Mother!#$%er

Well, it looks like I might be stuck in Dallas for the night. I really don't know why Delta has such issues with timeliness.

Take that back...I do.

An anecdote for you:

Jack's flight from AUS to DFW is an hour late. Departs Austin at 6:30 instead of 5:30. Jack's connecting flight leaves Dallas at 7:20. This is cutting it razor blade close, but there is still a possibility that Jack will connect.

Upon touching down in Dallas, Jack's connecting flight dissapears in a cloud of time as Jack's plane sits on the runway because all of Delta's gates are full. Delta's pilot for this leg (let's call her Bozo the Clown for sake of the discussion) announces that the reason for sitting on an empty runway while watching all of our flights take off merrilly, is that there is a 'traffic jam' on the other side of the airport. A traffic jam of planes. The pilot then comes back on to announce that it will take ten to fifteen minutes for air traffic control to get this sorted out.

So fifteen minutes later, Jack makes it off the plane and checks the departure monitors for the next flight to Kansas City, as his flight has already left. Upon approaching and waiting in line at gate 30, which the monitor had indicated, the gate agents politely inform Jack that his flight is actually at gate 27, contrary to the computer's opinion. So jack goes to gate 27, and guess what? I bet you know what happened. "No sir, there's no flight to Kansas from this gate, but there happens to be one right over there at gate 30."

At this point Jack starts to come up with short notes he could write to the airline regarding the amount of business travel he does, and the lack of information their gate agents have. As Jack is writing these mental notes, and returning to gate 30, he notes that there is now (approx. Five minutes later) a flight to Kansas on the board, not to mention a new, longer line to stand in. When Jack makes it back to the front of the line, it takes the gate agent a moment to recognize the passenger from a few minutes before. As she does, it also registers in her head that, yes, there is in fact a flight leaving from this gate. Jack feels relieved.

Unfortunately, when Jack's first flight arrived late, Jack's registration was automatically transfered to another flight...the next night.

BE SURE TO TUNE IN FOR THE NEXT HAIR RAISING EPISODE: 'JACK ON STANDBY'


- Phil

- From DFW airport, via hiptop, on standby, wishing Delta didn't suck

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E-MAIL: zapatista@tmail.com