1975 Weekend Escape, Sunday

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Sunday, another room service breakfast, more milk for the refrigerator. We had noticed on Saturday that there was an aquarium at the Mall of America, according to the signs, "the world's largest underground aquarium", which had The Man snorting, "Just how many underground aquariums are there in the world?" So, we decided to go back and check it out. We stopped at the airport on the way to the mall, so The Man could check his bag.

The aquarium really wasn't all that big, I've seen larger, but yup, sure 'nough, those others weren't underground.

They seemed to specialize in sharks, swordfish, turtles, and rays, and it was one of those tubes you walk through with the fish swimming over your head. They did have some cool fish I'd never seen before, some really weird shapes. The Man commented that it was proof God had off-days, too.

We rushed out of there at 1:45 to go to the airport. Our flight departure time was 4:27 pm, and he had to return the car and all.

We got to the gate area a hair before 4. Delta. In all my years of travel, I have never seen any airline pull as underhanded a trick as Delta did on Sunday afternoon. It was amazing.

It was a small plane, one of those with 2 seats on each side of the aisle, and all one class. Maybe 80 seats or so? We had assigned seats, right from the moment the reservations had been made. But apparently the flight had been badly oversold. There were about 20 angry people at the gate desk, who apparently had tickets but couldn't get a seat assignment.

The airline started making announcements every few minutes begging people to give up a seat for $200 and a seat on "the next flight to NYC" (note they didn't say JFK). The Man checked his Blackberry. There WAS NO flight, not Delta and not any other airline, until the next morning, AND the next morning's flights were all full anyway, AND they went to La Guardia, not JFK. Good luck getting back to your car. And locating any checked baggage, which would have gone to JFK on this flight. Nope. $200 isn't nearly enough. There were apparently no takers.

At 4:25 I poked The Man and pointed out the window, "Um, notice anything missing?" We're supposed to depart in two minutes, and not only are we not on the plane, there's no plane out there.

At 4:27, Delta announced that the flight would be "delayed two hours. The new departure time is 6:27 pm." No explanation for the delay.

People grumbled. Many gathered up their stuff and left, presumably headed for restrooms, or restaurants, or out where they could smoke. The Man joked that we could go back to the mall. There happened to be a bar right next to our gate, so The Man and I took a table in there, where he had a beer, I had hot tea, and we both had a sandwich.

It turned out to be a very lucky choice. At 5:40, Delta announced that our flight was loading. They rushed everyone who happened to be in the gate area onto the plane, closed the doors, and moved us out away from the gate within minutes.

I was shocked. What about all the people with confirmed assigned seats who were going to show up at 6 pm, and find the plane gone? It's likely that the folks who were still in the gate area were the oversold folks, hanging around hoping for something to crack. A flight that had been oversold by 25% took off with at least 10 empty seats - at least that's how many we could count from our seats in the middle.

This is about the dirtiest trick I've ever seen from an airline. You've got too many people? Well, just get rid of a bunch of them. I can't imagine what Delta had to deal with when all those people showed up and found out the plane had left without them.

It gets weirder.

We arrived at JFK and followed the signs to the baggage carousels. There were only two, both Delta. There was a group of people at one of them collecting their bags, but it wasn't our flight. We waited and waited, all the other people left, the sign never changed to show our flight, and no more bags came out. Apparently nobody else on our flight had checked bags?

By now it was after 10 pm, close to 11. Everything in the terminal was closed. There were no people around. We finally found a man with a employee badge and asked where the bags from our flight were. (He didn't speak English very well, and the ensuing conversation was frustrating.) He told us we were at the wrong terminal. This is terminal 3. That flight landed at terminal 2. The Man said that he just got off the flight, at THIS terminal. The employee insisted no, our flight had landed at terminal 2 two hours ago (the original arrival time). The Man was close to exploding. "The flight was delayed. I know where I landed, and when I landed!" But it was obvious we weren't going to get anywhere with the old man, who continued to insist we had arrived at a different terminal two hours ago.

We supposed that it was possible that although we got off at terminal 3, maybe the bags had been taken to terminal 2. So The Man set off to check. He came back with his bag a half hour later. It had been circling a carousel all by itself. We were lucky it was still there.

Due to bad signs at the train terminal, it took a little over an hour more to get to the car in the long term lot.

We needed gas, but both of us were low on cash, and it took three stops in Queens to figure out that none of the gas stations open at 1:00 am would accept a credit card unless you were willing to leave it in the tender care of the attendant while you were pumping. At the third station I dug out a forgotten $20 bill from the bottom of my purse, and we used that.

I've noticed that when The Man is pressured, he needs to eat. He gets tense. Maybe it's a blood sugar thing, maybe not. But it's a good idea to feed him when he says he's hungry. It was another hour to the hotel parking lot where we'd left my car.

Back when I booked the flights, I had figured that the plane would land before 8, and I'd be home by 11 pm. But now it would be 2:30 am before we got to my car, and that would be without feeding The Man. He was concerned about my driving home so late, so tired, so without consulting me, he called the hotel where my car was waiting, and made a reservation for both of us.

I finally got home at about 11 am Monday.

Somewhere along the line, I picked up a virus. Hot throat, coughing, running nose, aching neck and back muscles.

But, I had a really good time. I can't wait to do it again!
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