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I had a job in Jacksonville, NC this past weekend. It was a short gig - fly out Friday morning and fly home Sunday night. Best airfare I could find within reasonable proximity to my final destination was COS (Colorado Springs) to RDU (Raleigh-Durham) connecting both ways through ATL (Atlanta). The Friday flights went off without a hitch. The job Saturday was likewise - actually completed earlier than expected. Then came Sunday.
I was supposed to take the same route home - RDU to ATL to COS. My afternoon flight from RDU on Delta got delayed for mechanical reasons, and the delay was long enough that I would have missed my connecting flight in ATL. There were no more ALT to COS flights on any airline that evening, so I was stuck at RDU for the night.
Delta rebooked me for a Monday flight from RDU to MSP (Minneapolis) to connect from MSP to COS, scheduled to arrive at COS at around 1:30 Monday afternoon. That would work. I'd get home about 17 hours later than I would have on the original itinerary. It wouldn't feel good getting a 3:45 a.m. wake-up call at my hotel in Raleigh to make the 6:15 a.m. flight from there to MSP, but I figured I'd sleep for most of that segment and the MSP-COS segment.
No problems getting from RDU to MSP. It didn't look like there were going to be any problems getting from MSP to COS. That plane boarded and left on time. Two hours later, we landed at LNK (Lincoln, NE). The pilot told us passengers that winds along the front range of the Colorado Rockies were too strong to land a plane of that size. It was a Bombardier CRJ900, a "commuter" jet that seats 90 people. We get off the plane at LNK and are told to wait for further instructions. We're at gate number 2 of the 3 gates at LNK. Gates 2 and 3 are on oppose ends of the LNK International Airport from gate 1. It is about 1:30 in the afternoon. Gate 1 had no scheduled flights out for the rest of the day. On the other end of the airport, gate 3 had one scheduled flight left before everyone could go home around 4:30. Our unexpected arrival made the TSA folks noticeably nervous. I don't know why. We had just gotten off a plane from MSP where every passenger had already gone through MSP TSA screening to get there. The head of TSA security at LNK ordered the area cleared. Our arrival somehow compromised the security of the area. A Delta Representative gets on the public address system and tells us we have to leave the gate area. He also indicated that we were still going to go from there to COS. This is all within 10 minutes of having gotten off the plane. It was "sorry for the inconvenience, but you will all have to leave, and when you return you will all have to go through security screening. Get something to eat or drink, use the bathroom, just relax". 15 minutes later, after people actually bought food and drinks at the LNK food court, a voice comes on the PA saying everyone from flight 3443 must proceed to security screening and reboard the plane at gate 2 for immediate departure back to MSP! Unconsumed food and drink had to be abandoned to hurriedly go through security.
Back at MSP, after standing in line for close to 3 hours at the Delta "customer service" counter, I was informed that I was rebooked on a flight from MSP to SLC (Salt Lake City) connecting to COS on Wednesday! Keep in mind this return journey began Sunday afternoon. I witnessed dozens of folks get rebooked on a later return flight schedule for both Monday and Tuesday just by scanning their boarding passes at the machines they have in line at the "customer service" counter. I scanned my boarding pass and what I got was a notice to see attendant at the "customer service" counter. When I finally got to the "customer service" counter, I asked the people there why others before and after me got rebooked using the scanner and I didn't. I was told it was because they paid more for their original tickets than I did! It didn't matter that I had already been inconvenienced by a day due to mechanical problems on their part....
Tuesday morning, after spending the night in Minneapolis, I headed to the airport. I didn't have anything else to do! I found a ticket agent who was able to rebook me for a Tuesday flight itinerary from MSP to ATL to COS, and I finally got home about 58 hours after my return journey began.
Miles logged (according to webflyer.com mileage tracker) for my one round trip flight - COS/RDU: COS-ATL 1180; ATL-RDU 356; RDU-MSP 978: MSP-LNK 331; LNK-MSP 331; MSP-ATL 906; ATL-COS 1180. 5262 miles in the air, and that doesn't count flying around rain in several regions during those flights!
...what's almost funny in a sick kind of way is, I have another work related round trip flight scheduled for Thursday-Monday....COS-MSP
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