Journal Entry — September 14th: Welcome to Hell
Let’s see, where to start? Well, due to severe weather in Atlanta, the airport there was on full “ground stop” for two hours. No air traffic in or out. So, we sat and grew moss in the Austin airport. Talked to the folks at the counter and was given bad news. International flights are given priority, and more than likely because the plane I was due to get on was running late too, they were going to dust off another one from the hangar to get the Manchester flight out on time. Joy.
Took off from Austin 2+ hours late, had an uneventful flight, but we ended up sitting on the tarmac, mouldering. Apparently the plane at the gate we were going to had mechanical problems. Forty-five minutes later, we finally pull in.
Coming off the plane I emerge into chaos. People everywhere! Went to the nearest check-in counter and asked what my options were. Obviously the lady there wasn’t all too bright and she scared the hell out of me with her ill informed research. She directed me to the main check-in counter for the terminal. Arriving there I found myself in a line of hundreds. Not long after I got there, some other employee came along and started pulling international travelers out of line and directing them to a different terminal desk. A terminal so far away I had to get there by train. By train. Big damned airport.
Getting to the “E” terminal (from “B”) I find myself in a line of thousands. THOUSANDS!! Jeebus, what am I in for? I’m hungry, I gotta piss real bad, and I can’t leave the line or I lose my spot. Twenty minutes later, an airline employee comes to us at the end of the line and says there are no flights leaving for Europe till tomorrow, and the wait from our point in line is estimated at three hours long. She advised that we should go to “T” terminal (all the way at the other end of this monster airport) and talk to the folks at their master check-in counters in the ticketing area, that it’ll take much less time.
I bolt for the escalator — you don’t have to tell me twice — and make the train ahead of the throng. Taking the train to “T” I notice the terminal map indicates that ticketing is by the baggage area, which is the next (and last) stop after “T”. I go there, bolt up the escalator and see a big sign that says “Leaving Secure Area, No Re-Entry”. Crap. Can’t have that happen.
I decide to hoof it back to “T”, and a few escalators and an elevator later… I’m lost. I eventually ask an someone that looks official (man, finding employees is a challenge) where to go, and strike out in the direction they indicate.
I come across a lone, lonely, and more importantly, free of passengers check-in counter. They give me two options — a direct flight at the same time tomorrow as my flight was tonight, or a 5:30pm flight out of JFK airport. I opt for the direct flight and fewer opportunities to miss another connecting flight. I’m pissed, I’m hungry, my blood sugar is low and I feel like crap.
Now I have to find someplace to stay, and I’m worried that with all the grounded passengers, there will be no rooms available. I make a few calls and find a room at a Quality Inn (truly and oxymoron) five minutes from the airport. I jump on the shuttle and book my room. The only food is pizza delivery… so I make an order. The last time I ate was at 11:00am and that was over twelve hours ago. I devour a crap pizza and feel better almost instantly. Now here I sit, writing this.
Checkout is at 11:00am, so I’m gonna’ go to the airport way, WAY early. I can get food there and I can take my time clearing security and getting to the gate. I’m gonna have to buy new train tickets in Manchester and I don’t want Sweets to have to go out of pocket for hers. This sucks, now not only is everything more complicated, but I’m losing a whole damned day with her. I can only hope that the flight home is somewhat smooth, or I’m fucked again.
Time to get some sleep… I’m wiped out.
Man, I love the ATL airport. Busiest airport in the country now, you know. It’s laid out far more intelligently than some I could mention (I’m looking at you, EWR.). Five long strips, A-E of 30-someodd gates a pop. A train running between them, so you can get to any other gate without going through security screening. (How hard is it to lay out an airport?!)
And all that real estate means there’s a big choice of things to do if you’re stuck there for a long time. I’ve played that game at quite a few airports, and ATL was one of the best suited to it.
Oh, don’t get me wrong… it’s a well laid out, gigantic airport that is easy to navigate despite it’s size, and that train/subway between the terminals is great. And yeah, there is enough to keep the weary, delayed, pissed off traveler fed and occupied.
The problems stems from Delta suffering a critical case of cranial/rectal impact insertion — all US airlines frankly, but Delta seems to be the leader in delays, cancellations and disgruntled paying passengers. And ATL is Delta’s hub, and might as well be called he "Delta International Airport" considering the ratio of Delta’s presence to other airlines there.
Waiting with a mob of other folks trying to get to Manchester airport, you’d be correct in assuming I was surrounded by English folks. Got to talking to a few people around me, and they all shared the same common, consistent travel nightmares with Delta (and other airlines, but again Delta was the worst in their experience) and the Atlanta airport. They went on to say that the airlines/airports in the UK had been just as bad if not worse, but a number of years ago the UK gov’t stepped in and started beating the airlines about the head and neck with a riot baton and the world of air travel in the UK improved immensely (although I’ve been told that everyone on the face of the earth should avoid Heathrow airport).
Now, I’m not saying one way or the other that the US gov’t should intervene, but something needs to be done. Unfortunately, it’s not like I can take the bus, a train, or drive across the Atlantic, so the airlines have me by the short and curlies. They really just don’t have the incentive to make things better — I can take my money to a different airline, provided they are going where I need to go, when I need to get there, at a price I can reasonably afford — but I’m likely to deal with the same shenanigans, just with a different logo on the plane.
No, I don’t have any answers on how to make it better. I’m an ordinary consumer, not an analyst at the Institute for Air Travel Think Tank. All I can do is whine and pay the exorbitant fees to be treated like a dumb, soulless cow being herded onto a cattle-car.
I have been to that airport several times. For me, not so much a good time. I was with someone who had LONG legs and walked like he was almost running. I have short legs and walk pretty fast, at least that is what Phreeq tells me, and it took all I had to keep up with him. I will say that I was pretty impressed with the "spread" of retailers. Hell the even had a Warner Bros. store there!