I’m sitting at the gate in the Charlotte airport awaiting my flight to Fort Myers. We’ve already been delayed once for about 45 minutes probably due to the rain outside. It won’t affect my connecting flight in Atlanta, so I’m not worried about it.
Then, I get an alert from Delta that reads, “There’s been an update to your departure time.” A kind way to say we are delayed another hour and a half, which means I won’t make my connecting flight.
Then, it reads:
“WE ARE CURRENTLY ATTEMPTING TO REBOOK YOU.”
Trust challenge accepted.
Since I’m visiting family in Florida, I’m not too worried about getting there on time aside from keeping my family up late when they have to pick me up.
Go ahead, Delta. I can’t wait to see which flight you put me on. I resume working and await a message letting me know about my new flight.
30 minutes pass. Nothing. 45 minutes pass. Radio silence. I’m starting to get concerned. Delta is not giving me much faith that they’re on top of it, so I take matters into my own hands.
Further down the email, it reads:
“For more immediate action, visit delta.com/rebook,” so I click on the link and try to see my options. Their site isn’t responsive (i.e., mobile-friendly), so I’m looking at a desktop view on my phone. Needless to say, it’s incredibly difficult to read.
It’s only showing me options from Charlotte to Fort Myers, which not only are connecting in JFK or LaGuardia, but they’re leaving tomorrow morning. No, thank you. I try to find a flight from Atlanta to Fort Myers with similar departure times.
After losing faith that Delta would rebook my flight, I was willing to trust their website to do the trick, but they let me down again. So I got in the dreaded long line at the ticket counter to have a gate agent help me.
After waiting for about 20 minutes (not bad), she found me a seat pretty quickly on a flight leaving last night. Phew. I was grateful and asked her why I couldn’t see that flight when I looked online. She told me she had to try to get me a seat on the flight. Who cares? It worked.
What didn’t work, unfortunately, was my trust exercise. I really wanted to trust, Delta. I even waited an hour before taking action, but I got worried that I wouldn’t get out tonight. Sure I could have stayed another night at my best friend’s house, but that would cut into my time with my family.
Even with delays, she was the worst part of my trip.
Luckily, I landed in Atlanta and made my connection only to smack the back of my head and my lip when putting my suitcase in the overhead compartment. Then, a woman with strong perfume plopped down next to me and was immediately bitchy to me about the armrest. I told her she didn’t have to shove me and she told me to get over it. It was tense, she talked to the flight attendant and switched her seat (Thank G-d) to the middle seat in front of me.
Can I trust that she’s like this all the time? Absolutely.
Was that Delta’s way of getting back at me for not trusting them? I sure hope not.
Do you usually wait for an airline to rebook you or do you pounce on it immediately? Do you have patience for situations like this or do you let it roll off your back? Tell me below. I’d love to hear from you!