Yes, we should be in Spain, in Segovia to be exact, where we'd rented a condo for 10 days. But we're not there, we're at home. We left home Monday morning and flew to Atlanta, the first leg of our trip, checked that the plane was already at the gate and went to have some lunch. An hour before our flight we went to our gate, found that our plane had been delayed about a half an hour. A half hour later they told the people at the gate that they'd had to find an alternative pilot (no idea what happened to the original pilot) and as soon as he got there we could begin boarding.
Eventually he got there and we began boarding, drinks were passed out, dinner items selected and a bit late we rolled away from the gate. Then we stopped, nothing new there, getting off the ground in Atlanta always takes forever. But then the pilot came on the intercom and said there was a problem, an auxillary fuel indicator light had come on and a circuit breaker had popped, so we had to return to the gate and wait for a maintenance crew. More drinks were passed out, lots of laughter and talking.
Then after an hour or so the pilot informed us that the maintenance crew said they'd have to do some testing and the passengers would have to deplane, we could leave our stuff there, but we had to go.
So back into the gate area, they told us we could get $10 vouchers down at the Delta desk, but not to go too far as they would want to reboard us quickly as soon as they fixed the problem.
Took forever to get a voucher, bought us a couple hamburgers and milkshakes and sat down to wait.
The time for departure kept changing, from 8:30 to 9:30 to 11:00 to 12:00 and finally 1:00 am. They kept telling us they'd fix it or find another aircraft which ever was quicker.
Then at 1:00 am they cancelled our flight, told us to go back on the plane, pick up our stuff and go to the Delta desk to get rebooked. Now we were flying 1st class so our line was much shorter, only 4 or 5 people in front of us (there were around 270 people on our flight) and it still took us more than an hour to get rebooked, and we, and very obviously, everyone else was unhappy in the rebooking. We were given a 10:30 am flight on Delta to Chicago where we'd have a 5 and a half hour layover and then board an Iberia flight and fly another 8 1/2 hours to Madrid arriving a day late. Some other people had to fly to Boston to connect with a Madrid flight, others to London or Amsterdam, others would have to wait until Thursday to get a flight. One family had their teenage kids booked on one flight and them on another. Some people holding 1st class tickets would have to travel Tourist on the rebooked flight. It was a mess.
They gave us vouchers for the Hilton, were waved off in the general direction of ground transportation and finally found the Hilton bus. It was past 2:30 am before we got to out room, realized that in a very few hours we'd have to be up and start the odyssey all over. We were exhausted, looked at each other and said, "Let's go home.". So Mac called Delta back, told them we wanted to go home and not to Spain, so they rebooked us, they said that in order to fly 1st class we had to wait till after 1pm, or we could fly cattle call at 11 am, we booked for 11 and we tried to calm down and get some sleep.
The night before when we'd rebooked they'd given us a voucher for the hotel and $100 in vouchers for food etc. When we checked in the next morning they gave us $200 more dollars in vouchers. Now, normally when given vouchers we'd have a meal and let the rest of the value go, not this time, I took my vouchers and hit a bookstore and spent them, Mac took his to Brookstone and spent his, we used some more to buy our daughter a present. Finally it was flight time.
We arrived in Savannah around 12:30, but one of our bags, mine, had gone on to Chicago. As of today Delta doesn't know where my bag is, though we'd filed a report they hadn't contacted Iberia airline, so when I called today they did send a request to Iberia to look for the bag. I asked what happens if they can't find the bag and the lady said that after 5 days I could file a claim, and I said well it's already been 1 day so that means 4 more days to wait.
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| 8 Hours Before the Pooh Hit the Fan |
I sat here this morning and tried to remember what was in the bag and did a pretty good job, I'm sure I'll never see the bag again and for the most part I'm not too upset, except my favorite pair of Gloria Vanderbilt capris were in there.
First time in all our years of flying we've had problems like this, hope it's the last.
My dress came in from Anthropologie, in a much darker teal than what was pictured on their website. It didn't fit, but instead of being too small it was miles too big, instead of being worn dancing it spent the weekend in the U. S. Mail being returned.
My kitchen can openers have all been a disaster lately, the electric ones quit on me and the hand operated ones get so stiff they need a lumber jack to operate them. So while shopping at Target last week I went looking for a new one. The only electric one they had was one I'd already had and hated, the other option was a little battery operated one. The man working in the appliance section said he had one and that I'd like it. So we bought it, took it home, studied the instructions and attempted to use it. Mac has finally gotten it to work, some of the time, I'm yet to get it to cooperate which means he'll be doing all the can openings or I'll have to get another opener, boo hiss.
