Delta Air Lines, oh how I despise thee.

Oohhhh how I despise Delta Air Lines right now.
So, This morning I'm supposed to leave Boston, zip through Atlanta (an airport designed by a drunk toddler), then on up to Flint.
My initial flight out of Boston was delayed, but the reason for the delay seems silly. It appears that delta didn't realize that, for a plane to fly from Boston to Atlanta (drunk toddler town, or DTT from here on out) you need an airplane and a pilot to fly said airplane. They had the airplane part, I'll give them that. But it appears they forgot to hire a pilot!!
Delay after delay as they searched Craigslist and eBay for pilots for sale. I'm kidding. I'm sure they were scouring the cabbies outside looking for someone to fly the plane.
By the time they flew some pilots in to fly the plane (that's a tough sentence to type because it's soo laced with stupid), it was looking like my 2.5 hour layover in DTT might have been consumed; I might miss my connecting flight.
I touch down in DTT and am told that not even a sprint through the airport worth of O.J. Simpson would get me to my flight.
Fine. Whatever. I go to the Delta Customer Care desk for assistance. That sentence is just dripping with irony because, they call themselves the Delta Customer Care Desk, but they don't care about the customer. Because of DELTA, i will be home about 7 hours later than I should have been. Because they didn't have a pilot!!
So, I ask about a food voucher, and maybe a free pass to the elite Delta Sky Club so I can eat and sit in a comfy chair. NO SIR!!
Delta has stripped the Customer (we don't) Care reps of the ability to do anything other than put you on another flight. That's it.
....I wonder how long it would take to walk home from Atlanta...
If I'd have left Boston by car this morning, I'd have been home about 3 hours sooner than I will be tonight.

TLDR: Delta is terrible. I has angers

Speaking of drunk, is it possible that your intended Delta pilot was too drunk to fly?

Ah, I don't miss the glamor of business travel.

Since your stuck in ATL hit up Craigslist and pick up a cheap rust free project car. It's not impossible that you could drive it home faster than Delta will get you there.

The whole idea of flying to ATL from Boston to go to Detroit seems pretty stupid to begin with. Yeah, I get the whole "Hub and Spokes" concept, but sometimes it's just plain idiotic.

HappyAndy wrote: Since your stuck in ATL hit up Craigslist and pick up a cheap rust free project car. It's not impossible that you could drive it home faster than Delta will get you there. The whole idea of flying to ATL from Boston to go to Detroit seems pretty stupid to begin with. Yeah, I get the whole "Hub and Spokes" concept, but sometimes it's just plain idiotic.

I thought about the craigslist idea. Should have done it.
The flight I almost got stuck on went from Flint to Atlanta to Detroit to Boston. I would have to be fairly liquored up to tolerate that.

Wouldn't a few hours on I90 in a comfortable air conditioned car take care of that? Every year, the distance I will drive to avoid an aircraft is getting longer. Its up around 10 hours now.

Yeah, screw all that. Even with texting drivers I will drive vs. fly any day. Fortunately flying is not required for my career 'cause I have no desire to be crammed into a tube with strangers, or not, at the whim of other strangers and on my dime. No thank you. I am sure if I was flying my own plane my attitudes would be different.

Way more comfortable than flying in coach

Almost as good as flying in the Concorde

Probably more reliable than Delta

I wouldn't say that I've only had bad experiences on Delta, but all of my worst flights have been on Delta.

Will help you grow out your mullet while you're stuck in the South

I like that LWB RR

Could it really be the answer?

Definitely more reliable than Delta

How many passengers need to get to Detroit?

But if you apply and are approved for our Delta branded credit card we can offer you this watered down beer and priority for the next flight out.

HappyAndy wrote: Here, let me enable you.

Oh man, the Lincoln os the most sensible one there, but I'd love to pull the trigger on the Jag.

In reply to DrBoost:

Home safe?

Yeah, I'm home. I got home about midnight. I left my hotel at 6 AM, what a long day!

I, too, flew Delta on Monday when things were really bad. It ended up getting me there six hours late at around 11 without any dinner.

For the past 3 years, I have been flying on USAir/American Airlines. When things go bad it sucks. My favorite one, was I was on my way home. Last flight was from Charlotte to Wilmington. There had been storms somewhere in the US earlier in the day so the flights were all messed up. I landed in CLT late. By a stroke of luck that has not been experienced before or since by me, my connecting flight was also delayed so I hadn't missed it. Eventually, we all boarded the plane for the 30 min (airtime) (i hr schedule time) flight to Wilmington. At this point it was a little past midnight. We arrive in Wilmington to find that they had turned off the runway lights and went home for the night. So we circled around town for a bit and then fly back to Charlotte. Where I was marooned for the night. Since the delays were caused by weather there was no compensation of any kind. It is funny to call motels at 2am looking for a room. Especially when you want to check out at 6am or so to get back to the airport.

Glad you eventually made it home.

This guy Matt Bellassai has his series of videos on Youtube called "Whine about..." where he complains about different things while drinking a glass (or 5) of wine. He starts out somewhat sober then descends into drunken humor.

His take on flying is pretty accurate "We weren't on a flight to WWE ElbowMania but I'll turn it into that SIR".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYFY_uESTf0

A bit NSFW for language. I am a gold FF with Delta. That part of my life sucks.

I've never had bad airline service that can compare with the bad airline service I've had from Northwest. Hell, with Northwest I've carried everything on and they still managed to lose one of my bags when a stewie put it in a different compartment without telling anybody.

T.J. wrote: So we circled around town for a bit and then fly back to Charlotte.

That is a good story. Was it a full size jet or something smaller?

In reply to dculberson:

One of those ERJ jets. So, not a big plane, but not a turboprop.