Travels

Monday, December 15

So the wake up call came at 4:00AM ... and the text messages saying that our flight to Atlanta was delayed came in at 4:02AM. Our flight was scheduled to leave Asheville at 6:30AM but it was now going to depart at 9:30AM. I quickly looked to see when our connecting flight to Belize would depart... We were going to have a 7 minute connection time. Obviously, not happening. Unless of course the Belize flight was also delayed.

Do we go ahead to the airport or not?

Yes. Let's see if we can get on another flight to Atlanta.

We packed up and went to the lobby for a bag breakfast and to get on the shuttle. The night before, the temperature had been 11 degrees with a real feel of -6. No precipitation though, which meant our flight was either delayed because the previous flight hadn't arrived yet or because of mechanical problems.

This was the temperature at 6:30AM. Still quite cold for 2 travelers dressed for Central America!

We got in the Delta line, where everyone else was waiting to see how their travel plans were affected. The couple behind us in line didn't know that the flight had been delayed by 3 hours so the lady behind them explained that we were waiting so long because everyone needed to make adjustments. They expressed concern since they were continuing on to Guatemala and there was only one flight per day from Atlanta to Guatemala. We spoke up and said we understand, there is only one flight to Belize City daily. They asked why we were going and so we gave a brief witness.

When it was our turn, I greeted the customer service agent lady and expressed sympathy for her craziness this morning. Thank you for being so understanding, I wish everyone was as calm as you, she said. You’ll live forever…. In a rainforest! I laughed and I wanted to tell her, why yes, I will. lol.

We decided our best option was to go ahead and get to Atlanta. She left our reservation as it was, that we would fly on our prebooked flights but that if we missed our connection, we also had a reserved seat on Tuesday's Belize flight. Once we got to Atlanta, we could check in at the service desk there and get a hotel voucher and meal vouchers.

So we waited. And waited. And waited.

9:30 became 11:10, 11:30 and then finally 12:00. They let us know that we were delayed due to a mechanical issue, that the plane was supposed to have flown out to Atlanta last night but that they had grounded it and then worked through the night on it. Since the temperature had dropped so low, they were unable to work on the issue for a long period of time and had to work and then pause, work and pause.

Around 11:30 since we had been at the airport now for 6 and 1/2 hours, I went up to the agent at the gate and very kindly asked what kind of compensation she could give. I explained that we were a little hungry, having only had a little waffle with almond butter for breakfast. She had been very nice so far this morning, especially given all of the commotion and I too had been very pleasant and appreciative. She said with a glint in her eye, give me your IDs. So I did and then she asked if I would check my email. She had given each of us a meal voucher, worth $12 apiece.

By now, we had received the update that maintenance was wrapping up and we could board any minute. I went over to Jimmy John's and ordered a large sub combo and then came back just as they started boarding.

We made it into Atlanta (a 33 minute flight! - all that waiting for 33 minutes!) and then made our way to the service desk. The nice agent in Asheville had told us to ask for a red coat and that's how we met Ms. Cathy. She personally saw to it that we received 3 meal vouchers apiece ($36 for each of us) and a hotel voucher. She walked us over to another desk where we made a reservation and then she gave us a printout that had our new flight info for tomorrow. She asked us why we were going to Belize and so we were able to give her a brief witness as well. She explained that she was a Christian as well and she said you know, we are supposed to do that, to go out and evangelize. She said thank you for the work that you do.

While in line at the desk, we ran into the couple again that were going to Guatemala. We had encouraged them in Asheville to go ahead and get to Atlanta and that Delta would put us up in a hotel. So they were able to get a hotel room as well.

Then we made our way to get some food at the airport. They had told us that the meal vouchers were only for use in the airport. So even though we had just eaten our sub sandwich, we went ahead and got some drinks and snacks. Then we made our way to the hotel shuttle.

We got all checked and finally arrived at our room at about 4:00PM, twelve hours after we had gotten up. They had let us know at checkin that we could use our vouchers at the hotel restaurant. So after resting a little, we went down and got a free dinner! Then back to the room for some sleep!