My wife is in Minnesota? That’s strange.
She’s supposed to be in New Mexico, but Northwest Airlines can’t figure a way to take a paying customer from Baltimore to Albuquerque like they promised. I got the call just north of Española, about 40 minutes south of Taos. If it weren’t for cell phones, I’d have made a five-hour round trip to Albuquerque and come home wifeless just the same. Making someone fly from Maryland to New Mexico by way of Minneapolis is goofy enough, and then not being able to pull it off…
She missed the Minneapolis to Albuquerque flight because she got in late from Baltimore. She got in late from Baltimore because that same plane was late from Atlanta because of the rain. (Note where the flight originated, it’s relevant.) Even so, they had a shot at making it to Minneapolis on time, except the pilot reported a computer glitch and one of the engines was making a very weird noise that everyone on the plane could hear, this while the plane was getting ready to take off. So it was back to the terminal for everyone. Good idea: weird engine noises aren’t cool. Eventually the mechanics got the engine repaired and off they went. But late, of course.
There were a number of angry, confused passengers at the other end. Apparently a lot of people were on their way to Albuquerque by way of Minneapolis. Helpful Northwest Airlines customer soothers sent everybody all the way across town to a nice hotel and rearranged everyone’s intineraries. That’s why my wife is scheduled to fly from there to ATLANTA tomorrow afternoon, wait many hours, and then fly to Albuquerque, arriving at 11:07 p.m. It sounds to me like Northwest Airlines only has one airplane, or maybe two, and they fly it (them?) around in circles.
My wife is so trusting. If I’d just gotten off a late plane, missed a connection, and an airline rep was telling me I’d have to go back over a thousand miles the way I’d just come for the privilege of arriving home 24 hours late, I’d be in handcuffs now. Actually, she’s not trusting now so much as completely frazzled and numb. They’d better watch out for her in the morning, though. She does NOT want to fly from Minneapolis to Atlanta in order to fly to Albuquerque.
If I go on much longer, I’ll start sounding like the crazy old coot who used to chase us kids out of his apple tree in Virginia. But you know, things used to be better than this. She could have gone from Baltimore to Albuquerque in less than 48 hours on a train, once upon a time. Had good food, watched the scenery go by, gone to sleep in a cozy bed while the miles rolled away. Hell, I could have driven the distance in two days when I was 20, gone straight through with roadside naps. I could probably do it now, if it needed to be done.
UPDATE: 7:47 a.m. MDT — Ah, either she let ‘em have it or somebody at Northwestern read this post, hahaha. Arriving today just after lunch, whew. And now on to other matters…
2nd UPDATE: 6-30-2006, 12:10 a.m. MDT — Oops, the very first delayed flight originated in Memphis, not Atlanta. That messes up my “Northwest Only Has Two Aircraft” hypothesis.
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There’s a whole TV program devoted to this … ie glitches when flying in the USA. It’s rare in Australia. Better weather conditions I guess … or more planes.