The Trip There
It is 6:15 a.m. in Richmond, Virginia, United States of America. My alarm rings, you know, one of those obnoxious ones. I am very excited, because I am on my way to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, United States of America, to play 45 holes of golf on Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend. I arrive at the airport at 7:00 in the morning for a 8:00 plane. Right on time, yes! We curbside check, and get to the gate at 7:15. A human come on the intercom (not one of those computer voices) and says:
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Welcome to Flight xxx with direct service to Fort Lauderdale. We will board this plane by zones. There are 4 zones on this Embraer aircraft. We will board numerically. We will now board all zones at this time.
That did not make much sense. Anyway, I get on the plane at 7:30 a.m. I say to my father:
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Maybe we'll leave early! That'd be nice!
The kiss of death
At 7:40, the flight attendent says:
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Welcome aboard flight xxx with service to Fort Lauderdale. We are looking for a volunteer with flexible travel plans to fly out later. We are offering 400 "delta dollars'
No one moves. After 10 minutes, the offer is gradually upped to 1000 "delta dollars". They find their voluenteer and that's that. Right?
Of course not
At 7:50, the gate agent (the same idiot who boarded all the zones at the same time) says (every word exactly):
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Yeah, I just took 14 bags off the plane because of a weight imbalance. Bye now.
I say to Dad:
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The next flight to Florida is not till 6 p.m. tonight...is it even worth it if we only get one day of golf?
My dad an I agree we are to hope for the best. Then the flight attendent announces that some smaller bags that can fit overhead and are in the cargo bay will be moved up. I see my small clothing bag come on in the hands of that idiot gate agent. But my dad's small bag does not come up so I figure they took off all they needed. Someone in the front row shouts (to gate agent):
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We want your name! We want to report your great service to Delta!
I cheer him on
Then, the flight attendent, a very nice woman by the way, says that Delta knows that many of the passengers are on crusies and that their bags have not been taken off. I look at my dad, sure that our bags were taken off because most of the passengers were cruise passengers, and out golf bags were heavy.
So, pessimisticly, we take off and have a good filght.
We land in Ft. Lauderdale and arrive in the baggage claim. The first two bags that come out are our two golf bags! YAY! But how stupid is that?!?! Anyway, ironicly, the bag left in Richmond is my dad's tiny travel bag. Sorry, but WHAT THE H***? I simply do not understand. Anyway, my dad's bag arrives at our lodging at 6 pm that night.
Oh yeah, remember all those cruise people? Half their bags were left in Richmond and they were forced to miss their boats!
Our Golf
We had a great time, I, shooting 93, 91, 45 (9 holes) which is pretty good for me, as I like to play bogey golf at this young point in my career.
The Trip Back
I know you are thinking ENOUGH ALREADY, but wait there's more!
We are on a connecting flight returning. We are to go from West Palm Beach (30 minutes from Ft. Lauderdale) to Atlanta to Richmond. I hate the Atlanta Airport. Anyway, Out flight is scheduled to leave West Palm at 6:15 p.m. We arrive at the gate at 5:15. The flight is delayed to 7:30. At this point, we are not going to make our connection in Atlanta. I ask dad weather we should just stay in Florida but he points out that we will have more options in Atlanta. I agree, and the plane is suddenly changed to a 7:05 departure time. We board, but don't really get in the air until 7:30. I watch "Walk the Line" on the plane, and try to forget the situation I am in.
We land, it is 9:25, our connection is at 9:30, it says closed. Great. We go to the ticketing and rebooking counter. There are fights going on, and police had to intervene in one colose to us. Wow. Anyway, my dad goes up to the agent and says the truth (really, not kidding):
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Look, I know you don't know me from a hole in the wall bu I have to get back to Richmond by tommorow for heart sugery. I am looking to get on one of the following flights:
AirTran to Newport News, Virginia
Delta to Dulles, Wasington D.C.
Delta to Lynchbugh
The agent explains that the the AirTran and Dulles flights have already left, but she can get us in the Lynchburg flight that leaves in 5 minutes!.
My dad, not the fastest of all men, takes all my posessions, and I, getting the queue, begin the 1/4 mile sprint from A termamial to D terminal. I catch the tram, take it to C, where the doors won't close. I run to gate D 26 (the best part was the run up the 3 story elevator). I run up and say "Is this the flight to Lynchburg"? The gate agent says:
Are you (my last name, witheld for privacy)? I say yes, and my dad come up about 30 seconds later. To make a Starbucks snack and phone calls stories shorter, I will say that when we arrived at D 26 at 9:45, we did not take off until 11:20. We got to Lynchburg at 12:30 a.m. and drove to Richmond and arrived at 2:30 a.m.
Moral of the story: DO NOT FLY DELTA!


