The Revenge of Delta Flight 147

 OKAY.  So here's the deal, the travel was going well yesterday.  My mother drove me, along with my aunt Nancy and my cousin Caleb, to O'Hare International Airport yesterday, we ate lunch at Red Robin and I bought myself some spectacular new headphones for an unusually low price.  I got my boarding passes, checked my baggage, and made it through security with no problems.  Found my gate, killed some time, and my plane left for Atlanta roughly ten minutes late, no big deal.  I got to the Atlanta airport later than expected and nearly ran the entire length of the complex to get to my next plane before they began boarding passengers.  At this point I was sweaty and out of breath (Concourse A to Concourse E is a pretty impressive distance when you're hoofing it), but still not doing too bad.  They began boarding passengers, I got on the plane with no issues, and I waited on the plane for it to do its thing.  While there I ran into the other guy from Tech who's going to Chile.  The plane then began to taxi to the runway and my night got far more interesting.  

We were about to cross a runway when the plane stopped moving, most of the lights when out, and the monitors shut off.  Immediately thereafter, a jet took off right in front of us, so I assumed this was merely some sort of evasive maneuver that had somehow shut off the lights.  It seemed reasonable at the time.  Then we sat there for quite some time and I watched the other jets take off for a while.  Then the captain told us that they had some indication of an electrical problem and needed to return to the terminal to figure out what was wrong, so there we sat.  We got off the plane and went back into the terminal when they told us that they would be getting us a new plane which, they later told us, might be ready to go by 1:15.

By this point I had discovered that I would not be allowed to take my food through customs in Santiago, so I went around with my bag of no-bake cookies (thanks again for making them, father), offering them to hungry and irritated passengers who were then both confused and appreciative.  Through Tim, the other Tech person, I met the other two USAC people on the flight.  After a number of seat changes resulting from the smaller size of the new plane, we boarded and waited to go.  Now this is when things got really interesting: I was really tired by this point so I decided to sleep until we took off, under the assumption that lift-off would wake me up.  I was half-asleep as we drove the plane around the runway for what seemed like an absurdly long time.  I was beginning to wonder if perhaps I had slept through take-off and we were now flying: not so.  We then had to return to the terminal again due to navigation problems on this plane.  By this point I had realized that I also had an entire bag of almonds which would not be allowed through customs, so they had to go as well.  After they told us that our flight was now cancelled and we were waiting in line to receive our hotel and meal vouchers I made another pass of the crowd to offer my almonds.  People were amused and appreciative.  Got my vouchers, took a taxi to the hotel with two of the USAC people, and waited to get a room.  Of course, the computer system was running extremely slowly so it was taking between five and ten minutes per person.  Now I'm sitting at the hotel, regretting my decision to eat at the Waffle House, and trying to figure out what to do in Atlanta with a 30 lb carry-on dragging along behind me.  

My flight is supposed to be a 10:00 tonight, wish me luck, I'm damn sure going to need it.

Comments:

Name: Richelle
Subject: Airport Cookie Lovin' 
Message: My favorite part of your blog post about your unfortunate flying experience(s) was when you distributed free no-bake cookies and almonds to your fellow disgruntled passengers. I had to ask myself if I would actually take one of those cookies... jury's still out on that question. It's a fantastic image, though, and a great little detail among all the episodes of misfortune. Hope you've arrived safely by now!