One more OT: Delta commiseration/complaint thread

Submitted by 901 P on
After several flight cancellations it looks like I get to spend the night on the floor of Hartsfield Airport. If all goes well--and I suspect it will not--I'll fly to a different destination airport tomorrow and rent a car for a 1.5 hour drive home. I'm sure many MGoBloggers had it worse today--feel free to share/complain here!

mgoblue0970

August 9th, 2016 at 9:33 AM ^

Nobody.

Fly that much and you'll see the worst of humanity.

There are a lot of insular people flying.

You do develop patience but I lost my shit a couple of months ago when some lady took my roll-aboard out of the overhead and put hers in my previously occupied spot.  

ElBictors

August 9th, 2016 at 10:48 AM ^

I have seen some unbelievable behavior in all my years as a road warrior ...self-entitlement and selfishness reigns. I watched a "man" refuse to switch seats with a BLIND WOMAN and her seeing eye dog ...seen 'business travelers' cuss out flight attendants for doing their job and men in their mid-50s throw worse tantrums than most 5yr olds. And while all the airlines 'suck' in their own way, the worst aspect of travel is TSA ..followed closely by the other passengers.

mgoblue0970

August 9th, 2016 at 11:58 AM ^

My top 10

10.  Even if you fly less than once a year, how can one not possibly know these days you cannot take your bottle of water through the nudie scanner?

9.  Rude, bitchy, domestic FAs.  I'm especially looking at you United and any of your EWR based cabin crews.

8.  United's annual erosion of the Mileage Plus program.

7.  The last person on the plane trying to cram their steamer trunk in the overhead.  Someone ruined a $30K piece of test equipment I was hand-carrying once trying to cram shit where it wouldn't fit.

6.  Saving your personal hygiene tasks for the day for the plane.  Don't clip your nails, your nose hair, or clean your ears next to me. 

5.  People putting their bare feet between the seats or on the headrest in front of them

4.  This is gonna be very un-PC but I don't fucking care anymore.  If your rolls are dripping over the armrest, buy two tix next time.  Your right to be a slovenly oaf does not allow you to infringe upon the 27 inches I paid for.

3.  Crowding the gate prior to boarding.

2.  See that group number on your tix?  Use it.

1.  People reclining their seat on a <60 min flight and/or not looking behind them when they do so.  The cabin is shared space people.

 

NashvilleMaize…

August 9th, 2016 at 2:53 AM ^

Instead of flying from Rapid City. SD to Minneapolis to home in Nashville, I had to go Rapid City-Salt Lake City-Nashville. Thankfully it only added 5 hrs but I had to do that after a 20+ hr day yesterday and 3 hours of sleep. I'm enjoying being home but today sucked!



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coldnjl

August 9th, 2016 at 5:23 AM ^

I feel bad for all people who got caught up on the Delta glitch but Delta is by far and away the best flying experience and i will keep flying with them regardless. The other carriers are pure shut

Mabel Pines

August 9th, 2016 at 8:27 AM ^

Left yesterday morning at 6 on Southwest out of DTW and arrived at each stop early! Like Delta, but I have no airline loyalty at all- that went out the window years ago when they started nickel and diming passengers on everything. (Still annoyed when I paid extra to book specific seats and STILL didn't get them. Never did get my$30 back. Lol. And don't get me started on bag fees..)

DonAZ

August 9th, 2016 at 7:49 AM ^

I do a fair bit of traveling for a living ... and this is my #1 piece of advice:  "Live in a hub city."

It makes all the difference in the world.  Bad things still happen to direct flights, but a multi-segment flight adds to the complexity, time, and potential things that can go wrong.

ijohnb

August 9th, 2016 at 8:01 AM ^

fly particularly often.  Social/Leisure reasons only, and not for work.  However, the one thing I have come to understand is that layovers are precisely the worst things ever.  I cannot hurry up and wait, and that is the very essence of the term.  I have paid considerable amounts more for a direct flight to a couple of locations.  Can't do the switching, standing, and reboarding thing.  It takes something I already don't care for and raises it to a prohibitive level.

Njia

August 9th, 2016 at 8:09 AM ^

Living in a secondary market is asking for trouble if you travel frequently. Moreover, there are hubs that it's just better to avoid altogether if you're connecting from somewhere. 

mgoblue0970

August 9th, 2016 at 9:30 AM ^

There are exceptions for certain regions.  I use the Colorado Springs airport all the time.  It never takes me more than 15 minutes to get through security.  Parking is a breeze when I have to use it.  There a regular milk run to DEN and the flight is 18 minutes.  Once at DEN, the world is at your finger tips.  Especially with the 787 being able to make it nonstop to Tokyo.

M-Dog

August 9th, 2016 at 8:50 AM ^

People don't talk about this much, but Ann Arbor being next to a hub city is a big recruiting advantage we should milk the hell out of.

Compared to most college towns, Ann Arbor is very easy to get to.  Lots of available flights from everywhere at reasonable prices, then a quick zip down 94.  I've taken day trips to A2 from the East Coast.

It makes it easy for your family and friends to come see you play during your college years if you are from another region.

And it's not just the years you are in college that it matters.  The rest of your life you are going to want to go back and visit your college town.  When you are very busy in your professional life - like playing in the NFL! - it's great to be able to go back and visit Ann Arbor easily with minimal fuss.

Try doing that in Tuscaloosa or State College or Lincoln.  

It matters.

 

LSAClassOf2000

August 9th, 2016 at 6:32 AM ^

A friend of mine was stuck at Reagan International because of yesterday's problems at Delta, and on the news just a few moments ago, they were talking about the ripple effect and the cancellations and delays that could come today too. I guess the lines at Metro here in Detroit were terrible, according to someone at work who had the pleasure of walking right past them after getting off a United flight.

LSAClassOf2000

August 9th, 2016 at 8:28 AM ^

Admittedly, when I do fly, I rarely pay attention to those sorts of details as I am usually in awe about the gymnastics of just getting on the damn flight nowadays, but I thought about it and you're right, they do. Apparently, it may have just been a bad Monday for a few carriers beyond but they flew blissfully under the radar, as it were.

umich1

August 9th, 2016 at 6:45 AM ^

Flying DTW to EWR today... At least, I hope I am. This whole issue speaks to companies needing robust disaster recovery plans. Power outages shouldn't cancel flights, period.

Njia

August 9th, 2016 at 7:51 AM ^

I read an interesting take on the outage yesterday that it's pretty likely Delta (as do MANY, MANY other companies) outsources its IT Operations function; and how it manages the relationship with the service provider is one of the probable root causes. 

Even though there are Service Level Agreements governing disaster recovery, 3rd party companies are incentivized to maximize the profitability of the engagement (I used to work for an IT services provider - I know from whence I opine). Consequently, client teams are typically understaffed; even IF they have the hardware and software applications needed for service recovery, backups (which in the SLA may be required every night) are only done occasionally, if ever. Moreover, few service providers maintain more than a skeletal staff on-site, even under the best circumstances. Most of the team will be remote (whether overseas or in the U.S.).

I'm sure Delta's executive leadership is going to want to know just what the hell happened. However, its own IT organization (starting right from the CIO) will be in CYA mode. The service provider is going to be made out to be the bad guy, of course; but I'd bet my own paycheck that the IT function responsible for oversight wasn't following its own rules.