Hotlanta is not so hot..... especially with an f'ed up travel experience

getting home from atlanta on friday was needless to say an adventure that i'd rather not repeat. it all started on thursday late morning when i checked in to my flight on delta. everything was a go. seat assigned for the aisle, going to go home on a direct flight from atlanta to sfo. a few hours later, something told me to check the flight status again - i had been hearing that other people had been stuck in atlanta due to bad weather on the east coast and the incoming storm headed towards atlanta. my worst fears were confirmed when i checked my flight again and i saw the dreaded word in bright red letters "CANCELLED".. i just about cried - i didn't know what to do but reschedule my flight to an earlier flight that flew from atlanta to portland to sfo. when i re-checked in, i was only able to get a boarding pass from atlanta to portland ... the boarding pass from portland to sfo was elusive.

fast forward to friday morning (2:20am PST) - headed to the atlanta airport to catch my 8:36am EST flight and to the baggage drop by ticketing / check in. the lines were horrendous. i saw my coworker jorge ride the escalator up to where i was and he stayed in line where i was so that i could check out the curbside check in. he was so sweet to help me take my bag from the long line upstairs to the curb side bag check in. thank god for that because i wasn't sure that i'd make the flight otherwise.

next, the security line. how the heck was that line wrapped around many different parts of the atlanta airport? thankfully i got to the airport relatively early and was able to get through security pretty quickly. i met up with the rest of my coworkers at the gate where we were supposed to board the plane. tried to get the boarding pass from portland to sfo but the gate agent had issues - she advised that i get the boarding pass when i landed in portland.

we arrived at portland with 2 hours to spare before the next flight. headed to the gate and asked the agent there if i could have my boarding pass. somehow from the time i had checked the night before to me standing in front of the gate agent, my confirmed flight was now unconfirmed. 7 out of the 8 coworkers that were on the same flight were now unconfirmed and told to go to the delta ticket counter to see what they could do. clearly upset and annoyed, general counsel and i walked to the delta counter to see what they could do for us. after waiting for what felt like 45 minutes, the delta ticket agent and the united ticket agent were trying to see what could be done. at the same time vp of strategy and exec asst met up with us at the delta counter. the exec asst called the travel manager at our company to see what happened and what could be done. after several phone calls to / from the exec asst to the travel manager as well as flight trading between the united and delta agents, we had a new flight from portland to sfo.

excited and happy to have a confirmed flight back to the bay area, we made our way to the security gate. nothing could diffuse our happiness because we were now going to go home. our new flight was supposed to leave at 1:32pm and we were thinking of grabbing some grub since none of us really had much to eat since our travel from atlanta ordeal. amazingly, the gate next to our new flight gate was a flight to sfo. the vp of strategy was talking to the gate agent to see if there were any seats available. amazingly there were 6 seats available so the four of us gave up our old boarding passes to board the flight that was going to leave in a couple of minutes.

we finally landed in sfo about 2:40pm... everyone (me, general counsel, exec asst and vp of strategy) were so excited and happy to be home even though it was later than we anticipated. after we said our good byes, i headed to the other terminal hoping that my bag would be on the failed second leg of my old rescheduled flight. ironically, that flight from portland to sfo was 55 minutes late and was landing at 3:40pm.... at first i wasn't sure i wanted to wait for the flight to land but i also wasn't willing to have to come back... after waiting for another 40 minutes, i saw my coworker jorge and we both waited at baggage claim only to be greeted by both of our bags... with a happy wave goodbye, i boarded the shuttle to long term parking... i finally reached home about 5:20pm - 3+ hours later than i was originally scheduled to be home. nonetheless, i was uber-happy to see my two loves. after eating dinner that night, i crashed out til the next morning at 9:30am