please tell us what was going on. She explained that we did have reserved seats on the plane, but it did not appear that we had actual tickets. WHAT??? She asked us why we had not called Delta to confirm our flight. I somewhat politely informed her that since we did receive a CONFIRMATION number, I assumed the flight was confirmed. At that point, she picked up the phone and started making phone calls, trying to figure out what happened. Don't worry, I am able to tell you this story precisely because I documented three pages of what was going on as it was happening. Marilyn was thrilled.

Mike, who has a calmer temperament than me, told Marilyn that if we did not get on this flight we would miss the party that we were flying in for on a Thursday in the first place. Marilyn snapped that this was really our fault because we were not at the airport an hour before the plane took off. Before I completed yelling (really - my hands were in the air and people were staring) that even if we had been there before, there were no tickets for us to use, Mike told me to take a lap. I made a quick lap around the ticket line but came back because I did not want to miss a word of what this Marilyn had to say.

I watched as Marilyn was connected three times to various people who had no idea what was going on. Finally she looked up and said "That will be $256. How would you like to pay for that?" I had to take another lap. As Mike tried to figure out why we would have to repay, I was on the phone with the bank checking to see whether the charge went through. As I came back, I heard Marilyn say to Mike, "Do you want to get on this plane or not?" (Was she threatening us??) As it was an hour and twenty minutes later, I asked our friend whether the plane was still there. No, she shook her head. "Then why are you demanding immediate payment when you have no idea what is happening?" (All the things above in quotes were actually stated by either Mike or me.)

As it turns out, when I booked the flight, the computer did not take my voucher or my money, but still saved two seats and sent us confirmation. We used the voucher again, and once Marilyn figured out the math (that took another five minutes) we had seats on the 4:45 flight. This meant that we would miss the Mexican Fiesta that evening and we would be waiting in the airport for 4 hours. Marilyn acted like she was doing us a favor because she put us in an exit row in one of our four flights. The rest of the flights, we were not even sitting together.

I am still wary of calling Delta, because I am afraid I am going to get another voucher that will trap me into flying with them again. As I sipped my bloody mary at the bar, I recounted my experience with Delta in high school where I was left in LONDON on a school trip. I still don't know how people are loyal to this company. So that was the story. We got in late Thursday night, but enjoyed the rest of the weekend immensely. Thank goodness there were no issues coming back. My voice was gone from singing along to the great songs, and I did not have the energy to yell at anyone else.